| Date: Thursday, July 31st, 2008 10:07 pm | Category: Legal Questions, Renter Q & A | ||
| Potential Landlord | Greg Kolb | OR | New Renter |
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1. On Monday the 21st of July, myself and four Friends Applied for a rental approval. We Gave the Landlord $100.00 total, which covered all fees. 2. Recieved A phone call on the 22nd of July, stating that we were approved. 3. Visited the rental property in question on the 25th of July. We were satisfied with the accomodations, and proceeded to give the landlord 4 seperate money orders totaling #1,335.00. At that time the Landlord then Changed the terms of the original lease agreement, Saying that he would email a New copy to each of us individually, and we left the property. 4. On the 26th of July, he emailed the revised copy of the lease agreement to each of us. There were no details on time duration, Late payment penalties, damage deposit, cleaning deposits, etc. 5. On the 28th of July, The landlord was called and was informed that we were no longer renting the property, due to the lack of the legitimate lease specifics. 6. On the 30th of July, the landlord sent out individual emails, stating “ Best case scenario, we have been damaged 20 days rent or $1120. If this amount is divided by five, each of you would recieve your original deposit minus $224.00 7. I Find it incredible that an individual would hold me open to any type of agreement that 1) has not been signed, nor 2) states the terms of the lease agreement, and then penalize us to the tune of this money. Is there a simple solution here? That is, while i do not wish to pursue a legal remedy, my parents will. I am trying to find an organization that will give both us, and the landlord a way to go. Please advise |
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Archive for July, 2008
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| Date: Thursday, July 31st, 2008 12:16 pm | Category: Legal Questions | ||
| Getting screwed on deposit | Tenant | ||
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Getting ready to move out of a place I was in for two years and got this from my landlord – I am here with my tile guy and he made me aware several tiles have been cracked and it is not because of the grout coming up. There for I am going to have to pay to have it replaced. I will get an invoice and have to deduct it from the deposit. I do not think it will be more then a $150. It appears something was dropped on the tile causing several pieces of tile to crack. I know the tiles were not like this when you moved in so I will have to have it replaced. Sorry about the unfortunate news but like I said, these tiles were not damaged before you and XX had moved in.
Here is my problem – he specifically emailed us three times over the course of the past year telling us he was going to have the grout in those tiles fixed (I have copies of the e-mails). I feel like I am just getting hosed on my deposit, but because it is only $150, it would cost me more to file a small claims suit than the money I am losing. I am just frustrated that I am getting screwed. What do I do? |
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| Date: Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 6:07 am | Category: General Topics | ||
| Rent Compensation | Alyssa | PA | Renter |
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It was discovered on 7/18 that we had a major gas leak in my apartment. The gas company immediately came to shut off the gas, and repairs were unable to be made until the following week. After the repairs were made, the gas company came back out to turn on the gas, but then found another pipe with 4 more leaks. The plumber is scheduled for this Wednesday to come repair these new leaks, and we still do not know when the gas company will be able to make it out again to finally turn the gas back on. We told our landlord that we thought the appropriate thing to do was to deduct each day we have gone without gas from our rent, however, he is unwilling to allow this. Shouldn’t we be getting some kind of rent deduction for being forced to live in these conditions? We do not have hot water so no hot showers, no laundry, and without the gas we cannot cook most things. What is the proper way to address this issue? |
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| Date: Monday, July 28th, 2008 10:42 am | Category: Frustrated Renter, Renter Q & A | ||
| How to break a lease? | nashtn | TN | renter |
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How can i break lease on a rental house in Nashville TN. Told landlord that i will be moving out end of july. The lease does not expire till end september. The last months rent had been paid in advance as security deposit. Offered to help find new tennents, but lanlord wanted to find tennent himsellf, landlord lives out of state and has not found anyone yet. He now wants Augusts rent too. |
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| Date: Friday, July 25th, 2008 5:07 pm | Category: Frustrated Renter, Legal Questions, Renter Q & A | ||
| Rent deposit dispute | Kenneth | AR | Former Renter |
