When you said he knew that you were moving your stuff out last weekend, was that because you told him that, or was it because he saw a moving truck and assumed you were gone? Because if he assumed that you were moving out, then was a pretty risky move on his part (and probably against the law) to allow a new tenant to move in already, because he wasn’t certain that you’d actually vacated the place. You could have intended to come back to clean or for whatever reason. But if you TOLD him that you’d be moving out on 7/19, and with that knowledge, he told a new tenant that he could move in early, then I’m not seeing the harm to you. The way I understand it, if your lease is monthly, you owe for the entire month if you stay even one day past the end of the last period. So you would have owed for the entire month of July whether you moved out on 7/1, 7/19, or 7/31.
To me, it’s no different than renting a beach condo for two weeks from Saturday to Saturday, but I decide to check out a day early because I can get better air fares on Friday. If I do this, as a courtesy to the owner, I’ll notify him that I’m leaving a day early. That gives him an opportunity to bring housekeeping in a day early, if he chooses. If I find out that he re-rented that last Friday night to another guest, it’s no skin off my teeth because I would have owed for the entire 2 weeks anyway.
If you do mail a letter, include the keys (and mention that in the letter). But either way, get the keys back to him. Otherwise, he will be able to take the cost of changing the locks out of your deposit. You’d hate to find out it cost $500 to have that done. I’d make sure he has the keys in his hand before the end of July.
2)Showing up at the apartment with an air mattress would be bad, legally. It would be very easy for him and the police, to be able to prove that you had intent to crash there without permission. That you knew someone else was living there and that you were planning to make a scene.
If you wanted to do this, I think the better thing to do would be to go there (maybe when no one is home), make sure the locks have been changed, then call him to tell him you’re ‘locked out’ and when he tells you what’s going on “You said you moved out, I have new people living there now” then nicely say “Oh, okay, can you make sure you prorate my rent for that time when you send my deposit back, I was still in the process of moving out, I mean I was out, but I was still going back to do another walk though and I had some friends coming by tonight to help me clean the place”. And do it nicely, if you haven’t spoken to him yet, remember, he doesn’t know how angry you are. If you start screaming at him, he’ll get defensive, if you do this nicely he might just say ‘no problem I was, uh, planning to do that anyways, you should have the check in a few weeks’. If he is ‘cool’ about it, I’d finish up with ‘hey, can I run over to you and drop off the keys since I don’t need them anymore…and what about a walk through, I assume everything was fine?’.
If you really want to make it convincing throw a 12 pack of beer and some cleaning supplies in your car when you go to see him.
But, like others said, I wouldn’t put up a huge fight about the last couple of days, I would, however, throw a fit about any of the security deposit that doesn’t get returned, that would have been returned if I still had access to the place. I mean, no, you’re probably not going to get the stain out of the carpet, but don’t let him charge you for 3 hours of general cleaning because you didn’t get a chance to clean the stove or the bathroom or mop the kitchen floor.
I am about to move out of my place. My rent is paid until 8/30, but I may be completely out by the 15th or before. I gave my notice in the middle of July. I discussed my plans with my landlord and she plans on refunding me a portion of my last months’ rent. But let’s say that for some reason she didn’t, and had another tenant in there as soon as I was out. There would be little (if anything) that I could do about it and I certainly would not ask the new tenant anything.
I spoke to the landlord over the phone and he informed me that I am entitled to the 6 days rent… However, a door lock broke to the main door to the house (4 units in the house) recently and they tried to put it on me when I had the movers moving my stuff… I told them that the movers did not do any of the damage, and he said he thinks different and will be charging me for it… At that point, I got nasty and told him that I will sue him for allowing someone to move into my place without my consent, while the lease is under my name, and while I still have the keys and he changed the lock on me because I had plans to utilize the apartment the next few days… At that point, he apologized and said I can meet him tomorrow to get the 6 days rent.
So there you have it… The stingy landlord is paying up tomorrow even when he didn’t want to, and tried to put me at fault for something that I didn’t do, to try and not pay me… So I just finished him off and told him that I will sue him for 3x damages which I’m entitled to for illegally renting my apartment while still under lease to me… And that shut him up real quick.
Sounds good, check when you’re entitled to your security deposit and when you drop off the keys say something like “I assume I’ll be getting my deposit back in full by [date], right?”. If he says anything you can come back with either “That’s not fair, I didn’t get a chance to fix/clean it myself” or “It wasn’t like that when I left it, the new people must have done that”. You really do have him backed into a corner. He did wrong and appears to know it and not doing a move out inspection with you present (or having your permission to do it by himself) should absolve you of any damages.
I already got the security deposit today in full, which made me laugh when he started to blame the door damage on me that’s been there for over a week.
My impression was that the OP made some sort of arrangement to cut his lease short. That’s the scenario where the landlord could legally rent out the place and the OP could receive 6 days rent back. Otherwise, you are correct. The OP would be on the hook for the entire month.
There was no agreement to have the lease cut short, and there was no agreement for the new tenant to move in with 6 days left in the month, and for the landlord to charge the new tenant pro-rated rent for those 6 days.
Having the new tenant move in early really wouldn’t bother me if they were open and said is it ok for the new tenant to move in 6 days early. It’s the fact that the landlord charged the new tenant for the 6 days to move in early (without informing me), while I had paid for the entire month. Why should the landlord collect rent from me for the entire month of July, and also collect rent from the new tenant for the 6 days?
