I'm a tenant in a landlord/tenant issue please help?
My issue is that my ex-landlord (Ben and Andrea) wants to take me to court for $800 and damages that my rabbit caused to the underlining of a bed. When I started to look into renting this place the ad on craigslist posted as $100 per week (I have proof of that). I spoke with Andrea and got everything set up through her. I was going through a divorce and my ex-husband said he would pay for me to stay in a place up to a month so I had time to get everything organized. I paid the landlord a month which was $400. We never entered into any agreement on the length of time I would stay there but just that it would be $100 per week I stayed there. In saying that our oral agreement was for me to pay $100 per week. I asked if I could move in a couple days early and the landlord said it would be fine. I moved in on June 30/09 and the check was dated for June 29/09 and it was for the month of July. I then told them I wouldn't be able to pay my rent for the month of August until August 4th and they were fine with that as Natalie said to me that, that was when my rent was due. I then had some medical issues come up and wasn't able to pay at that time either and said I had to go on an emergency trip to Southern Florida. I ended up leaving on August 6/09 and removed everything I had an left my keys in their kitchen. I spoke with Ben, the landlord, that morning and said if I was going to come back it would be August 20th but I would let them know. Ben then found my step-father's phone number (the person I was staying with in South Florida) and asked him if I was staying there and my step-father said yes. About 2 or 3 days later I told Andrea on a facebook chat message that I would not be returning to stay there. Although Andrea told Ben she has no recollections of it. I didn't hear from Ben or Andrea until August 26/09 when Andrea sent my parents an e-mail on a facebook e-mail on August 25th and she carbon copied it to me saying I owe them $800. Immediately I called to find out what was going on and there was no answer. I texted their phone and finally got in touch with them. During our phone conversations I told them I would pay them the pro-rated amount of the 2 days extra that I was there plus the 7 days notice (as we were on a week to week basis) and Ben denied it saying I was on a month to month. I then said fine I will try and settle with you for the pro-rated days and 15 days notice (for a month to month contract) and Ben said no once again to that. He then told me he wanted to look more into landlord tenant laws and he would get back with me. This is when I decided I would see if you could maybe answer some of my questions. The next day I get an e-mail from Ben because I had a credit application for the place I am residing in now (but not renting from as my step-father pays for it but they for some reason still have to do a background check on people who are staying long-term) and he said that he wanted to settle with me for $400 and it would be done. I then gave Ben a call and told him that I was wanting to wait till Tuesday evening to get back to him on what I wanted to do. He agreed with me and said on Tuesday evening we would be in contact and discuss the details. About an hour later I get a call from him and I was on the phone so could not answer and he left a voicemail which said that he was talking with his lawyer and that if he didn't hear from me by 4pm that he would be taking me to court. Well I haven't returned his phone call yet and it is 1:30pm his time now. I actually don't plan on calling him back but rather writing him an e-mail saying we agreed to get back to eachother on the issue on Tuesday evening. Now i am just trying to see if I can possibly get any advice on this situation as to what I can do and what it is really that I would owe to him in the end. Also Andrea is suffering from a condition that affects her short term memory... Post Concussion disorder or something... not sure if that might contribute to her "selective memory"... This all happened in Florida. My rabbit chewed the material that is stapled onto the boxspring... if you wanted to fix it you would have to buy a piece of material and a staple gun to just reattach new material I also looked up FL statutes which say that if your on a month to month its 15 days notice and if its a week to week (which we had agreed on) its 7 days notice. I also gave notice on either Aug.7 or 8/09 I do have copies of where the craigslist ad was for a week to week rental I never had a written lease The issue I am having with paying for the damages caused by the rabbit is that it happened while I was a tenant and I said tell me how much it costs to repair it and I will pay it back to you or I can just fix it myself. Ben then told me don't worry about it is okay. Now that we are having this issue he wants to bring it all back up.
Renting & Real Estate - 8 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
If you did not sign an agreement, but you paid $400 all in one check for the month of July, that can be interpreted as $400 per month; not $100 per week or you would have been paying it weekly. You didn't pay for August, so that is $400. You didn't give notice til the end of August, so you owe for September, which would be the 30 day notice on a month to month. So $400 for September. Sounds like $800 to me too.
2 :
What you did not say is whether or not your rabbit actually caused damage, if it did then your screwed settle out of court CALL HIM NOW.
3 :
its all about his word against your word in a court.you no doubt will have to pay the damages from the rabbit. i live up here in st petersburg fl. we had to use an organization called "home with a heart" to resolve a problem we had with a former landlord and they helped us for a small donation. they did a good job and saved us several hundred dollers. they will speak to your landlord and help sort it out.
4 :
Do you have a printed copy of the original Craig's List ad for the room? Try to print copies of all the correspondence you mention above. Then keep them in a safe place. Keep notes with dates and descriptions of all phone conversations or text messages. The worst that can happen is that they take you to small claims court where they would have to prove that you owe this money for renting a room when you weren't living there. If they did not provide up front information on notice before moving,etc. that's not your fault. I do not think that a week to week room rental is the same as a house or apartment rental that is month to month or annual lease.
5 :
This is a very difficult situation that you're in currently. I would get some information from a lawyer. You often can get your first consultation for free, and I would do this as well. Do ALL that you can with writing, as when you say things orally they will think that won't happen. I think that this Ben person is being very impatient. Just keep your chin up!
6 :
So much BS and so little facts. Do you have a written lease or not. If you have a written lease then you have to follow it. If you don't have a written lease then the only thing you may have to pay for is the any damage you did.
7 :
The problem with verbal contracts is that they are hard to prove. To protect yourself, get a written lease contract from now on. I did a quick google search on "verbal contract florida", and it does appear verbal contracts are recognized by Florida. The craigslist ad, if you still have it, can provide some proof that you had a weekly agreement. Either way, if you never talked about things like move-out notice, deposits, pet deposits, rent due dates, etc., they cannot be assumed to be anything. I just resigned a lease for my apartment, it was 20+ pages. Not all could be covered in a verbal agreement. I would call him today, and ask him to send you an email, something in writing, stating the charges and reason for the charges. Facts don't change just because you ignore them. And the fact, is that he thinks you owe him money. My opinion, is that they knew you were vacating the place and you owe them no more money. Whatever you two work out, get it in writing.
8 :
As a longtime land lady, you owe what he has asked for, and you are lucky. Had you damaged the boxsprings in one of my homes, you would need to pay for a new boxspring as well. If you owned the boxsprings and decided to fix it, that would be fine, because you owned it. When you destroy someone else's property, you must replace it with new.
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