Rental problem/question please help! Need REAL advice!?

I am moving. My home is under contract & has been going fine. I went to the town I am moving to last week & found a apt. I didn't meet the landlord but a rep sent on their behalf. They requested the first & last months rent, gave me keys & had me sign a generic lease they ran out to Home Depot to buy. I actually had to fill the blank spaces in myself! I took over the apt the next day. In the meantime, the deal on my house fell through. It was 1 week. I found out I have to stay in my house. I called the landlord & explained the situation. They didn't really give me an answer on how they wanted to handle it, just said they'd get back to me. I told them I needed to cancel the lease (which I didn't get a copy of until it miraculously appeared in my e-mail about 30 minutes after we spoke even though I asked for it all week) & needed my money back because I can't afford both. Can anyone tell me what to do? Can they keep my 2 months rent? Can they charge me for anything? ADVICE PLEASE!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the responses. I don't know what state all of you are from but here there is not 14 days til binding. If something in the agreement and binder don't work out they can cancel and take their deposit back. Also, I didn't even get a copy of the original lease I filled in, but one typed into Microsoft Word and the last page with my signature scanned. Is this even legal?

Most leases will have a section in them that tells you what happens if you cancel a lease. I'm sorry to say but if you signed it and the lease says you have to pay a cancellation fee then you are out of luck. Of course if the landord is able to find someone else to rent it out to real soon, then the right thing for them to do is to give you the money back, but again they don't have to.

You should have waited to make sure your contract with the other people went through. You could have probably paid these other people a non-refundable deposit to HOLD the place for you with the understanding you were waiting on the contract to finalize.

Well you have the keys so you took possession therefore the first months rent is used sounds like you need to give a 30 day notice so you wont be held liable for the entire last months rent.

Yes they can keep all the $$$$ because you entered into a legal contract .
You are expected Not to enter into contracts if your situation is iffy ( before the papers on your current place were finalized ) .
Since you signed the document , you are responsible and technically liable for the Lease ( 6 months ? a year ? )
Never enter into contracts until business is Complete on your other end .
Perhaps you can rent your current place out .

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Kidded, I am a real estate broker in Florida and STRONGLY advise you speak with a real estate attorney who practices in the state that you signed the lease. You might get a lot of opinons from this site, but I would only trust the advice of an attorney on this one. Good luck.

The specifics depend on contract law in the state you are in, so you should consult a lawyer. The answer is that yes, they can charge you something for the application process, any credit check, the cost of putting a new ad in the paper, and other expenses related to you pulling out of the deal. Technically they could probably try to charge you the first and last month's rent, but they are required by law to make every effort to re-rent the apartment, and once they do they can't charge you rent.

I strongly recommend sending a certified letter in which you state your case, and also consulting a lawyer to find out exactly where you stand.

In the future, do not sign a generic lease that you have to fill out, and get a copy of whatever you sign on the spot, even if it means both of you have to go to a copy shop.

It depends what you signed in the tenancy agreement . IYou should be able to see, what they have stated in the conditions part of the agreement . Because your braking your agreement , they may be aloud to keep one month rent .You need to go to a real estate office, and talk to a property manager, and take a copy of the agreement, and explain to them what has happened. Or even better take the agreement to a lawyer .

You should not have done anything till your home had gone past the 14 days , where by the contract is fully binding and unconditional.