Got another one today. I have to move for personal reasons! Ok, don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out! She was in the unit about six weeks on a one-year lease. That doesn't break my 48 hour termination fee record though. Also, I have yet to have anyone in a lease not pay me that termination fee. If you don't have that termination clause in your lease, get it in there.

Nice job, NE! So what you're saying is this is making you richer and giving you more freedom than saying "ELT's don't work for me in my market/area."?

I haven't had any ELTs yet this year, but I did have 2 late last year. I've only had one person just walk out and disappear on me, and that was going to happen with or without an ELT.

Yes Sid, it makes me richer. Especially if I can get it rented soon. She gave me the money today to move out on Friday. Yesterday she asked me if I could cancel the auto debit for rent today, because she is on bi-weekly. I said oh no no no, That's not how this works!

I told her that her rent is due on the first of the month and she elects to pay on the first of the month or bi-weekly. She chose bi-weekly. I told her that she still owes for the balance of April and the prorated balance will be returned to her from the day that she is out through the end of the month. I could probably keep that, but I figured I would rather get that termination fee in my hand then have her tell me go pound sand because she's mad and not get anything.

A few minutes later, daddy calls and leaves me a voicemail. So I call him back and he wants to know what's going on, so I gladly explain to him that all of this is in the lease. I said we give our tenants an option to leave early if they want to so they're not responsible for the balance of the lease, which in your daughters case would be $5000 for the remaining 10 months at $500 a month. He said oh OK, she didn't really understand what was going on here. And I said that's OK, it's the same for all tenants and it's in all of the leases.

So today when I picked up the termination fee from her, I handed her an envelope with the move out instructions in it that had a copy of the rapid refund deposit option! Thank you Jeffrey, thank you Jeffrey. She can now choose to have her deposit returned within the first week of her moving out for a fee of 10% gross. If she doesn't want it returned within the first week of her moving out, she can wait the 30 days for her deposit to come back.

Those I usually mail out, but she's moving quick.

"she didn't understand what's going on here..."

Yeah right, Dad. She didn't WANT to understand how big, mean ol' NE would ask her to honor the lease she signed, but now that you've made it plain that you're not backing down she "understands."

;-)

NE,

GO!

It might sound harsh to newbies but you gave her exactly what she wanted - her FREEDOM!! based on the terms set forth at lease signing.

(I STILL get people who tell me this won't work. Like Liberace "I cry all the way to the bank!")

So is this the "same" thing as the ELT (2x the rent - or whatever you have in there) or is this a DIFFERENT option? Only asking because I would think this particular one would be ELT but for the ones that move in today and want to move out tomorrow - I highly doubt they would opt for the ELT so I was wondering if you had something that said "if you opt to break the lease within (so many days) the fee is $xxx.

I had one move out within 24 hours last year - although I had the ELT fee in the lease I only charged him about $600 (I think) because I took it off the market for about 3 days before he signed and moved in. He then claimed it had mold and instead of me fighting with him I said "fine - leave" but it's going to cost you $600 (which was a "discount" from the fee which would have been $2k).