If you have the attitude in this group text message, with $1,500 a month of rent in a one year lease, and a $1,200 security deposit, you are an evil landlord, and will have to litigate intensely over the security deposit if you try to take something from it without good justification. There is a good chance that attorney fees and costs and penalties will be awarded against you in that case.
If you charge $1,600 a month of rent for the same apartment and don't take any security deposit, you look like a generous saint, and you will have no problem winning a lawsuit to collect unpaid rent and being awarded your attorney fees in litigation, or evicting a tenant if every penny of the $1,600 a month of rent isn't paid within a reasonable time of when it is due.
You also don't have to have any dealings with your tenant after they vacate the apartment if you don't want to, and don't have to worry about locating them if they don't provide a good address for their next residence.
If you do this, you haven't given up a chance to sue for damages to the premises if there is serious damage to the apartment and you won't have to take any deduction from your claim for damages to reimburse a security deposit if that happens (again, increasing the likelihood that you will be a prevailing party if there is a problem).
It might actually be easier to rent an apartment for $1,600 a month with no security deposit than it is to rent it for $1,500 a month with a $1,200 security deposit in addition, since the initial payment is larger in the latter case.
Which approach makes better business sense?
2 comments:
How often do people NOT get their deposits back? I, as nearly as I can recall, have always gotten them back, even back when I was a college student.
Very often there is at least some deduction.
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