Rental Application and Agreement to lease

Rental Application and Agreement to lease by Dennette Farr on February 21, 2002 @12:23

Hi, About a month ago my son, a college student in Pennsylvania, filled out a rental application and submitted $350 for a student housing apartment complex. Now he cannot take the apartment due to lack of hours on his job. He must comute to school, an hour's drive. The title of the application reads "Rental Application and Agreement to lease". Wish I had seen it beforehand. It states on the bottom of the Rental App that this is as binding legally as signing the lease and he is responsible for the rent for the whole lease period if they can't fill his spot. He had to sign it just to turn in the rental app to be considered. He also had to include the money. They had the right to accept him or turn him down. I can't believe this is just as binding as a lease. He never signed a lease, in fact, they want parent or guardian to sign the lease as well. Can this hold up in a court of law? I might add that I asked the girl (real estate agency that runs the student apartments) what he needed to do to get out of it. She said have him write a letter that he cannot rent the apartment now and send it to them as soon as possible and they will send him a letter of "release" as soon as they rent it. He did so. I might add that this particular apartment building is usually filled because of the lack of on campus housing at the college. There are 4 students to an apartment. Are they legally bound to fill his apartment first, rather than fill the rest of the building and let his vacant, just to be able to collect from him anyway? Tell me what to do, because he has no money to rent it, therefore no money to pay all the money for the lease period if they don't want to rent it to someone else. I, myself, will hire a lawyer to get him out of this if necessary. I have a 6 unit rental apartment and would never hold anyone to some clause on a rental application without signing a lease. This is not right. As far as I am concerned, the lease is the legal binding agreement, not some rental application. I understand they may have included this on the app just to be able to keep the money even if they rent it to someone else. They can keep the money for their trouble and processing the app. Tell me what would hold up in court. Thank you very much.

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Re: Rental Application and Agreement to lease by John N on February 21, 2002 @17:52	[ Reply ]

Dennette Farr on 2/21/102 12:23 PM said: >>Hi, >> >>About a month ago my son, a college student in Pennsylvania, filled out a rental application and submitted $350 for a student housing apartment complex. Now he cannot take the apartment due to lack of hours on his job. He must comute to school, an hour's drive. >> >>The title of the application reads "Rental Application and Agreement to lease". Wish I had seen it beforehand. It states on the bottom of the Rental App that this is as binding legally as signing the lease and he is responsible for the rent for the whole lease period if they can't fill his spot. He had to sign it just to turn in the rental app to be considered. He also had to include the money. They had the right to accept him or turn him down. I can't believe this is just as binding as a lease. He never signed a lease, in fact, they want parent or guardian to sign the lease as well. Can this hold up in a court of law? I might add that I asked the girl (real estate agency that runs the student apartments) what he needed to do to get out of it. She said have him write a letter that he cannot rent the apartment now and send it to them as soon as possible and they will send him a letter of "release" as soon as they rent it. He did so. I might add that this particular apartment building is usually filled because of the lack of on campus housing at the college. There are 4 students to an apartment. Are they legally bound to fill his apartment first, rather than fill the rest of the building and let his vacant, just to be able to collect from him anyway? Tell me what to do, because he has no money to rent it, therefore no money to pay all the money for the lease period if they don't want to rent it to someone else. I, myself, will hire a lawyer to get him out of this if necessary. I have a 6 unit rental apartment and would never hold anyone to some clause on a rental application without signing a lease. This is not right. As far as I am concerned, the lease is the legal binding agreement, not some rental application. I understand they may have included this on the app just to be able to keep the money even if they rent it to someone else. They can keep the money for their trouble and processing the app. Tell me what would hold up in court. Thank you very much. >> Hi Denette, Our LPA Application has the power to legally bind the tenant, but it's not to be used underhandedly. It is meant to protect the landlord from losses caused by a tenant who does not fulfil his agreement to rent. I didn't see the app your son signed, but I'm sure the owner of the unit was able to rent it to someone else without losing a rent period. In that case they should be gald to release your son from any obligations he agreed to in the application. But if he delayed too long in changing his mind, the owner could have lost qualified tenants and may not have rented it on time because he thought the unit was rented based on your son's agreement and deposit. Even then, the worst scenario I think would be the that you pay 1 mo. rent. Hopefully not. Good luck. John