Normally whenever tenants are about to sign an agreement with the landlords, you allow it to be signed with the assumption that all the clauses from the contract are well known to all the parties. Sometimes, however, tenants might not be aware of what they are signing and sometimes they might simply not be interested in the content of the contract as they might believe it is just a common procedure thing that they don’t need to pay much attention to. Well this is where they are gravely mistaken.
So how to create a public awareness of the importance of what people sign? We decided to do it by sharing our experience with a tenant who did not understand or not want to understand what they signed.
Roomz.asia scenario
Recently we had a tenant who rented a room for 6 months with all the conditions stated in the contract which that person signed. Shortly after (less than two months after to be exact) that same tenant decided to leave the room without informing the landlord and at the same time she demanded her deposit money back. When such scenario happens Roomz.asia has every legal right to forfeit the tenant’s deposit as the agreement has not been respected, and that money would be used as a compensation to Roomz.asia for the months that the room would be empty because the tenant decided to leave too early and without prior notice.
Of course the tenant didn’t get the money back despite the fact that she persisted on it. This scenario that we experienced made us wonder if tenants are even aware of what kind of contracts they are signing and in case they do know what they are signing, why do they think they are above the law to have the right to demand for things that go against the signed contract agreement.
The clauses within the contract clearly state that the landlord has the right to keep the deposit money in case tenants move out of the apartment prior to the date stated in the contract. This clause is a standard one and it is made to protect landlords from exactly such kind of scenarios, otherwise landlords would be in a very bad and insecure position where all of their tenants could leave the rental whenever they want without any prior notice. This would leave the landlords without their rental income that was legally accounted for untill the end of the contract.
Read and understand what you are signing before you sign it.
According to law of basically any country in the world, once a party gives their signature to the agreement it is considered read, understood and agreed upon. Any break of the agreement is considered against the law and is punishable by law. FindLaw website says:
Whichever form it takes, the key importance of the signature is proof that an offer has been considered and accepted.
So please if you are a tenant make sure you go through the contract before you sign anything. This way you will save your and landlords time, money and energy becuase it is in nobody’s interest to have inconvenient issues such as these.
