I have a rental question: I moved into a rental property in June. I paid a deposit(1500) and pro-rated rent for the month of June(750 since I moved in on the 15th). In July, I asked the landlord if we could switch the rent due date to the 15th (since it was my pay date) and he was fine with this. On July 15th, I paid my full months rent. And the landlord told me I still owed him $750. He said it was because the pro-rated rent should have been 1500 since I moved the date to the 15th. However, I still paid the full months rent of in July, and in August (just on the 15th and not the 1st). My question: Is this right? Do I owe an additional 750 when the rent was paid in full on the new due date? Advice anyone?

Too complicated for me to follow; but you probably have a Maryland Tenants Union or some sort of Non-Profit Organization set up just for the purpose of: looking into issues like this; examining the details; and, either telling you that the LandLord is correct, OR interceding on your behalf and explaining the Laws and Regulations in Maryland to him/her WITHOUT ruffling too many feathers . . . . after all, you want to have a pleasant working relationship for the rest of the time you occupy the property.

The easiest thing to do is to ask your landlord for a rent ledger and receipts for your payments, so you know how what rent has been paid and needs to be paid.

What happened here? Did you get your situation straightened out?

Yes, pologuy, you do owe $750. I just went through this with a tenant because of a job change.

He was paying his rent on the 1st. He asked to change to the 15th. I said okay.

So the next month, I sat there waiting for the 15th to roll around with no cash in my hands from him to cover those first 2 weeks. Remember: rent is always paid in advance. I tell tenants, "You don't pay, you can't stay." And I mean pay for today and the coming 29 days.

When he paid on the 15th, it was for the coming 30 days. That meant, he was 2 weeks behind. I explained that to him -- he used to pay from the 1st to the 30th and rent was due again on the 1st.

When he started paying on the 15th, there were 2 weeks that you could either say 1) he hadn't paid for, or 2) he was paying his rent 2 weeks late, and forever after would be. That made sense to him and with his next paycheck, he paid me that 2 weeks rent that fell into the gap between the old lease (1st - 30th) and the new lease (15th - 14th).

Does that make sense now?

Clear as mud !

Ditto what I said on the 18th and swap out Maryland and put in Oklahoma.

(Just kidding!)

Hahaha, Vermont!

If I understand correctly, you paid $750 on June 15 and then $1500 on July 15. If that is the case then:

Yes, this is right and you owe the landlord $750. Let’s keep in mind that rent is always prepaid. The rent you paid on July 15 was for July 15 – August 14, the rent you paid on Aug 15 was for Aug 15 – Sept 14, etc. For June 15 – July 14 you should have paid $1500 but you only paid $750. It’s natural to get confused with this kind of stuff. But, you are lucky to have a landlord that was flexible with your due date.

When you first paid, you should have received a Move In Ledger sheet and/or Deposit Receipt stating how much you paid for your deposit, first's month's rent (and subsequent due dates) and if you switched due dates, you should have had the paperwork revised.

Just ask him for an updated ledger and know as several people have stated here that you have to pay for the entire month in advance.

Rent is always paid in advance (where mortgages are paid in arrears). For example, rent paid on the 1st of a month covers your rent obligation from the 1st through the 30th/31st of that same month. Therefore, when you paid a half-month's rent on June 15th...this rent covered from June 15th - 30th. Then when you paid 1 full month's rent on July 15th...this covered rent from July 15th - Aug 14th. Consequently, your landlord is correct. In the example above, there was no rent paid for July 1st - July 14th. Hope this helps. Good luck!