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I recently moved out of an apartment located in Arkansas. I signed my initial lease a little over five years ago. I agreed to pay a higher rent in order to have a lease that was month to month. My deposit was $350 when I signed my lease. After about three years my landlord lost the apartments to the bank. My new landlord purchased the apartments from the bank and agreed to let me continue my month to month lease since I had been such a good renter. Everything went fine until I moved out a couple of weeks ago. I cleaned the apartment and the landlord even said that he wished all renters would leave a place looking as good as mine did. He couldn’t believe it was in such good condition after five years. Well, that was fine up until the point I requested my deposit back. My current landlord said that I had paid my deposit to the previous landlord and that I would have to get it back from him. My previous landlord stated that he no longer owns the apartments and doesn’t have any intention of giving me my $350. Does anyone know who is responsible for the deposit? I would like to get this money back if it is possible. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. |
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| Date: Friday, July 25th, 2008 1:53 pm | Category: Frustrated Renter, General Topics, Landlord Problems, Legal Questions, Renter Q & A | ||
| Increase in rent? | One Hurtin' Hokie | VA | College student, renting an off campus apartment |
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I’m a student at Virginia Tech, and this year I’m living in the same apartment complex as I was last year. Because of roommate changes, I will now be living with a different number of roommates, and therefore we had to sign a new lease for a new apartment. In December we signed a lease saying that we would be paying X amount of rent per month for a 2 bedroom, unrennovated apartment. In April we signed the lease again, but this time for the specific apartment unit. Now, 16 days before the lease is scheduled to start, the landlord has called us up to tell us that they made a mistake, forgot to put us into the system, and gave our apartment away to someone else. They told us that they are willing to move us to the last 2 bedroom apartment they have available, but because the new one is a rennovated apartment, they will be an increase in rent; an extra $18 a month. This is despite the fact that the new apartment is, in our opinion, in a much worse location than the original apartment we were supposed to have. Now, I understand that logistically, there are people in what was going to be our apartment, and the landlord really can’t do anything about it now. So my roommate and I are willing to move to the new apartment, but we don’t want to pay extra for an apartment that we feel is in a worse location than the original one. We could really care less about the rennovations. The lease they signed specifies the amount we have to pay. We talked to them about this, and they told us that while the lease doesn’t give them permission to raise the rent, it doesn’t forbid them from raising the rent either. My question is, What can I do about this? According to Virginia housing law, “No unilateral change in the terms of a rental agreement by a landlord or tenant shall be valid unless (i) notice of the change is given in accordance with the terms of the rental agreement or as otherwise required by law and (ii) both parties consent in writing to the change.” But the housing law also says that “. If the tenant does not sign and deliver a written rental agreement signed and delivered to him by the landlord, acceptance of possession or payment of rent without reservation gives the rental agreement the same effect as if it had been signed and delivered by the tenant.” So, as I see it, the landlord is illegally changing the lease – because we have no time to find a new place to live, our plan is to pay the rent, but try and get a lawyer involved and make the landlord company abide by the contract they signed. But by moving in to the new apartment, are we giving our legal agreement to abide by a new lease (for more rent) even if we don’t sign anything? Can we deliver our rent to the landlord along with a letter stating that despite the fact that we are paying all of what they are charging us, we still believe that they are in the wrong and we will be investigating legal action against them? Would that be enough to say that we didn’t give our legal agreement to a new, unsigned lease? |
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| Date: Thursday, July 24th, 2008 11:00 am | Category: Frustrated Renter, Landlord Problems | ||
| Tenant help! | Becca | MI | renter |
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We are a family of five living in Jackson, MI. We rent a horribly kept house and have constant problems getting repairs done by our landlord. There is no association in our area to help resolve conflict between our two parties. Can anyone refer us to an agency that provides tenant help that may be able to give us some advice on forcing our landlord to do reapirs and do them correctly the first time? |
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| Date: Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 3:38 pm | Category: Frustrated Renter | ||
| Maximum tenants | Greg | CA | Renter of second home for work |
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Since signing the lease the landlord has starting harressing us because they claim to many people are living in the house. We use the house Monday through Thursday nights and travel home on weekends. Two of us are on the lease. I stay all 4 nights and my boss 2 nights a week. About 6 times per month we have an additional employee stay the night. In addition members of my family have been using the house on weekends (the house is in Napa, CA nice tourist destination). The landlord is claiming they can’t use the house in this way. My feeling is the house is leased to us and we have the right to have people visit us. Is there a way for the landlord to place a number of maximum tenants or guest for his property? Any opinions? |
