Withdrawing lease offer - Posted by Mark H

Posted by Mark H on August 20, 2003 at 01:13:50:

Ed,

I understand your disbelief- but I am in San Francisco. You would be shocked to find out what passes for civil law in this town- and what passes for lawyers for that matter!

This doofus is a Cornell graduate, monied (parents from Orinda, a very exclusive town in the East Bay) and I figured he could find a lawyer easily who would be happy to tell him he has a case.

Someone on a different forum pointed out for me that I have nothing to worry about anyway. I presented my terms and conditions, and offered the unit to him based on those conditions. As soon as he indicated that he did not accept them, the offer was null and void. I was under no obligation to continue any kind of discussion with him. I wasn’t interested in negotiating.

Mark

Withdrawing lease offer - Posted by Mark H

Posted by Mark H on August 18, 2003 at 15:23:11:

I own a condo that I have been renting out. I advertised the property specifying a one year lease was required.

I had two seperate applications, and both seemed to be equally qualified. One couple had better credit (albeit with limited history) but were working as consultants with no guarantees of continued employment. The other couple had longer tenancies and stable job histories. For lack of any other way to choose, I figured on taking the ones with the higher FICO scores.

When I phoned the couple I had decided on I spoke to the guy. I told him it wasn’t an easy decision, but that the place was theirs if they wanted it. Then he blind-sided me. He explained that they were going to take an extended trip next summer, and asked if they would be able to sub-let. I said- no way would I allow that. He then asked if we could shorten the lease term. He also mentioned that he may be going back to graduate school next fall.

None of this had been bought up earlier. I told him that I was not necessarily withdrawing the offer, but that it did change everything and I needed to think about it over the weekend.

I had a decision to make, and I thought about it very hard. When I finally reached that decision late Sunday it was to rent it to the other couple. My primary aim is to find a stable long-term tenant. I believe I made the right choice.

This morning, on my way to work, he called me. I told him what I had decided to do. It got pretty ugly after that, with him accusing me of lying to him, and telling me that this wasn’t the end of it and that he would be suing me! He said that when I told him I needed to think about it he thought that meant I was only going to come up with a compromise plan to work out the lease issues. I tried to explain to him that I was not interested in modifying the terms, and that I had tried to make a decision that I believed would be best for me.

Someone was going to be disappointed. Certainly once he started accusing me of lying and making inferences about what kind of a person I am I don’t know if he expects me to change my mind and rent to him instead.

Should I be concerned? I collected refundable deposits from both parties, although I never deposited them. No leases were signed, and I don’t believe I did anything wrong. In the same phone call where I offered the premises to this guy, he surprised me with pertinent details that would have affected my initial decision, and I advised him that it changed everything and I needed to think about it.

Now I feel like a criminal!

Re: You what? - Posted by Ed Copp

Posted by Ed Copp on August 19, 2003 at 20:33:54:

You feel like a criminal.

There was no contract, only some negotation that became intimidation on the part of the suspected tenant.

When they start changing the rules, or when they issue threats, DUMP THEM LIKE THE GARBAGE THAT THEY ARE (or will become). Ask yourself who is in charge here? If the answer is not you, then you failed the test. Some landlords make the deposit non-refundable because of the credit check costs. In this case your deposit is refundable, he is very lucky that he will get his deposit back.