Lease Terms to ensure payment of the last month rent

[Pavan Krishna]

Hello Fellow BP-ers,

Recently my tenants gave me notice to vacate and told me that they will NOT be paying the last month rent and asked me to take it from the deposit.  I could not convince them otherwise.  Now they have vacated and there are lots of things I need to fix.  All of those costs need to come out of my pocket.

I can use your collective wisdom on how to structure the terms for the tenants going forward.  One idea I heard was to ask for Last Month Rent also along with First Month Rent + Deposit at the time of signing the lease.  Has anyone tried it?  Potentially the tenants can say that they are NOT going to pay the rent for last two months nullifying the benefit of collecting the last month rent in advance, right?

Are there any other suggestions or ideas that you have tried?  I'm open to any suggestions.

Thanks in advance for your time.