Lease cancelled during attorney review

[Elissa Hedlund]

I had my first tenant sign a lease that included an attorney review period.  The tenant's attorney waited 5 business days to contact me, and sent me unreasonable requests that I could not agree to, so the tenant is backing out of the lease.  

How long do I have to return the first month's rent and security deposit?  The lease only says the funds have to be returned, not when.  48 hours? 5 business days? 30 days?

So frustrated they wasted my time.  I will not be using an attorney review period again.  

[Julie Hartman]

@Elissa Hedlund Your lease should include what the return time is for the deposit funds. I don't know what state you are in but it will have a guideline in writing someplace, (landlord tenant laws), for this type of issue. It is typically 30 days maximum, unless otherwise stated in the lease. Having written policies in place for this can avoid confusion in the future.  However, given they aren't signing the lease and have an attorney to help them, I would return their funds quickly and move on.