Tenant breaking contract before moving-in

[hakouna]

I organised signing the lease contract with a new tenant a week before he moves in , as I am not living in the same city. The tenant didn't respond to my calls and emails for days before he came back saying he has decided to stay in another accommodation .

Now I have a month deposit , but I am likely not to get any new tenant before the moving date , as I will have to go through the whole search of new tenant process again from scratch , and this requires me to do multiple trips between where I live and the city where my rental house is located , I do not trust agencies .

What is the best practice here with the deposit , when is the right time to make the refund , am I entitled to penalize him financially ?

I appreciate if anyone has a link that gives some indication on the official way to handle this situation .

Thanks in advance

 

[LS400]

Why give yourself such a burden of hassle.
For the specific reason that you do not live local to the investment property, is the Number 1 reason to let an Agent manage it.

Saying you don't trust any Estate Agent to manage the property is just going to compound further heartache for you.

There are more good agents that bad ones out there.

If it were me, I'd refund the money if asked, without any deductions of this and that, and let an established local agent manage it.

 

[paper-folder]

Sorry to hear that things didn't go smoothly for you, the hassle is usually at the other end of the lease. It can't be easy managing a property yourself when you don't live close by, and I appreciate your apprehension at using a letting agent, my experience is that they never do as good a job as you do yourself despite being paid handsomely for it. That said, you have to weigh that against the hassle and cost of trying to manage it from a distance yourself and deciding if they will do a "good enough" job to take the grief out of it for you.

When you advertised it and selected this tenant, did you have anyone else who was interested that you would be happy to go back and offer it to? That could save you starting the whole process from scratch again. While there might be a case in law for retaining the deposit, I agree with LS400 that is should be refunded, a bit of good karma never did anyone any harm and it might go some little way to changing the perception that every landlord is a money grabbing tyrant.

Best of luck.

 

[Vanessa]

I organised signing the lease contract with a new tenant a week before he moves in , as I am not living in the same city. The tenant didn't respond to my calls and emails for days before he came back saying he has decided to stay in another accommodation .

Now I have a month deposit , but I am likely not to get any new tenant before the moving date , as I will have to go through the whole search of new tenant process again from scratch , and this requires me to do multiple trips between where I live and the city where my rental house is located , I do not trust agencies .

What is the best practice here with the deposit , when is the right time to make the refund , am I entitled to penalize him financially ?

I appreciate if anyone has a link that gives some indication on the official way to handle this situation .

Thanks in advance

" I do not trust agencies "
Well they would have made a better job of the situation than yourself. You appear to be very amateurish in your approach. Letting property is a business but you regard it as a hobby and expect everything to go smoothly. What plans have you in place when maintenance issues arise? I think the prospective tenant was wise to pull out.

 

[hakouna]

Thanks all for your feedback .

I am a sudden landlord ( had to move city after being made redundant ) and still in negative equity , I have been managing remotely the rent for 5 years so far without major hassle , my concept is "if I choose the right tenant then managing it will be easier " , I also have good contacts that I trust ( plumber , electrician , ..etc) and visit the tenancy once every two months at least if all is going well.

It was not easy job to screen and filter out the 277 emails I received for potential tenants , that's what you pay when you stick to the 4% rent increase only , it turned out that my place is so cheap and attracted lots of interest . It was a relief to sign the contract hoping to bring this screening experience to an end .

I will contact the next in the short list and pay another visit or two to the apartment , hopefully this will be the last step.

Thanks again all for your feedback , and of course the deposit will be fully refunded .