United States
Generally in the United States, apartment leases are not transferable without the consent of the landlord. The primary exception is the right to rent a space in a mobile home park, which is frequently transferable, frequently rent-controlled, and frequently subject to French-style "key money" payments to the original tenant in the form of buying the current mobile home at an inflated price. The new tenant can then junk the existing, outdated trailer and replace it with a modern one while keeping the terms of the original lease for the land under it.
In the United States, it is illegal for landlords to require off-the-books key money. The terms of the written lease can be enforced in court. However, a cash bribe, styled as "key money," may be demanded in cities with strict rent controls. Because it is paid in cash, it can be very difficult to prove in court.
When renting commercial properties in which the premises already contains various trade-fixtures, equipment, electric, and plumbing (items typically left when a former tenant vacates), such items have a value above the typical rent for an empty "vanilla shell" premises. The landlord would charge the tenant key money in order for the tenant to have the right to use and take over all of the existing equipment.
It is also common to require key money in the form of a security deposit. It is common for a landlord to require the equivalent of one or two months rent as a security deposit to offset delinquent rent payments or damage to the property during occupancy. This deposit is held in escrow and is refunded when the tenant moves out, less any repair costs or unpaid rent. It is illegal but common for unscrupulous landlords to refuse to refund some or all of this deposit, instead keeping it for unneeded "cleaning" or "repairs."
Landlord-tenant laws in the United States typically specify that a landlord must provide a detailed accounting of all deductions from a security deposit on request and normally cannot charge for "normal wear and tear," such as replacing old carpets or painting walls that have not been painted for many years.
Read more about this topic: Key Money
Famous quotes related to united states:
“The real charm of the United States is that it is the only comic country ever heard of.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada are the horns, the head, the neck, the shins, and the hoof of the ox, and the United States are the ribs, the sirloin, the kidneys, and the rest of the body.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)
“Madam, I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody’s damn business.”
—Chester A. Arthur (1829–1886)
“Then the American flag was saluted. In general, in the United States people always salute the American flag.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody’s image. It was the land of the unexpected, of unbounded hope, of ideals, of quest for an unknown perfection. It is all the more unfitting that we should offer ourselves in images. And all the more fitting that the images which we make wittingly or unwittingly to sell America to the world should come back to haunt and curse us.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)