Tenant changes mind about moving out - Landlord Forum thread 181714

This tenant notified me before the 1 of July that she was going to be moving by August 1st.
First tenant tells me at around the 7th that they didn’t find a new place yet and that they are looking for a bigger place in the same area. Then on the 11th she tells me that the place that she started moving into had mold problems and so she changed her mind about moving to that place.
She asks me, until when can she notify me that she wants to change her mind about her moving out. We verbally agree for Monday July 13, 2009. Then I get no call on Monday so I spend a few hours trying to setup the marketing on craigslist and westsiderentals. And then I get a call on Tuesday July 14, 2009 in the morning that she changed her mind and doesn’t want to move out now.

Should I let her change her mind or make her move out?

Here are the issues with this tenant:
* I have another unit that is vacant (previous tenant for this one paid 565 current value is 1700-1900)
* Tenant under her pays 1600 and has been (IMHO) unreasonably complaining about noise coming from this tenant: noise from cats bouncing around the floors late hours of night. ( I admit the wood floors act like a percussion instrument.)
* She pays 1405 and has been here since 2003, market rent is around 1600
* If she leaves I have to refund the SD (2400) 2X SD hurts when you have to refund it.
* she is pretty much a good tenant pays on time and clean; however, this is the same tenant that is the one that I wrote about before that didn’t cooperate with building maintenance schedules and interruptions; and complains the most.

- do I charge her for the time I put into remarketing her unit & the paper work for following the law on vacancy procedures?
-do I have her sign a new lease?
-do I make her sign a 1 year lease on same terms as her current one? This is a rent controlled unit (I’d have to call the city to find out )
-Bird in the hand better than 2 in the bush?

Next you say "this is a rent controlled unit" then say you'll have to call the city to find out?? WHICH rent control city makes a huge difference in possible answers here. So..what city?

You actually helped cause this to happen.

First do you have a written notice from her stating she will be out before August 1st?

If so, why did you verbally agree to something else?

EVERYTHING must be done in writing..no exceptions.

You can't charge her for remarketing the unit if she doesn't move? You can't charge her for remarketing the unit anyway..unless she broke a fixed term lease.

You can't charge for as you call it, "paper work for follwoing the law on vacancy procedures" or unless it means something totally different.

So please THINK about what you type and how you type it so we can really know the real situation and answer all of the questions above and maybe then more help will be forthcoming for you.