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Well, this is what I'm going to do....since both tenants are on the same rental agreement, that rental agreement will be voided. The balance of the deposit (minus repairs) will be divided between them (at least on paper). The tenant that is leaving will get her balance once everything has been properly addressed. The tenant that is staying (which I am told is looking at getting a new roommate to help with expenses) will be required to come up with the difference in the rest of her deposit (what remains of her half will stay escrowed and she will be required to come up with the balance for half the damages to stay at the residence...thus putting her half of the deposit escrow back at the original dollar amount). A new rental agreement will be drawn up with the staying tenant and whatever new tenant gets approved. The new tenant will be required to come up with their half of the deposit. This might leave me with a lull in having only half a deposit until a new roommate signs on. The current tenants are overall good tenants (the damages are fairly minor), so I'm not expecting a problem if this is a short lull. I will also make it known to the remaining tenant that she will be responsible for coming up with the remaining half of the full deposit in a set period of time if she does not come up with a roommate. If this happens and the remaining tenant has to put up the entire deposit, then if she ever does come up with a new roommate, a new rental agreement can be drawn up and I can refund half of the deposit back to her once I receive the deposit from the new roommate. To me this seems like the best solution. I do not want to penalize the leaving tenant by withholding their deposit until the other tenant leaves (which is illegal I'm told and if their is a new roommate that comes along then this approach REALLY gets complicated). OK...hopefully to simplify (numbers are just random for demo).... Tenant A is leaving
Tenant B is staying
Tenant A has $500 in deposit
Tenant B has $500 in deposit
There is $200 in damages
The original rental agreement is voided
Tenant A now has $400 in deposit
Tenant B now has $400 in deposit
Tenant A is refunded $400
Tenant B is required to come up with $100 to get their deposit back to $500 SCENARIO 1:
Tenant C moves in
Tenant C puts up $500 in deposit
Tenant B and Tenant C both have $500 in deposit each SCENARIO 2:
If Tenant C does NOT move in, Tenant B will be still required to come up with the $100 for her half of the deposit for damages and an additional $500 for the rest of the full deposit
Tenant B now has $1000 in deposit
Now Tenant D moves in and pays half of the deposit
Tenant B still has $1000 in deposit
Tenant D has $500 in deposit
Tenant B is immediately refunded $500
Tenant B and Tenant D now both have $500 in deposit each My question to you is 1) does this sound like a good idea and 2) is this legal and 3) what time table should I put in place to get the remaining deposit if a new roommate is not found and 4) how do I handle the situation if a new roommate is not found and the current tenant is unable to cough up a larger deposit. Thank you all for your help.
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