Not having a lease termination in writing is risky period. You now are faced with a here-say problem (your word against theirs) As far as the law goes, you are probably stuck. In this situation it wouldn’t make any sense to go to court over the lease termination fee, because your landlord would win. All they would need to do is show the courts the lease, and written termination requirement. (Its a sure paper trail showing that you breached the agreement)

Ethically you’re right, the manager should have reminded you of the written notice requirement. And because they didn’t AND because your husband had given them proper verbal notice; you still ought to consider filing a complaint. Most likely, your landlord will revers the charge after you file a formal landlord complaint… but even if they don’t– it will show up on their public record. So either way its win win. You’ll need to decide if you want to fork over $35 to file a formal complaint. I would think it would be worth it. That’s up to you. Realistically, its your only real option.

To file a landlord complaint you can click on the File Complaint link found on this page. (towards the tops)

Best of luck– enjoy your new place.

If a file a complaint, you think they’ll be scared of the blemish on their record? why will they be scared of an RPA complaint?

I’m not the one that posted the above; but I can provide some insight.

I don’t think a landlord would be “scared” of a Complaint, but they would probably take it serious due to negative repercussions that could happen. I don’t know of one person that would want a negative record of anything. So, the threat of a negative record could motivate some landlords to work out a fair solution, but its probably not the biggest factor to most landlords. There are other complaint factors that can influence how or why a landlord may resolve rent complaints.

1) It’s official/ Formal
2) Landlord can’t bully a mediator
3) Legal Paper Trail.

As a landlord I can say that if I had a complaint filed against me, I would do everything in my power to resolve it. I would hope that my tenants wouldn’t feel forced to go to that optoin.

The same thing happened to me, and I made note of everything that took place. I even had someone to go in with me to witness the issues that I was having everytime I went to speak with the landlords. They would always just say they’ll get to me. I was told that everything would be handled and given to me in a timely manner about what was owed and they wait to the last minute to give me this crazy charge. And that’s not even the bad part. Someone has already committed to renting my apartment, but they’re saying I have to pay a full month’s rent.