New Landlord Tenant Troubles

[Jon Simmons]

Hello,

I'm new to BP, just about to rent my first property and I already have an interesting situation. I had a young couple apply for my condo, they both have excellent credit and their combined incomes qualify just fine (around 4x rent). They both signed the lease and left their security deposit.

However, I just had one of them call me and say the co-tenant did not want to be a part. They (singular) were wondering about changing the lease, and while I don't think it would be a huge issue, but their (singular) income doesn't qualify. They (singular) are interested in having their father co-sign.

I am concerned about the reliability of a tenant that would sign a lease, give me the security deposit, and then back out. Obviously they (singular) didn't need to tell me about this either, they could just have gotten the keys and not let me know at all. They wanted me to keep this call and the application secret from the co-tenant, basically only follow up with them for now. How normal is a situation like this? I'm not sure if this being my first property and first tenant is clouding my perceptions. Thanks.

-New Guy