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Wow! That is news. It's terrible that tenants push every favor until the landlord will do anything to get them out, then they sue for more. And people ask, "Why are landlords so horrible?" Contract law is interesting. My thanks to Austin Steve, too.
The person on the lease is ultimately responsible to the apartment complex, HOWEVER...your roommate could take you to small claims court and argue that you were on a month-to-month tenancy and sue you for damages. They probably would win, too.
Not sure how they could really do that in the absence of a contract - but even if they could, they could only collect one month's worth of rent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by austin-steve
If you completed a rental application and were approved and then provided a lease that you never signed
A little off-topic but the story about the Texas judge got me chuckling and reminiscing!
Many years ago when a major hurricane severely damaged the rental house in which I was living at the time, I hung in there for a long time but, eight months later, the house still hadn't been repaired by the LL and I moved into another rental property. It was a stressful period, I didn't properly do my homework and although I had signed a year's lease the house wasn't a good fit to say the least and I moved out after six months.
The LL took me to small claims court for alleged damages and a bunch of other absolute nonsense and also claimed that I owed him payment for the remainder of the lease.
The LL DID win a minor judgement against me for allegedly leaving some bags of garbage in the house (it really was nonsense) but when the issue of the payment for the remainder of the lease came up, the judge was about to rule in the LL's favor when I nicely interrupted and asked that he look at the signatory page of the lease because although I had signed the lease, the LL had never given me a completed copy with HIS signature on it.
"Oh!" said the judge, "You're quite right! Mr ____ your signature doesn't appear on this lease agreement you presented as evidence..."
Ergo there was no legally binding contract so at least I managed to escape paying another six month's rent on a house that was the pits.
And that would be a little bit of a hard case because they also need proof. You have to prove that there were "damages."
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuSuSushi
The person on the lease is ultimately responsible to the apartment complex, HOWEVER...your roommate could take you to small claims court and argue that you were on a month-to-month tenancy and sue you for damages. They probably would win, too.
Even without a written agreement in place, the law does recognize verbal agreements as legally binding, provided their is sufficient proof of the agreement. If you paid rent every month, that constitutes such an agreement.
Trying to get out of a de facto lease agreement will most likely get you slapped with a trespassing charge which would be worse than a civil dispute.
Civilly, in addition to back rent and any damages, you could also get a breach of contract charge. Not 'getting around to it' is not a legally valid excuse for making a promise to sign a lease and then backing out.
Tenant at will - One party (tenant) who occupies real estate with permission of owner (landlord) for an unspecified period of time. In many (not all) states, a tenant at will need only provide 14 days' notice (or be given the same) to vacate.
If the OP has no lease, but the original lessee had the right to sublet, the OP may be a tenant at will. In fact, if the property owner, LL, knew of this arrangement and approved it, then the OP may be a tenant at will of the LL and not necessarily of the tenant subletting to him. That would get the original tenant off the hook - perhaps both of them - but that probably needs to be decided by a judge.
Hi currently also have the same situation, except I gave the person i switched rooms with like notice the moment i moved in and a few months after that, she is was fine with it and she even told my other roommate that she would handle it if she had to that last month, but now she is being rude with me and making me look like the bad guy, even though i told her my intentions. Anyway I was wondering should I have to pay that last rent?
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