Apartment Lease : Legal Question.

[Bruce Leroy]

I need help with a lease.

Signed a lease in October 2007 for a condominium, $844 a month.. It was owned by a company.



Feb 2008 I get a letter saying that the condo has been sold and the new owner should be contacting me for payment....


Feb 20th hes still has not contacted me.. I leave town at the end of feb, but I get his number and leave him a message with my contact information so he can contact me for payment..


I come back around march 10th and there is a new lease to sign, along with an eviction notice on my front door... wtf... Says i owe him ~1900 dollars. wtf. 844x2 does not equal 1900 dollars

Turns out he just upped the rent.


I finally get in contact with "who i THINK" is him. Tell him my rent is 844 NOT 900 something dollars a month. He says he does not see the prorated price in the lease he received from the company, because he did not get all the pages of the lease. I tell him that i'll pay him the money when he changes rent and puts it in writing. He says ok.


End of march I get a "new" lease... Yet it still has the wrong rent amount. I call him to work things out, no answer. I leave a couple messages...

Through my investigative skills, i find out that the person i have been in contact with is not actually the lease holder... Just a "family member" the owner is paying. But he will not give me his name or any information.

I come back to ATL for 2 weeks, go back home and get another letter saying I owe him $3000 dollars... and another lease with the wrong rent..

**** it i'm going to move. I dont need to deal with this bs..... I pay him for feb, march, april, and may, and move all my stiff out by may 16th....

Starting may 4th i would send an e-mail a day, and leave a message saying that I'm moved, and that I need to speak with him..

Fast forward to today, may 29th. and i get an e-mail back from him stating that my lease was transfered to him from the company that he bought the condo from, and that i owe him the money through October 2008.

I think that since he was trying to get me to sign a new lease with a higher rent, that the old lease i signed was void..

Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to get in contact with a lawyer tomorrow.

[Sammich]

did u sign the new lease?

[SouthSide Tay]

yeha i say talk to a lawyer and cut the bull****

[Bruce Leroy]

did u sign the new lease?

hell no. If I did, i would not have left.

[One_Bad_SHO]

Yeah, I don't think IA is your best bet to find intelligent reponses concerning your situation. Thats like going to a Myspace car forum asking for Maintanence & Troubleshooting advice for your Honda. You're not picking the brains of the right crowd, buddy.

Call a lawyer, ask for legal advice. You may have to pay a consulting fee.

Or, ask lawyers/ law students questions online for free:

HERE

or

HERE

If you're too lazy to do any of that and prefer advice from IA forum members, then click HERE

[BanginJimmy]

From the business law class that I barely paid attention to, as long as you didnt sign a new lease the old lease was still in effect until its completion.

Make sure you have records of all contact with whoever you have been in contact with and keep every scrap of paper they send you.

Onto the bad news, the lease IS still in effect so they can legally charge you until Oct. for the original lease amount. Most places state in the lease 1 of 2 things. 1. You owe them for the lease until the condo is rented out again or until the lease is up. 2. You owe 2-3 months additional rent as a penalty for breaking the lease.

[ksniperfox]

From the business law class that I barely paid attention to, as long as you didnt sign a new lease the old lease was still in effect until its completion.

Make sure you have records of all contact with whoever you have been in contact with and keep every scrap of paper they send you.

Onto the bad news, the lease IS still in effect so they can legally charge you until Oct. for the original lease amount. Most places state in the lease 1 of 2 things. 1. You owe them for the lease until the condo is rented out again or until the lease is up. 2. You owe 2-3 months additional rent as a penalty for breaking the lease.

x2 and +whatever im worth

[keevo54]

**** that. Im pretty certain that the lease does not change if there is a change of ownership, but if he tried to make u pay higher rent then your lease stated he voided the contract. I hope you kept records

[Sammich]

From the business law class that I barely paid attention to, as long as you didnt sign a new lease the old lease was still in effect until its completion.

Make sure you have records of all contact with whoever you have been in contact with and keep every scrap of paper they send you.

Onto the bad news, the lease IS still in effect so they can legally charge you until Oct. for the original lease amount. Most places state in the lease 1 of 2 things. 1. You owe them for the lease until the condo is rented out again or until the lease is up. 2. You owe 2-3 months additional rent as a penalty for breaking the lease.

x2 thats the way i see it. you are only obligated to your old lease especially seeing that the new lease was not signed and no one contacted or tried to contact you