Already Paid Last Month's Rent, Do We Need to Pay Again

[fancyfaceblue]

Washington State

The lease on our apartment expires on May 31, and we will be vacating. The building manager just told me that even though we paid last month's rent in advance, we still needed to pay rent as usual for May, and we would be refunded the $ that was paid for last month's rent.

My question is -- can they do that? If we paid last month's rent in advance, I would think that we wouldn't have to write that check for the last month.

The rental agreement lists all the deposits and non-refundable fees we paid, at at the bottom, in a section called "Special Lease Provisions and Disclosures" it says "Last month's rent from previous apartment will be transferred to current lease."

What happened is that we lived in another apartment in the same complex, and transferred to a new apartment and signed a new lease. At that time, the last month's rent that was paid on the old apartment was supposed to be transferred to the new one.

It doesn't say that the amount paid was a deposit, but I also don't know if Washington State law treats last month rent pre-payments as deposits.

So can anyone help me find out if per Washington law they can legally have us pay rent for May and then refund us the last month's rent we already paid (after we move out)?

Thank you!

[Mr. Knowitall]

According to this article,

Requiring the payment of "first and last months' rent" at the commencement of the tenancy is not really a "deposit", because the full amount unconditionally belongs to the landlord. The "last months' rent" should not be used as a "security deposit". It's proper use is to insure payment of the last months' rent, especially when the tenancy terminates midterm such as a tenant abandonment. The best practice is to have a clause in the rental agreement separate from the "security deposit" clause that addresses any required advance payment of rent. The rental agreement should designate the advance payment of rent as a "sum" or an "amount". The rental agreement should state that the payment of the advanced amount is for application to the last month's rent and that no portion of the amount is refundable. (See nonrefundable fees below.)

From what I understand of your post, there's an ambiguity as to the effect of this "transfer" - was the money transferred as "last month's rent" on the new unit, or was it transferred as part of a general security deposit on the new unit? Is the landlord taking that latter position, or is he taking the position that it actually was for prepayment of the last month's rent but he wants you to pay it a second time, anyway?

[fancyfaceblue]

On our current lease agreement, it clearly says last month's rent is transferred to the new apartment. It was not part of the required security deposits because we had to pay all of those again, and it is also clearly a separate section on the lease agreement.

The landlord/property manager acknowledged that we paid last month's rent, but said we are still supposed to pay rent as usual and that the last month's rent that we prepaid would be refunded when we moved out.