Need help with a rental agreement....

[roscoe]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

Well, I don't see that you have made the case for "unsafe" or unhealthy".
The fact that the breakers were tripping, prove that they were working, safe, and preventing a fire.
The fact that an electrician checked it out is evidence in her defense that she was on top of the situation, and called in an expert to back her up.

Now you say she threatened you?

You are gonna have an uphill battle in court, good luck.
Most often, tenants don't win unless they have followed the letter of the law, document all incidences, and initiate the suit.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

1) You are on the hook for a one year lease.
2) If the electrical needs to be fixed, you notify the landlord and they fix the problem. If they don't fix the problem within a certain amount of time after being notified, then that might affect item #1.

 

[642mx]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

now that is just downright mean and uncalled for. What have you got against mom and dad?

lol

 

[choochooharley]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

If you can get off the hook for the rest of the lease and forget about the 2 weeks pro rate your lucky. As it was stated many time on here before your on the hook for the entire lease unless there is a clause in there stating that you give 30 days or whatever time lenght notice and usually pay some sort of fee. I dont want to speculate but when you asked for the pro rated and she said no did you get nasty with her or did you stay calm. If you did not stay calm she might of thought well i was going to let the rest of the lease slide but since he got so crappy with me i am going to get what i am entitled to

 

[skargo]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

1) You are on the hook for a one year lease.
2) If the electrical needs to be fixed, you notify the landlord and they fix the problem. If they don't fix the problem within a certain amount of time after being notified, then that might affect item #1.

Not worth my input.

 

[skargo]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

Well, I don't see that you have made the case for "unsafe" or unhealthy".
The fact that the breakers were tripping, prove that they were working, safe, and preventing a fire.
The fact that an electrician checked it out is evidence in her defense that she was on top of the situation, and called in an expert to back her up.

Now you say she threatened you?

You are gonna have an uphill battle in court, good luck.
Most often, tenants don't win unless they have followed the letter of the law, document all incidences, and initiate the suit.

Exactly. Unsafe and unhealthy? Not even close.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

Huh....... how long have you been in this one year lease? Exactly how much notice did you give?

Your statements of recrimination stating there is faulty electrical will not change the fact that a lease had been signed.

You stated in your first post that "due to unforseen circumstances at my old place of employment, I had to quit" which would lead people to believe you can no longer afford the lease.

You had alluded to renting a place for a short time a couple of months ago your words were "This is a fantastic thread. I'll be renting a place soon for a short period until I find a house to buy. I need to know about stuff like this." Is this the "short period" you meant??

No need to have a short temper about your dilemma....... free advice from a post on iboats is usually based on the way the question was phrased.

You have asked questions, received answers and proceed to argue the answer ......... based on your posts I feel you will not come out ahead in a court case and in fact...... you may end up paying the lease in full, the landlord's lawyer and the court costs to boot.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

Ayuh,.... Is this the door to the Judge Judy show,..??

Having been a renter, but now a landlord,... I agree 100% with Bob.....

 

[marlboro180]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

Not worth my input.

Yes sir, there are those thst like to believe what they want to believe.....

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

I should have read the lease more closely, or really, I should have remembered the terms. All I remembered was that I could walk away from this lease without worry at any time, I just couldn't remember why and I was shocked when so many people told me I couldn't and I knew that I could.

Well, there is a reason she isn't sueing me. The lease is 1 year, month-to-month, and the final statement says "Termination-This agreement and the tenancy hereby granted may be terminated at any time by either party hereto by giving the other party not less than one full months prior notice in writing." While it wasn't in writing, I did give her just about 1 months notice, not in writing, but by phone call. While it was a tad less than one month between when I told her I'd be leaving and when I physically left, it definitely falls within the time frame of what I'm paid up for.

She can't sue me for the remainder of the lease, there is none, it's a month to month lease. I'm paid in full as I gave her notice in the middle of October that I'd be leaving and I paid in full for November.

