Return of "last months rent"

I have been renting a room in my home for the past 2 months. Unexpectedly my renter told me he would be leaving at the end on the month. He told me this on Jan 22, giving me 9 days notice.
We have no rental contract. The only thing that was signed by both of us was a receipt for first and last months rent. No deposit was collected.
Since he already paid the rent for January at the beginning of January he feels that I should return the "last months rent" that he paid when he moved in.
What legal standing do I have not to return this money.

I was thinking of telling him that I would prorate it if I found a new roommate to move in before the end of January.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Greg

 

Because you both have no contract then it seems that the right thing to do is to prorate it out and give him the dollars for the nine days that he won't be living there. Its the right thing to do on your part, especially if he was a good tenant and leaves the place in good order.

 

So, how did you solve the situation?

 

Since you have no rental contract it would be best to just come to an agreement that will satisfy you both, but I would recommend getting the agreement in writing. If you were to tell him that you would not be prorating the rent, the worst that could happen is that he could take you to small claims court and the judge would decide what the outcome will be.

 

The absence of a contract does make it a difficult one. As suggested by Rosyrain, coming to an agreement with your tenant and ensuring that the agreement is in writing and signed is the way to go. Hopefully you will have a contract in place with your new tenant. There are some handy templates that you can download from the Web.

 

You could be mean and just tell them that there's no contract so you're not obligated to do anything, but I believe the best thing would be to talk it out with him and come to a settlement that is good for you both. That way there's no risk of it going to court and costing you both more, nor of him complaining about you to anyone that will listen, which would be problematic if you're going to continue renting.

 

I would suggest trying to reach a mutual agreement, that satisfies the both of you.

 

You don't have a contract. You should always have a contract. Since you don't have a contract understand that the best thing to do would be to talk to him about it and come to an agreement that you are both satisfied with and next time have an actual contract.

 

I agree that this is exactly why you should always have a contract in place. Even if you don't think that a situation will get nasty, chances are good that it will. It's best to be proactive just in case.

 

There is an Agreement deed on rent, just do a mutual agreement on rent's deed and you will not find problems any more