School residence gone bad!!

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I moved into a school dormitory in September 2009. Deciding after only 2 weeks that I did not want to live there anymore. Now I am being charged for the time I lived there (1 month $500), an extra months rent ($590), a $100 penalty for moving out, plus they are fore fitting my $500 dollar damage deposit! Is this fair?

The only document I signed was to one that I initialed allowing me to obtain my keys, I did not sign any lease agreement when moving in, and plus they allowed a minor to move in without a guardians consent. Is their any way out of this?

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Re: School residence gone bad!!

You should read the school's termination policy. It is probably either in materials supplied by the school when you signed up, posted in the rental management office, or it may be published online. Look for it. If you find it and it states that an early termination of $100 is required, you owe that.

The other money is probably because the school is located in a term state. Term states require that all notices to vacate/terminate be given at the beginning of the term (rental month) and that you must vacate at the end of the month (it has to coincide with the month). You left in mid month. Unless you gave notice to vacate on the day you moved in, the notice was considered to be given after those 2 weeks. But since that was in the middle of the rental month, your notice that you wanted to vacate did not take effect until the beginning of the next month. You owe rent for all of that month, plus rent for the next month to cover the notice period unless they re-rented during that time.

In other words, this would be the time line:
Sept. 1 -moved in.
Sept 15th -decided to move out. Gave notice and left.
Oct. 1 -30 day notice to vacate takes effect. Rent is required through notice period.
Oct. 31-Notice to vacate ends. This ends your obligation for rent.

Find out if your state was a term state. Look under LL_Tenant law statutes and look for a section on ending the tenancy. See what the wording is for giving the required amount of notice. If it says notice is to be given on or before the term, you owe them this amount. If it simply says tenant must give 30 days notice, with no other mention of when, you owe until only mid-October (30 days from mid-September to mid-October).

The other possibility is that they have a set policy (which should be posted somewhere or you received a copy) that they charge a 2 month + $100 termination fee.

Do some research and see what you come up with.

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Re: School residence gone bad!!

Thanks for all the great info, i'll definitely look into that. Any idea if I have any chance at getting my damage deposit back?

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Re: School residence gone bad!!

No one can be made to forfeit a deposit. You cannot be forced to give up your rights to it. It can be used for the costs above, if you owe them. They still have to do the itemized statement that is required to show any and all deductions from that deposit. The deduction could be for unpaid rent for the notice period, a deduction for the termination fee, or for any actual damages (of course). You should have received an itemized statement of deductions from this deposit within a certain time limit (this time limit varies by state or area, check the statute on deposits to see when it was to have been sent to you.) You should have received it by now if you moved out in September. If you gave a forwarding address, they were required to send one. If you don't have one, write a demand letter to the LL for the statement. You may be able to get your deposit back for their failure to send this statement, even if you owed money. The statement is required by law.