Overview
There are several instances where you might need to withhold a lease deposit to pay off outstanding lease charges. A tenant might move out with unpaid charges or incur new ones from damages or insufficient cleaning. Perhaps you collected a last month’s rent deposit and now need to use this to pay off the final rent charge.
When you withhold a lease deposit, this money applies as a credit to the tenant’s lease balance. If there are outstanding charges on the lease, the credit pays off those charges and the deposit becomes revenue. If there is no outstanding charge on the lease, the withheld deposit exists as an unapplied credit until you add a lease charge.
Note that you can also withhold deposits as part of the Ending a Lease wizard!
The Steps
If you are withholding a lease deposit to pay off move-out charges, it’s best to create the charge before withholding the deposit.
From the main menu, click Leases and then click Active Leases.
Find the lease you want to withhold a deposit for and click on it. You can either sort the list by the various columns and filters or use the Search leases search bar.
Click on the Deposits tab and then the Withhold Deposit button.
Enter the following information:
Description: enter an optional explanation for the withholding.
Amount to Withhold: enter the amount of the deposit to withhold. If there is more than one lease deposit, you can withhold from multiple deposits, or put $0.00 in the deposits you don't want to withhold.
Due Date: change the date for the withholding if needed.
Add note: add an optional note for your reference when reviewing the withholding later.
Add any relevant files and click Save.
Good work! You withheld a lease deposit to pay off outstanding charges, converting the deposit money from a liability on your balance sheet to income shown on your profit and loss report.