RPA Tenant Rights Blog » Verbal Agreement

Oral Lease Agreement

Teena — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 10:18:12 +0000

I have been having a lot of problems with my landlord the past month. I have an oral lease with my landlord for a term of 1 year. She recently decided to move some family in with her and wants us out so she can move them in. We have only lived here for 4 months and she tried to take us to court for non-payment of rent. She lost her case as we were able to prove we had paid in full to date. Since then things have been a nightmare. The landlord lives in the mobile home in front of us and shares a main driveway with us. Her personal driveway is now so over crowded with vehicles she can’t get out so they have started using our front yard to cut through to get out to the main drive. They have repeatedly driven over my childrens toys doing this. We recently lined the edge of the property line with cinder blocks to prevent them from cutting through. She called the police and said we “stole” the cinder blocks out of her yard. They were taken from the woods behind our house when we first moved in to build a burn pit with her knowledge and it had never been an issue before now. Since it was our word against hers the police told her to come get the cinder blocks. We asked the officer what we could do to prevent her from cutting through our yard. He told us nothing as we only rent the mobile home not the lot, she can come on the property anytime she wants and do whatever she wants and that we cannot prevent her access to cutting through our yard. Is this really legal? I don’t understand how we can only rent the mobile and not the lot especially since we are responsible for all yard maintenance.

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Landlord promises

T. LeFever — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 01:54:01 +0000

My fiance’ and I visited {Removed} Apartments back in March of this year in search of housing for my upcoming job transfer to Virginia Beach. We were very excited to find the apartment community not only for its convenient proximity to my work but also the seeming quality of the the community. In March we originally set out to Virginia Beach in search of a home to buy versus renting. We liked {Removed} even though the rent was relatively high and comparable to a mortgage payment. We believed in what we were told by the community staff, that it was a great place to live, well maintained, and “{Removed} & {Removed} proudly offers the best in rental living” . As far as we have seen, “the best in rental living” is not the case.  I almost feel that the one bedroom apartment that I rented back in college for $320 a month outmatches our current residence. Since we signed our lease on the first of April we have had nothing other than headaches. The landlord made several verbal promises to us before renting. Shouldn’t what the landlord promises be valid and enforceable?

First Day: Informed by Mgmt. that rent would be reduced due to carpeting not being replaced as originally expected because it was in great condition. Completed walk through checklist with maintenance staff informing him of urine stains from previous tenant pet on carpet (I guess that that is acceptable here) Thanks for the reduced rate, we really find it enjoyable to sit on the floor.  Walk-through, informed maintenance staff of the mismatched paint on the walls due to mediocre patching (not fixed).

First week: Cable and Internet supposed to be installed and working…..didn’t have either working properly until the end of the second week.

First Week: Washer installed incorrectly without drain line causing flooding of foyer and bedroom adjacent to laundry closet……. had to deal with de-humidifier for 1 week…. stains in carpet (informed maint. but not fixed).

Second Week: Called leasing office about a multitude of flying termites found in the unit, thanks for sending a maintenance guy over with a can of Raid! Most would expect an exterminator (great standards!).

Third Week: “High speed” (haha) internet finally removed, this was per the advice of your own staff, “Get Verizon, ours sucks”, no joke!

Fourth Week: Pipe breaks in unit above once again flooding our unit, raining water from light fixtures, sprinkler heads, and down walls (another couple days of dehumidifiers and wet carpet). Do I smell mold? On top of the “floods” our water heater ignited and was throwing flames to the point that my fiance’ was late to work because she was manning the fire extinguisher. Bad timing?  Would have worked out great if the fire happened before the flood.

A couple questions?: Should we invest in renters insurance? (Hopefully is not blacklisted with the insurance agencies). We have had floods, fire, insects….. should we expect famine and frogs falling from the sky amongst others? Is {Removed}/ Occidental going to stand up to their motto?  or…. Should I contact the Attorney General?  … the RPA? http://www.rentalprotectionagency.com/ .  OR is {Removed} going to fix these issues? Best yet…. not one member of the Management staff from {Removed} Apartments has contacted us just to see if anything was corrected, fixed, or even offered an apology. Evidently management was not aware of anything that has happened in this apartment (according to Andrew). I give kudos to your Management staff…. way to be on the ball!

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Verbal termination of lease agreement

Phil — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:53:09 +0000

My landlord and I agreed verbally to an early termination of our lease. We were to recieve our full deposit back. We paid a pet deposit of 1300 and one months rent equally 1300 for a total of 2600.00. I called my lanlord after we had not recieved our deposit 40 days after we had returned the keys. I was told his business partner (who is not listed on the lease) refused to sign off on the refund of the deposit. The business partner handles the finacial end of things. I was upset, because we had a verbal agreement and made our decisons based upon that agreement. I have called the landlord serval times and I am getting the run around. I need this money asap! I do not know what else to do? Legal, or what?

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month to month agreement

andrew conn — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 08:47:15 +0000

My lease was expiring and my content was moving out at end of lease. I went to property managemnet and told them the circumstances and asked to continue a month to month agreement for a couple of months at the same rental figure. They agreed until just a few days before the end of lease and are now backing out asking for extra rentqal money for the month to month. With 2 days left in the month, I don’t know how to get this corrected in time. This is really messing me up since I made no plans to move and place my furniture. I cant pay the extra and dont like being booted with no notice. I cant just stop working to move and they have given me 2-4 days notice. Why wouldn’t their verbal agreement be honored? Isn’t there anything that could be done to rectify this problem?

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