It seemed like the landlord was hoping that I would never find out and he could keep the money. But once I found that out that he let the new tenant move in early without my consent/knowledge, and also charged her for those days, that’s a big no-no.
Sure there’s something you could do. You could leave a chair in there, and not turn over the keys, and tell the landlord you plan to vacate the premises on 8/30 at 5 PM. Drop by once a day, and if he’s done ANYTHING towards moving a new tenant, tell him he’s violating the lease.
Except that would be seriously dickish to the (innocent) new tenant, far more so than to the landlord. Why make the situation so much worse than it needs to be?
You’re moving out anyway. Why even care about what happens afterward?
Because if the landlord wants to have someone move in before the previous lease is legally up, they should be willing to work with the tenant and pro-rating rent, not holding the tenant to the terms of the lease then turning around and violating those same terms.
I wouldn’t recommend screwing over a new tenant if they’ve already moved in. I would recommend that if the landlord refused to pro-rate, maintaining a token residence until the last day of the lease - which doesn’t screw anyone, as far as I can tell.
And yes sandra_nz, I know the issue has been resolved, I’m just arguing the ethics and legalities of the thing.
Occupancy is already over. The former tenant decided to vacate voluntarily. Prorating rent until the new tenant is in would be a nice gesture for the landlord, but I don’t see any legal or moral obligation to do it.
It screws the new tenant who has already made arrangement to vacate the previous premises, has moving lined up, may have to be elsewhere later on, may have to find places to keep their stuff etc., and why? Just so you can prove a damn point to a landlord you’re about to part company with anyway. Don’t be a dick, especially not to somebody you don’t even know.
You’re right, there’s no legal obligation to prorate rent. Nor is there a legal obligation for the current tenant to turn the property back over to the landlord before the lease has expired.
It’s not just to prove a point. It’s to get back money you’re entitled to. If the landlord doesn’t want to screw over the new tenant, who he made arrangements with in violation of his existing lease with you, all he’s got to do is be reasonable about prorating.
Seriously, you see nothing wrong with this conversation?
Tenant: I’ll be all moved out on the 15th, any chance you could prorate my rent for the 2nd half of the month?
Landlord: Sorry, the lease says you have to pay the full month.
Tenant: Ok.
Landlord: BTW, since you’ll be out on the 15th, the new tenant will be moving in on the 17th.
And you DO see something wrong with this continuation?
Tenant: Whoops, I guess I’ll be keeping some stuff there until the 31st then. I’ll meet you at 4PM on the 31st for the final walkthrough and to turn over the keys.
Geez, has moving to Florida turned you into a Republican or something?
Excuse me, but is everybody missing something obvious here? (Or was it mentioned and I’m the one who missed it?)
Did the landlord change the locks when the new tenant moved in? Unless I missed it, I didn’t see a mention of it. So the landlord moved a new tenant in while the old tenant still had a key and still thought he lived there?
So, new tenant is comfortably asleep in her bed at night when suddenly, in walks the old tenant at 2:00 in the morning? (It was mentioned that new tenant is female. Is old tenant male?)
Again: Did landlord move in a new tenant while leaving old tenant with a key and still thinking he lived there? Never mind arguing whether old tenant is going to screw over new tenant if he had balked at this. The new tenant is ALREADY screwed over – by the landlord moving her into a unit where the old tenant still lived. She should have been talking to her lawyer about that. Especially if old tenant had walked in on her, but even if he hadn’t. That’s a SERIOUS wrong-doing on the part of the landlord, and if I were the new tenant, I’d be screaming about canceling the lease already, and moving out, and maybe taking some legal action. That’s some serious up-fuckery on the landlord’s part.
What if you took a motel room for a night, and the front desk then rented the same room to someone else for the same night and gave both of you the key? And the other person walked in at night while you were in bed? (Happened to me once.) Anybody here think that’s okay?
And are certain posters here missing something else obvious? Some of you have noticed this, but apparently some haven’t:
I don’t think the OP had ANY intention of “screwing” the new tenant. I don’t think he said anything about demanding that the new tenant be kicked out for the six days until the end of the month. All he ever said was: He objects to the landlord collecting rent from two different people for that six days, and he wants his six days’ rent back.
It’s a clear-cut case, in California at least, no matter what ElvisL1ves thinks: If a tenant moves out early (like, middle of last month) without an agreement from the landlord, then he is liable for rent for the whole month BUT the landlord has the option to move a new tenant in anytime after old tenant leaves AND if he does so, he has to refund the old tenant’s rent for those days.
And even then, I expect that the landlord better make sure the out-going tenant has really moved out and has relinquished the unit, lest fuck-ups like this might happen. Landlord here has made a majorly wrong move in this case.
NO double-dipping on the rent like that in California!
Come to think of it, if it were California at least, I suspect the landlord did something majorly outrightly illegal, by entering and taking possession of the unit while the old tenant still, technically, lived there (since he had paid the rent through the end of the month and had not relinquished the keys nor otherwise told the landlord that he was out). Landlords entering a tenant’s unit without either permission or a good cause (like, exigent emergency) is a major serious no-no any place where civilized landlord-tenant laws prevail.
OP might just possibly have a good case to sue landlord, not only for the six days’ rent, but for punitive damages as well.