Landlord Question and Answer Forum

We had two tenants on the original lease, which still have 6 months left. One is moving out and two are moving in to replace that tenant. My question is: how does the original deposit work. Does the one moving out loose his part and do we charge the other two a new deposit or sense lease is being fulfilled does everything stay the same? My worry is without the new ones paying deposit, may not take as good care of property.

Usually this is up to the tenants. There are several ways to have it done depending on all parties involved.<br> 1) Tenant moving out requests to be paid by new tenants for their portion of the deposit - the tenant moving out releases claim to security deposit and damages done to the apartment and the new tenants assume responsibility. <br> 2) Like option 1, the tenant moving out requests a walk through so damages (if any) can be assessed and then their portion can be given back to them. New tenants than pay their portion of the security deposit and enter into the remaining portion of the lease.<br> 3) They come up with their own solutions depending on the lease and the terms.<br><br> Either way, I strongly suggest either writing up a new lease (for the remaining time) or at least adding an addendum to the lease basically stating how the changes are going to take affect. You are right as well, don't let new people come in without putting a security deposit down in some way, they tend to not care for the place as much when it's not their own money.

Posted by Eric D, NH on Monday, August 1, 2011