That's nice to know. I'm not even sure if she realizes her lease says month to month and that it can be terminated at any time. I have a feeling that old lady doesn't have a clue what her own lease says as it's one she downloaded off of a legal website. She did not have it drawn up by a lawyer. I know, because I asked! LOL

And by short period, I meant 1 year. That's short, some people rent for 10-15 years. I had no plans on having to quit my job. It worked out for the best, I learned a ton about leasing property, and will NEVER DO IT AGAIN. Next time I move the home will be in my name forever. But quitting my job had nothing to do with me leaving. Millions of people quit or lose their jobs each year and they don't leave. I could have afforded to pay off the lease until the end 4 or 5 times over, but considering how dishonest she had been renting me property that was unrentable by any normal person, I was not going to spend any more of my money on that rat hole. Occurrence does not mean causation.

And Bob, I know I left out a bunch of stuff in the OP. And I explained why. Half the computer was packed up, I was typing off of a box top for a keyboard table, I was in a hurry, I had not thought out the post before making it, I just typed quickly what came to mind and went back to work. I basically needed to get it on the board so time could pass and I could get feed back, but it doesn't make what I stated in my second post any less true. I just said I lost my job and am terminating the lease, association does not make causation. It could never be proven in court that I left because I lost my job. You can't prove WHY something happened in court. Just because something happened around the same time doesn't mean it caused it to happen. Trust me, I have read up a lot on law. I know the limits of the courts. They can only uphold what is written, they can't say that the circuit breaker issue didn't matter because I lost my job. Uh....no, that is irrelevant. Because I can easily prove I had plenty of funds to continue to pay for the lease, so proving that's why I left would be difficult at best. I had plenty of proof to show I could continue with the lease without problems.

You said that when you look to iboats for answers, they will come based off of what you type. That I understand, which is why I took the time to more fully explain the situation. Instead of people saying, "Oh, ok, well in that case, such and such...." they start doubting whether I'm being truthful, if I'm using the dangerous breaker issue as a crutch to get out of the lease, etc etc. That's not what I came here for. I don't need people doubting what I say. That doesn't help me. If you don't believe me, don't respond to the thread, but don't come here insinuating I'm a liar or **** yea, I'm gonna respond and I'm not going to be nice about it.

I guess this is all a moot point as the lease clearly states that I was well within my rights to walk away at any time FOR ANY REASON. What I think I need to be thankful for was finding someone with that clause in the lease to give me that freedom. What a blessing.

 

[skargo]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

*yawn*

 

[Whoopbass]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

When I rented my lease stated that it was for one year and then went month to month after that. The language in your lease is bad and if that's the way it reads then it actually isn't worth the paper its written on.
You have rights which a lot of Renters are totally ignorant of and I believe Landlords take full advantage of this and screw Renters out of their deposit.
I agree, this thread is full of bad info and iboats is usually better then this. Sounds like you got it figured out now so I wouldn't even bother with this thread any longer because if someone made a "Yawn" comment like the a-hole did above this post I would definitely get banned from this site.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

When I rented my lease stated that it was for one year and then went month to month after that.

That is what I bet the rental agreemanet says. If she downloaded it from a legal site, that should be the case. The termination clause is going to be after the 1 year is over.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

Skargo, you are cracking me up.

 

[skargo]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

That is what I bet the rental agreemanet says. If she downloaded it from a legal site, that should be the case. The termination clause is going to be after the 1 year is over.

My leases say exactly that, they are 1 year, and THEN go to a month to month basis unless we have made arrangements for a long term lease.


Yes, all of us landlords are bad evil people who do anything we can to screw our tenants. Some of you really need to lighten up. In addition to being a landlord I own and run a tenant placement company. Every single landlord I represent are good, HONEST people. I've come across some scumbags, I do not do business with them, so please don't try and paint all landlords with the same brush...

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

What do you guys think?

After reading this thread (10 minutes of my life I'll never get back....), I am not sure why you asked the question.......it's clear that you really don't want to know what anyone thinks.
What you are asking is for people to agree that you are somehow entitled to a refund of part of your last months rent....even though in a series of further revelations....(sort of a cross between chalk on a blackboard and pulling teeth), the poor thread reader finally finds out that your rental agreement clearly spells out what YOUR obligations are; even though this appears to be far less than most landlords have their leases mandate, you still seem to feel victimised.
The victim here is definitely not you!

Even more astonishing is that some pinhead figured this was an "Evil Landlord" situation, and tries to slam Scott for his input.

