Tenant Balked After Signing Her Lease, Before Move-in

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

We became landlord few years back, since we could not sell our home. Recently we rented to a female, who inspected the house to her satisfaction, paid us a security deposit, and signed a written lease (that explicitly states that the tenant will pay a total 12 months of rent in equal monthly installments), however on the day of move-in (when she was supposed to pay the first month rent) she changed mind, giving the reason that the home needs new paint. We told her, that we will be willing to paint the house, however she requested that we just let her go, that she made a mistake, and we can keep her security deposit for the inconvenience. Since her refusal to move-in, we have had to re-let the home to someone else.

However, a month later, all of a sudden, she re-appears all riled up as if a totally new person and aggresively demands her deposit back.

We want to remain ethical (so please advise if we are out of step here?). Since she just gave us her mailing address. We intend to send her a bill for 12 months of rent, so she realizes, that you cannot sign a contract and then back out of it. While obviously we dont expect that she will pay it, and neither do we have any intention to pursue her for it. However we also wanted to do the 'right' thing, in case she ups the ante.

Since it appears you have found a tenant to replace her, she does not owe you 12 months worth of rent. Remind her that you both agreed to allow her out of this lease with a lease breaking fee of her security deposit. Unfortunately it does not appear that anything was signed in writing regarding this decision.

If you have NOT found a tenant yet, remind her that she remains a tenant on this lease and continues to owe rent until a suitable replacement is found for her.

Gail

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Quoting KS693

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However we also wanted to do the 'right' thing, in case she ups the ante.

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Here's not only the right thing but the legal thing.

Basic contract law says that you can't profit from her breach. You aren't likely to find a statute that says that because contract law has been established primarily by case decisions.

She owes you rent from the date of the breach (the first day of the lease period) through the date you re-rented to a replacement plus any additional expenses that you incurred to re-rent.

Figure out how much that it is and send her back the rest.

Then go learn about contract law because if you don't pay her and she ups the ante in court you are going to lose.

Thank you Gail in Georgia and AdjusterJack for your valuable response.

To give some context. We live about 200 miles away, and don't have the luxury to keep an eye on the home (vacant homes often get vandalized in the area) and as well showing it to prospective tenants was now close to impossible. With the tenant balking out on the day of move (from her 12 month lease), we were left with no choice but to rent it for a 4 month lease to a different person (who seems nice but was financially very weak - he has only paid us half the month rent - and promising to pay the rest when he can afford).

Please help me be legally fair.

Here is my perspective:
--> Lease break fee: 1300 (one month rent - is that fair?)
12 month rent was supposed to be: 15,600
--> while the new tenant has 'promised' to pay: 5,200 (though based on current track record, he probably would not - so far he paid half a month rent when was supposed to pay full month) ... what could we do with that?
-->The remaining 8 months, is even more unknown/uncertaintity. Could I charge 2 month rent, as the bench time for finding the tenant for the following 8 month period?

Fair has nothing to do with law.

I'll go over this one more time.

You don't get to keep one month's rent. Period.

Since you rented it out almost immediately you are legally limited to the days that it was unrented plus any additional expenses.

That you rented to a potentially unqualified tenant is on you. You could have waited until you got a qualified tenant who was able to take a year's lease and pay the deposit and first month's rent in full.

Then you would have been entitled to the time it took to rent to a properly qualified tenant.

You blew it and now you have no further recourse against your former tenant no matter what happens with the current tenant down the line.

ok confused here. I have a responsibility to mitigate my lossess? but leaving the property abandoned (in hopes to find a properly qualified tenant over next 2 months) would be foolish of anyone, as that would subject property to losses that I would have no ability to handle ... all that to create the basis of a lawsuit?

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Quoting KS693

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ok confused here. I have a responsibility to mitigate my lossess? but leaving the property abandoned (in hopes to find a properly qualified tenant over next 2 months) would be foolish of anyone, as that would subject property to losses that I would have no ability to handle ... all that to create the basis of a lawsuit?

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The issue is that none of this has anything to do with the tenant you are trying to recover money from. It is not her fault that you own a home that may be vandalized if you don't have someone living in it. She is responsible for the Time it took you to re rent the house, and any reasonable costs you incurred to re rent the property. Assuming the security deposit is 1 month's rent, and you apparently did not incur damages greater than the security deposit, it seems to me you did not care to spend all that much time looking for a qualified tenant. What period of time was the house unoccupied after she abandoned the lease?

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Quoting KS693

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ok confused here. I have a responsibility to mitigate my lossess? but leaving the property abandoned (in hopes to find a properly qualified tenant over next 2 months) would be foolish of anyone, as that would subject property to losses that I would have no ability to handle ... all that to create the basis of a lawsuit?

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The judge will not care if you don't have the ability to handle the rigors and legal obligations of being a landlord.

I was a landlord for 20 years with 3 rental houses. I've been answering landlord tenant questions on legal websites for as much as 14 years. I've advised you of your legal obligations. It's up to you to decide if you want to roll the dice and keep the former tenant's deposit.

If you negotiate a deal with a tenant, such as releasing her from her lease in exchange for her forfeiting her security deposit, you will want to get it in writing, signed and dated. In the absence of proof of the deal, you run the risk that the tenant will sue you for her deposit, claiming that you failed to comply with the state's security deposit laws, with your having no objective evidence to prove that her accusations are incorrect.

what was the date her lease was supposed to start?
what is the monthly rent she signed for her lease?
what is the monthly rent the new guy agreed to?
what was the date the new tenant moved in?