Please help new homeowner with rental question

Closed Thread
Thread Tools
  #1  
Old 03-02-2015, 05:01 PM
Nacoma Nacoma is offline
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Maine
Posts: 15
Thanks: 0
Thanked 5 Times in 5 Posts
Default Please help new homeowner with rental question

I thought I'd throw this out there before considering legal consultation. My wife and I had rented a home for the months of October 2014 through April 2015. Paid in full for the six months including security deposit, cleaning fees and rent totaling approximately $15,000. Now, shortly after arriving we found a home, bought the home and close on it in early December 2014. Prior to closing we contacted the homeowners of the rental and ask if they minded if we tried to re-rent the property? We discussed the matter with them knowing that we had a signed contract stating if we canceled early our money was non-refundable. We agreed to pay whatever it cost to advertise to re-rent the property. They weren't happy but agreed to return to us any rental money they received for re-renting the property. We did all the work in hopes to get most of our money back. We paid to advertise a number of times in the paper and on thevillages4rent.com. We took the calls, answered the emails and successively re-rented their property for them. After receiving money from the new renters they only wanted to refund a portion of the money they'd received. They sent us a check stating that they deducted 9% for taxes and will not refund any of the security deposit because we canceled our rental early?? Whats the 9% tax? Why are you taxing me on money being returned? Aren't you supposed to collect tax from only the people that actually rented the property to for those months? And why not return our security deposit as agreed, we left it clean, undamaged and we re-rented the property for you? Everyone always seems so nice and considerate here, we're shocked to learn that someone from The Villages could be this nasty and inconsiderate toward others. Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully someone can advise us as to what we can do if anything at this point??
  #2  
Old 03-10-2015, 08:10 PM
CaliforniaGirl CaliforniaGirl is offline
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 222
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Default

Wow. "...we had a signed contract stating if we canceled early our money was non-refundable." Given that, you weren't entitled to ANY refund. But you got one anyway, less taxes and security deposit. Concerning taxes, none would have been owed if you had fulfilled your rental term. Taxes are only owed on rentals of 6 months or less. So your rental (Oct-Dec) had to be taxed, as did the next renter (Dec-Apr) as both terms were less than 6 months. Since you handled the arrangements for 2nd renter, did you include sales tax in the rental price? The homeowner owes the tax, whether or not he collects it from the renter(s). In my opinion, the homeowner is completely justified in withholding sales tax from your refund - and probably feels that withholding your security deposit will offset the nuisance of dealing with the sales tax issue since they wouldn't have had to do that if you had stayed for your contracted rental term. I don't think they're being "nasty and inconsiderate" at all.
Closed Thread

Thread Tools

You are viewing a new design of the TOTV site. Click here to revert to the old version.

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:09 PM.