First, what is meant by 30 days notice? Does it mean 30 days from the day you plan to actually leave the apartment? Or does it mean you must give notice before the new 30 day rental period begins?
My lease expires at the end of April. Due to illness in the family back home I would like to break my lease and return home on March 21st. I gave notice to the landlord today (which I think is technically 29 days before I intend to leave?), explained the situation back home, and asked about return of the 2 months deposit.
I am using the new contract, which so far a I understand, requires the full deposit to be returned. The landlord said she needed to talk to her sister (who is co-owner of the apartment), then got back to me and said: “my sister will only return the one months deposit,” (This is perhaps some way of deflecting responsibility from herself, since she is the one I dealt with in renting the apartment, not her sister).
At any rate, I am wondering what I should do here.
I know from past experience when I needed a couple of things fixed in the apartment, that this lady is extremely hard to deal with, and does not like to make any sort of concessions. I only have a month left here to get a resolution and can’t see myself entering a legal battle to get back this money.
Is TMM actually able to be effective in this situation? I got advice from them in the past, but they did not intervene, just gave advice. Do they actually have lawyers who will contact a landlord on the tenant’s behalf if need be?
Also, once a tenant gives 30 days notice, when is the deposit supposed to be returned? Should it be returned immediately or does the landlord have a certain amount of time to return it?
30 days notice means you give at least 30 days notice before moving out.
What does the contract say? 1 month penalty for 30 days notice is pretty standard. Are you sure it says there is no penalty?
Deposit and utility fees can be settled on move out day before handing over keys. You need to arrange to settle utility fees and show proof, otherwise landlord may not return deposit until utility fees have been settled.
The contract says it can only be broken if meeting specific conditions (house is not safe, or tenant is injured, house destroyed by disaster, etc)
What confuses me though is reading over posts on this forum, I’ve seen several people say there is a new law that over rides whatever is written in the contract. The new law says if 30 days notice is given, the full deposit must be returned. Is this false information?
A local friend called TMM for me and talked to someone who said I could not get the full deposit returned because those conditions are listed in my contract. I’m assuming since it’s TMM telling us that, that means the information in this forum about tenants being able to get it back no matter what the contract says is false.
Odd that because I’m guessing the people posting that info in this forum must have learned it by reading the new law. Do you happen to know what the new law is which they are referring to and what it actually says?
“ Article 249
Unless otherwise agreed upon by the parties, the following rules apply to the earnest money:
(1) When the contract has been performed, the earnest money shall be returned or treated as one part of the payment.
(2) If the contract cannot be performed owing to a circumstance to which the party who gave the earnest money is imputed, such party shall not claim for the return of the earnest money.
(3) If the contract cannot be performed owing to a circumstance to which the party who received the earnest money is imputed, such party shall return double amounts of earnest money.
(4) If the contract cannot be performed owing to a circumstance to which neither of the parties is imputed, the earnest money shall be returned.”
You can ask back for two months under certain cases, like stated in your current contract, such as landlord refusing repairs etc. Or if you think contract cannot be completed due to landlord’s fault. If it’s the landlord’s fault they have to pay you per #3. In your case I think #2 applies, ie contract cannot be completed due to lessee, so earnest money does not need to be returned. Though the first sentence says the contract has precedence as well, which is saying one month in this case.
You can go to court and drag it on, which means you won’t be leaving in April, or at least will be returning soon. Or just settle on one month. To eb fair, many landlords won’t give you even one month back. Some may cause problems. Just a matter of if you are willing to fight and pay to get that 1 month. Decide whether $ or ethics is more important to you.
To be clear, I am not aware of the new laws. Just commenting on the reality of courts and disputes here. Guess it also depends if your rent is 500k a month or 3k a month.