Landlord Collected Final Month's Rent but is Double-Leasing

[BigDH01]

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Iowa

My wife and I purchased a new home to take advantage of the homebuyer's credit near the end of our year-long lease. Our deposit was a full month's payment and our lease officially terminated on Aug 1st. When we moved into the new house in May, we also paid June's rent. As July approached, we called the landlord and asked if we could checkout and use the security deposit in lieu of our last month's rent. The landlord said that this was possible, assuming everything went alright at checkout.

Well, we checked out and there was no damage so he agreed to use the security deposit minus a $100 deposit on our part to ensure we kept the utilities turned on. We agreed and went about our business.

We received our utility bill recently and discovered a spike in usage at the old apartment. It turns out the landlord leased the apt and the new tenants moved in sometime around July 22nd. The landlord agrees that we are due some money for the utility bill but claims that as soon as we handed over the keys we were liable for the full security deposit. I believe we should be refunded a portion as our lease was terminated as soon as the new tenants occupied the unit.

I would appreciate any legal advice any of you might have. Who is right here?

[jk]

a very simple rule applies to situations such as this. The LL cannot charge you rent and another tenant at the same time. Not sure what your LL was talking about with the

as soon as we handed over the keys we were liable for the full security deposit

.

You would not have forfeited you deposit as you did not breach the lease. You simply used the deposit for the last months rent. If you had not done that and actually paid for the month as usual, the LL would still have refunded the deposit and he would still owe you for the portion of the month the new tenants had possession of the house.

all you did, and even with his agreement, was to shift the funds around a bit to avoid paying the last months rent only to be refunded your deposit.

you deserve around 10 days worth of rent to be returned.

Hopefully you have terminated the utilities by now.

[BigDH01]

a very simple rule applies to situations such as this. The LL cannot charge you rent and another tenant at the same time. Not sure what your LL was talking about with the

.

I think he's under the impression that once we agreed to use the security deposit as rent and handed him the keys, we forfeited the entirety of the deposit regardless of whether or not he was able to rent the unit.

He also claims that he's not even sure if they charged the new tenants rent. As far as I'm concerned though, that's not my problem. They were, after all, still living there.

Hopefully you have terminated the utilities by now.

That is done. Thanks for the advice.

[BigDH01]

Ok, just talked to the landlord's father (who is really in charge of the corporation) and he refuses to refund any of the final month's rent. He claims that he's not even sure if the new tenants are paying rent and thus he's not double collecting. I directed him to the relevant portions of the Iowa code and he says he will read it and call me back.

562A.29 Remedies for absence, nonuse and abandonment.

1. If the rental agreement requires the tenant to give notice to the landlord of an anticipated extended absence as provided in section 562A.20, and the tenant willfully fails to do so, the landlord may recover actual damages from the tenant.

2. During an absence of the tenant in excess of fourteen days, the landlord may enter the dwelling unit at times reasonably necessary.

3. If the tenant abandons the dwelling unit, the landlord shall make reasonable efforts to rent it at a fair rental. If the landlord rents the dwelling unit for a term beginning prior to the expiration of the rental agreement, it is deemed to be terminated as of the date the new tenancy begins. The rental agreement is deemed to be terminated by the landlord as of the date the landlord has notice of the abandonment, if the landlord fails to use reasonable efforts to rent the dwelling unit at a fair rental or if the landlord accepts the abandonment as a surrender. If the tenancy is from month-to-month, or week-to-week, the term of the rental agreement for this purpose shall be deemed to be a month or a week, as the case may be.

[jk]

what they are trying to argue is even though they have rented the unit, the tenant didn't actually start paying until (presumably) Aug 1. As such, he would not be double dipping.

What is happening is; the LL is using the property for his own purposes. Whether he charges rent for the period or not is irrelevant. If he occupied the unit on July 22, it would be no different. He has taken possession of the premises for his own purposes and has no right to charge you for that time.

agreed to use the security deposit minus a $100 deposit on our part to ensure we kept the utilities turned on.

this would mean he still owes you this $100, right?

7. The bad faith retention of a deposit by a landlord, or any portion of the rental deposit, in violation of this section shall subject the landlord to punitive damages not to exceed two hundred dollars in addition to actual damages.

sure sounds like requiring you to pay a deposit to maintain the utilities and then allowing another party to occupy the premises, and use the utilities still under your name, and as such, liability, would be an action of bad faith.

this is a nice statement from the section concerning deposits:

In an action concerning the rental deposit, the burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, the reason for withholding all or any portion of the rental deposit shall be on the landlord.

Now, you could always play their game as well:

4. A landlord who fails to provide a written statement within thirty days of termination of the tenancy and receipt of the tenant's mailing address or delivery instructions shall forfeit all rights to withhold any portion of the rental deposit. If no mailing address or instructions are provided to the landlord within one year from the termination of the tenancy the rental deposit shall revert to the landlord and the tenant will be deemed to have forfeited all rights to the rental deposit.

If the LL has not provided such statement yet and fails (or already has failed) to provide such statement within 30 days after your termination of the lease (in some states, moving out is considered to be the start date but due to the unusual situation, I would look more to when you actually negotiated the termination of the lease and returned the keys), and you have provided a mailing address, I would stretch my imagination to mean that even though you had not paid the final months rent, officially, he would still be required to return your entire deposit, including that $100 deposit you paid to ensure you maintained the utilities.

[Mr. Knowitall]

What is happening is; the LL is using the property for his own purposes. Whether he charges rent for the period or not is irrelevant. If he occupied the unit on July 22, it would be no different. He has taken possession of the premises for his own purposes and has no right to charge you for that time.

Unless, of course, the agreement was that the security deposit would be forfeited in return for an early release from the lease. That appears to be the interpretation of the landlord with whom negotiated the release with, although now we're apparently getting a second interpretation from the landlord's father (who may or may not be the actual landlord).