As stated repeatedly, the supposed deficiencies with the property are not directly related to the lease that you signed.
You needed to deal with them separately and with some level of professionalism.

The fact that you acknowledge that your notice must be in writing, and then opine that several phone calls should be OK, seems to be part of the pattern and another piece of the puzzle revealed.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

One of the nice things about renting from a private owner (as opposed to a large leasing company) is that you can generally break your lease with little consequence. As long as you didn't trash the place, it isn't going to be worth the landlord's time/money to pursue you for any further money other than keeping your deposit. You thinking you're entitled to a partial months rent refund is totally out of line. I have never heard of a pro-rated months rent from any dwelling ever.

 

[Whoopbass]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

This thread has gone off the deep end. Wild assumptions being made and most of the reply's offer nothing but an opinion or a belief.

Since she's an "old woman" and probably can't defend herself I would lean real hard on her and make it clear that her health will suffer if you don't get that money back. The hell with the law.

Seriously, I would let her keep the extra money since you are probably breaking the lease and just move on.

 

[skargo]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

When I rented my lease stated that it was for one year and then went month to month after that. The language in your lease is bad and if that's the way it reads then it actually isn't worth the paper its written on.
You have rights which a lot of Renters are totally ignorant of and I believe Landlords take full advantage of this and screw Renters out of their deposit.
I agree, this thread is full of bad info and iboats is usually better then this. Sounds like you got it figured out now so I wouldn't even bother with this thread any longer because if someone made a "Yawn" comment like the a-hole did above this post I would definitely get banned from this site.

You should get banned for calling someone an "a-hole"

My yawn signified that this beating of a dead horse was getting old.

So me saying yawn should be a bannable offense, but you calling me an ahole shouldn't? Whatever you say keyboard warrior.

 

[capslock118]

Re: Need help with a rental agreement....

I agree, this thread is full of bad info and iboats is usually better then this.

guys, i hate to point out the obvious but...

this is a forum for boat owners and about boats, not for lease attorneys for every state in the union and about rental agreements...

no offense to anyone on this forum, i just wouldn't be looking for this type of advice here. I look for boat advice here....but what do i know?

THAT SAID: i'm stilling giving my .02.

this thread was almost literally making me want to tear my eyeballs out in boredom. and that's really the only reason I'm responding, i felt like I wasted my time reading this so here is me giving back just as much useful information as i've been given:

A: the poster eventually admitted he didnt know what his own lease said, and re-read it well after the OP. Help us help you mate, know what you are talking about before ranting about your landlord.

B: the poster obviously has no clue about how electricity works. Who would ever expect an AC unit and a microwave on the same circuit to operate at the same time? Should they be on the same circuit? no. would you win in court of breaking your lease because of that? no...

C: we all live in different states and every state has different laws on rental agreements. CT and NY, though close to each other, handle very differently.

In CT:

D: if the contract says 1-year lease on a month-to-month basis, then a court would probably interpret that as saying you are obligated to pay on a month-to-month basis up to 1 year. If, after 1 year, the landlord does not want to renew she has the freedom to do so and you are out of a place to live - and that is perfectly reasonable. Otherwise she can only kick you out when she has a legally good reason (i.e. you never paid her rent) and has also given you ample time to do so. But if you just want to keep bashing your landlord as stupid (even though you have made that case for yourself), then that's your choice.

E: going on point D, the OP gave 30 days notice, as it turns out, and then paid for that last month...so what's the problem? seems like the obligation has been fulfilled.

F: generally: you pay for the next month you intend to live at your place...Oh wait, mortgages act the same way... you are not in a contract that is on a day-to-day basis so where do you get the idea that you should be pro-rated because you were not living there for an x amount of days within the month you paid for. What level of entitlement makes you think you should be pro-rated? this isn's a cell phone contract. Jesus, I'm 26 and even I am no where near that level of entitlement...oh hey...you go on vacation for 3 weeks, so you must be entitled to not pay rent because well, you wernt there...oh and all those hours you spent at work (when you had a job before you), yeah you shouldn't pay for that time at the apartment either...because your rental agreement OUGHT to have been on an hourly basis...

we're americans and we expect everything to be free....ugh...disgusting attitude...