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| Date: Saturday, July 19th, 2008 7:42 pm | Category: Frustrated Renter | ||
| Apartment condo… | Silvia | FL | Renter |
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Hi, On June, I was told by my tenant to move out because he could not afford to pay the apartment anymore. At the end of June, the new administration put a sign saying that only register residents and owners will have access to the condo. I went to talk to the office before July 8th, the date they say we were not gonna be able to enter. And they told me that I was going to have problems since the owner was not paying the maintenance fee. I told them I was going to look for an apartment and the administrator gave me some brochures about other properties that the developer was renting, and told me that if I brought proof that I was moving, she was gonna solve my problems. I started looking for an apartment and found one, in the meantime, the problems started, they cancel my remote control to open the gate, and my husban’s and we needed to enter thourght the guest gate, which was usually with huge lines, considering we are not the only ones, on this situation. I tried to follow their “new” rules everytime, they change daily, now I am not allow to park on the owners parking space. I need to find a guest parking which is very difficult. Last week I called and talk to Ms. Rivera and explained that I was trying to move on August 1st. and I did not want to have problems. She told me that I should bring a letter to the office. I ask her, there is something else I should do? She told me no! When I went to the office, on Tuesday July 15th, they did not want to receive my letter, or sign the copy, and they told me that the only thing I should do is a check for $250 to move out, non refundable, I explained to them that I did not have anything in my papers or contract about that, and that I even called to make sure I was not going to have problems, they denied my call, and Ms. Riviera finished on telling Sara Mandulay, the administrator, that she did tell me to bring the letter. Anyway. I am really stress, the moving thing is always stresfull, and if you add, everything that we are living in this condominium, thigns like, even thought I tried to park in the guest parking with the guest sign, they still put a paper saying that they will town my car away. When I went to ask why, they told me that maybe it was a mistake. I have tried to find out, if what I think is right, that they are not doing the things properly, and actually every time I ask for the things in writting they say they cannot do that. I was trying to just move and forget the whole thing, but I really believe that I should do something. My questions will be: 1 Do they have the right to do what they are doing about the parking? ( remote control not working, not leaving me park in the dessignated parking space?) 2 I still do not have anything in writing about the move out fee, my contract does not have it, there is a condo owner that says that she saw it on the condominium papers, I ask her if I could see it, but she is moving and she does not have it) Can they charge for something that they did not let me know when they approved my aplication, they already charge me a move -in fee, and it is at the end of one of the application papers, but it is say MOVE IN. And course we already paid it. ($250) I have talk to the owner, and also I have tried to get goverment organizations to be involve, since I know I am not the only one suffering this not fair treatment. But the one that answer to me, told me that I should go to a lawyer. Thay I am right, but there is nothing they can do. The Ombusman of Condominium, told me that if I was the owner they could do something. The owner told me unfortunatly he cannot do anything, that this people is not trying to solve problems. I really do not know what to do. I fell is unfair, but in the other hand, I want to move, I already contract the moving company, and I just want to go. I am sick of this people. Could yo tell me what do you suggest? Thank you in advance. Silvia |
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| Date: Thursday, July 17th, 2008 7:55 am | Category: Landlord Problems | ||
| section 8 house | Steven S. | KY | Current Renter |
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I have been getting section 8 since I became disabled in 1999. I have lived at this particular complex for 5 yrs and never been late or not paid rent. After this corp. bought the property in Jan.’08 I have had nothing but problems with them. I received a notice to vacate in June for some money that was abated by sect. 8 for failing to fix leaking windows(previous owner). I challenged this and it went away without any notification to me about the issue. Seeing the practice of this owner, I decided to move. So, in accordance to sect. 8 rules I submitted a 30 day notice to the landlord on June 20. This was to be signed by the landlord and submitted back to sect. 8 by the first of July to begin the process. To date my repeated attempts to get this form back has been futile at best. Now I am not able to move into my new apt. in Aug. and am in danger of losing my deposit on that unit. The lady has already held it for a month for me.My caseworker seems to be getting the same runaround and seems not to be very concerned about it. Is this not interfering with my right to Fair Housing Practices? What can I do now and can I recover my deposit if lost? |
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