Please Help!!!!

I posted this already but haven't gotten any responses yet. Someone please help me.

I am renting a 2-bedroom condo in Arizona on a lease with private owners. I am the only one on the lease and the landlords are 100% aware that my husband has a felony conviction on his record that dates back to 10 years ago. This being said, He is a prohibited possessor, he cannot have any firearms in the house. We are trying to rent out the 2nd bedroom in order to help with the cost of rent, which the landlords know about and are fine with. We recently had a man agree to rent the room. I notified him that there was a non-refundable deposit, and the cost of the rent was negotiated, and it was understood that there would be a 2-week notice if he was going to move out. On the night he moved in, the roommate wrote me a check in the amount of parital rent + deposit. My husband asked if the roommate owned any firearms, to which the roommate responded he did. My husband told the roommate he needed to make sure it was kept out of the house and it needed to be inaccessible to my husband. The next day, I took the check to the bank. I received a call later that the roommate had moved all of his belongings out and wanted his check back in exchange for the keys. I told him he would not get the amount of his deposit back as it was non-refundable. A few days later, the check cleared and I made a couple of purchases. A few days after that, the check was returned and I was charged $77 in fees for my purchases and the returned check. Here are my three questions:

1. Roommate said that it was illegal for me to not have notified him of my husband's criminal background and the inability to bring his weapon. However, as soon as we realized he did indeed have a weapon, we told him what needed to be done about it. Was it illegal of me to have not notified him upfront?

2. Is it likely that I would win a case against him in small claims court to get the deposit back as well as the fees associated with the purchases as a result of the returned check?

3. We did not have a "signed lease agreement", however, I have emails between the roommate and I showing the terms agreed to (ie. 2 week notice, cost of rent, cost of deposit). Is this valid in court as a signed agreement? Also I have a copy of the returned check, is this also considered a signed agreement?

Any and all help on this will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

You did not tell him before renting to him that no firearms were allowed in the house. Since firearms are legal to possess, the renter was within his rights to have such a firearm and to believe he could have it. After he signed the lease and moved in, then you changed the terms to state that firearms are prohibited.

1) You should have disclosed any restrictions to the tenant befoee he paid and moved in. After the fact, you must give him approperiate notice (usually 30 days) to change terms. Since you could not aford to give him this notice and failed to disclose this before, he was within his right to terminate.

2) No it is not likely. If no mention of any restriction is made, the tenant is free to presume that no such restriction exists. For instance, if you don't say, "No Pets", the tenant is free to believe he is allowed and get a pet. You didn't say he couldn't. When making an agrement, the obligation for these types of restirction falls solely on the initiator of the contract (you).

3) E-mails are not a legal signed contract. Even if they were, you must abide by the laws of a signed contract too. If you failed to mention any restrictions, you cannot charge the terms under a lease, and must give appropriate notice (again, usually 30 days written notice) to change the tems under a month to month agreement of a tenancy at will agreement. If the emails agreed to a term lease (and were considered a contract), you were not allowed to insert any restriction after the agreement until it expired. If a month to month, you couldn't impose this restriction until the next month at least. You insisted that the restriction be enforced immediately. You can't do that. He was right to terminate the contract. You are not due any reimbursement. You did not operate under the law.

Another item, anything called a deposit cannot be non-refundable. The term "deposit" implies that the money is refundable. The security deposit, by law, is refundable and may only be held by the LL to ensure the performamnce of the tenant under the lease terms and to guard against damages.

In future, if you wish to re-rent the room, disclose an restrictions, in writing, upfront before lease signing. Get all paperwork signed and certified funds prior to giving keys. And do not refer to a deposit as non-refundable. If you wish an amount to be non-refundable, you must call it a fee. (And check your state law on these types of fees - they are illegal in some states.)