rental agreement lost - Landlord Forum thread 359579

rental agreement lost by Thriver on August 8, 2019 @18:06

I know this is hard to believe, but a tenant who is moving cannot find our rental agreement, and I also can't find mine. I'm going to have to guess what she paid for her security deposit and go from there. She claiming it's more than what I think, so now what do you think is going to happen, and how would you handle this?

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Re: rental agreement lost by Garry on August 9, 2019 @00:41	[ Reply ]

Thriver, you seem to be a newer landlord. We were all new at landlording once, and asking questions like you are. Treat your experiences as LEARNING experiences. Learn from your mistakes, so you don't make that same mistake again. Just like you hired the wrong management company, now you have lost a lease. Being a landlord means you have many responsibilities. All your leases should be in a file cabinet, along with all the applications you take in. In this case, neither of you can prove what the security deposit originally was. If this sec deposit question ever got in front of a judge, how do you think a judge would rule?? You would LOSE. Because you are a BUSINESS, and have responsibilities as a LL, over a tenant. A judge would say you have no PROOF of what the deposit was, and the judge would believe the tenant about what they say they paid you for the deposit. Right now,you should take the tenants word about the amount of the deposit, and then start deducting any damages or unpaid rent against THEIR amount. If you end up giving more of the deposit back than you first expected to, well, that YOUR costly mistake for having lost the lease to begin with. Still, learn from your mistakes, and 30 years from now, YOU will be giving answers to new LLs, just like Dave and I are now.

Re: rental agreement lost