I feel badly for the OP. A house near us was rented by a guy and his young son. They paid two months rent and then quit paying until they were evicted eight months later. It turns out, according to the sheriff's office, this guy had done this before several times and will probably do it again and again. I think there should be somewhere that you can check up on people like that before renting to them. They sure know how to scam people!