lease dispute

acsasuser

I think now many Chinese have rental houses, and may have different issues dealing with tenants, it’s good to share our experience.
Below is my case:
During July 10 – 19, I had walk through with a prospective tenant couple twice for my rental house. On July 26, this couple made $4000 security deposit (two month rent as his credit score was very low), and we signed the lease which would begin Aug 1. On July 26, I had move-in inspection with this tenant. During this inspection, this couple found the restrooms with mildew in the master bedroom, the upstairs restroom cabinet detached, blown out lights, etc. and didn’t want to move in and request all security deposit back to them. I didn’t agree and on July 31, I told them that every repair them mentioned was taken care of, they still didn’t want to move in. as such my rental house was vacant for a month. We went to small court. The judge ruled against me based on GA law (44-7-33), I admitted to the judge that I didn’t give the couple a comprehensive list of any existing damages since I had no idea if anything was wrong as the previous tenant emailed me that the house was in good condition when they moved out.
GA law (44-7-33):
Quote:
Prior to tendering a security deposit, the tenant shall be
presented with a comprehensive list of any existing damage to the
premises, which list shall be for the tenant's permanent retention.
The tenant shall have the right to inspect the premises to ascertain
the accuracy of the list prior to taking occupancy. The landlord and
the tenant shall sign the list and this shall be conclusive evidence
of the accuracy of the list but shall not be conclusive as to latent
defects. If the tenant refuses to sign the list, the tenant shall
state specifically in writing the items on the list to which he
dissents and shall sign such statement of dissent
Unquote.

After I lost in the court, I did some research, and found that there is GA law (44-7-36), this law seems appropriate to my situation as I have only 3 rental houses.
GA law (44-7-36):
Quote:
Code Sections 44-7-31, 44-7-32, 44-7-33, and 44-7-35 shall not apply
to rental units which are owned by a natural person if such natural
person, his or her spouse, and his or her minor children
collectively own ten or fewer rental units; provided, however, that
this exemption does not apply to units for which management,
including rent collection, is performed by third persons, natural or
otherwise, for a fee.
Unquote.

In the court, the judge didn’t ask me about how many rental houses I have or if my rental house is managed by a rental management co.
So now I am considering appeal for my case, I learned that there are several higher courts that I can select, and one of them is state court which charges about $250 for filing an appeal. Any one who has appeal experience that we can share as to which court we should choose and how to proceed? Do you think I will win in higher court?
Thanks for all your comments.

just let it go.

talk to a real estate lawyer to see if you have any chance. find a lawyer who will not charge you until you win the case. It will be a good deal even the lawyer charge you $2000 if you will

Please correct me if I am misunderstood your post.
You stated that "On July 26, this couple made $4000 security deposit and we signed the lease", then you also stated that "On July 26, I had move-in inspection with this tenant". So basically this was all happened in the same day when the tenant decided want to back out of the deal. Despite what the Law says, I think this should be allowed.
As you have mentioned: "as such my rental house was vacant for a month". But this one month of vacancy was not caused by this tenant's fault. If they have put down some EM earlier to hold the place which would prevent your opportunities to rent to other prospective tenants. Then, you can keep the EM for your damage.
The reason they want to cancel the deal was due to the inspection results. If $4000 is equal to 2 months of rent, that means this is a property will cost $2000 per month to rent. This is a pretty decent rent which should be able to rent a pretty nice house in a nice neighborhood. People is able to afford this kind of rent, even though they might have a bad credit record due to whatever reason, normally requires certain level of living quality. That is why when they see the "mildew", "detached cabinet" and a possible electrical wire issue caused blown out light, they decided want to back out the contract. I think their response was reasonable and I think you should return their money and let them go.  
I have being in rental business for 15 yrs. I always believe ”緣份“ between me and my tenants. To force a no ”緣份“ of tenant, will not achieve a good result. And "Law" sometime is not the best way to solve the problem inbetween me and my tenants.
Since you have already fixed the bad issues, I believe you will find your next tenant very soon. Good luck to you.

引用第1楼游客于2013-11-14 11:31发表的 回 楼主(acsasuser) 的帖子 :
just let it go.  

just let it go!

acsasuser

Thanks for your comments.
The point the judge made was: I didn’t follow GA law (44-7-33):
Prior to tendering a security deposit, the tenant shall be presented with a comprehensive list of any existing damage to thepremises. The tenant shall have the right to inspect the premises to ascertain the accuracy of the list prior to taking occupancy.
Now I know GA law (44-7-36) which tells me that I don’t need to follow GA law (44-7-33) as I only have 3 rent house and I manage rent houses myself. So the point the judge based on is baseless. And I repaired anything they wanted before the lease began.

I think if any chance that I could win, I should go ahead as I have nothing to lose but the $250 filing fee. Not sure I am correct.

acsasuser

I want to add more:
This couple gave me $1000 deposit on July 10 after their first walkthrough of my rent house. Then days later they had second walkthrough.  On July 19 (not 26, my error in my post), we signed the lease and they put down $4000 and I returned their $1000 EM.

引用第5楼acsasuser于2013-11-14 13:48发表的 回 3楼(游客) 的帖子 :
Thanks for your comments.
The point the judge made was: I didn’t follow GA law (44-7-33):
Prior to tendering a security deposit, the tenant shall be presented with a comprehensive list of any existing damage to thepremises. The tenant shall have the right to inspect the premises to ascertain the accuracy of the list prior to taking occupancy.
Now I know GA law (44-7-36) which tells me that I don’t need to follow GA law (44-7-33) as I only have 3 rent house and I manage rent houses myself. So the point the judge based on is baseless. And I repaired anything they wanted before the lease began.

.......

Excuse me for the following.

You got nothing to lose, what about your tenant? They did not stayed in your rental house for a day (did not move in,right?) and you want to pocket their $4000?  

If I am a potential tenant, I would turned away from this kind of landlord too.  

Listen to others: just let it go.

acsasuser

If you read through my post carefully, I lost one month rent, plus all utilities, maintenance for landscape fee, etc. for a month. The whole cost was roughly $3000. Some details of the fee: $500 for hiring real estate agent to quickly find another tenant, $1990 mortgage, $180 for lawn and landscape, all utilities.

引用第8楼acsasuser于2013-11-14 14:02发表的 回 7楼(游客) 的帖子 :
If you read through my post carefully, I lost one month rent, plus all utilities, maintenance for landscape fee, etc. for a month. The whole cost was roughly $3000. Some details of the fee: $500 for hiring real estate agent to quickly find another tenant, $1990 mortgage, $180 for lawn and landscape, all utilities.

I did read through. I do understand you might have some cost including self claimed forgone one month rent.  However, I would treat this as the cost of doing (rental) business and considering benefit from it in the long run.  Put yourself in other people's shoes, this couple did not benefit anything and have no chance to benefit from it in the future, lose $4000 just what?   

Let me share a true story with you:

When I first move to Atlanta, I rented a car from a car rental company with my own insurance. The car was rear ended by a big pick up truck, his insurance paid for repairing the damage, of curse.  However, the car rental company also claimed 2 weeks of lost rental. None would pay for that including the pick up truck's insurance company and  my insurance company. The car rental company then called and send me several mails for payment and threaten to take me to court.  I called my insurance company again, my insurance agent did a favor for me, the insurance company's legal team wrote the car rental company a letter. Guess what, the car rental company stopped bother me right away.