Landlord initiated new lease before my expiration (apartment, lease agreement, tenant)
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I have a contract that was set to expire on Nov 30th, 2013. The contract was for 1 room in a townhome. Due to a new job, I moved to a new apartment on September 1st, but have been fulfilling my contractual obligations at my previous townhome. I have paid rent and utilities for every month. Seeing as my contract ends on the 30th, I drove down this weekend to grab some things out of my room and return my keys, only to find a girl living in my bedroom. My previous roommate informed me that she had been living there since the 1st of November and had signed a contract with the landlord, payed a deopist, and payed for November rent. I was told that the landlord said he would contact me about it in regards to refunding my November rent and security deposit.
I contacted my landlord on Monday to inform him that I was aware of the new tenant and that I expected my rent and deposit back. He informed me that he would send the check this week, and advised me that if I were to ever sign a lease agreement again, I should be sure to give my 30 days notice to move out. He said that he could consider that day as my 30 days, and charge me for half of December.
I did not reply, and today I recieved my check, only to find that he kept half of November rent.
I am aware that I should have given 30 days notice on the first of November, and had he not initiated a contract with a new tenant, I would gladly pay half of the December rent. However, isn't renting my room to a new tenant before my contract expired wrong? Should that not void our contract? Therefore entitling me to all of the back rent? Not to mention, he gave me no notice of intent to break our contract to rent to a new tenant. Any help here qould be greatly appreciated.
Last edited by stephlrobn; 11-20-2013 at 03:00 PM..
Not sure about your timeline. Your lease expired Nov 30th, but you were moving out in December? You were willing to pay half Dec rent, but are upset he kept half of Nov rent?
Please clean up your timeline and events so we can make valid comments.
I am going to make an assumption that everywhere you say December, you actually mean November cause that is the only thing that makes sense to me with respect to your lease expiration.
You came back to drop off your key and give your 30 day notice while vacating on Monday, November 18th? You discovered the ll had already released your room effectivey Nov 1, correct?
Since your lease was still in effect, the landlord has no legal right to engage a new tenant.
Since you did not provide 30 day notice, you are effectively in a month-to-month lease for December at the same terms as your prior written lease.
Without the new tenant you would owe all of Nov, plus all of Dec and so on until you provide 30 days notice
The landlord anticipated your departure and did you a favor by release you from your lease, big mistake - you could have sued him over breach if you did not want to release the room early, and mitigated loss by getting a new tenant. He is only allowed to collect rent from you to the degree he has not recovered through mitigation.
He is not allowed to keep any of your rent since he mitigated with another paying tenant, even if he did so illegally. He also did not permit a walkthrough opportunity to you, so any damages will be difficult to prove, especially since the new tenant has already moved in, so he probably will not be able to keep any of your deposit.
He did you a big favor by letting you out early and saving you the December rent, BUT you should advise him that since he mitigated the November rent by terminating the lease unilateraly, he must return your rent for the period after he terminated the lease by releasing.
As said above, he cannot legally "double dip" on rent and must return to you your November rent and your security deposit. Hope you got the rest of your belongings back safely.
Thank you very much for your response. To clarify, my lease expired on November 30, 2013. Therefore, in order to fulfil my term, I should have given 30 days notive on November 1st. When I mentioned December, I was merely acknowleged my failure to give a 30 days notice, and explaining that I would have paid the additional half month of rent (December) that would have been required if I gave my 30 days notice on the day I contacted my landlord (Nov 17th). But, seeing as how he breached my contract by intiating a lease with a new tenant, I do not believe I should be responsible for paying for the month of November at all.
You and your landlord were both sorta in the wrong. You should have given him a 30 day notice, IF thats whats stated on your contract lease and on the other hand, he went and placed a new tenant in your room knowing that your lease ends Nov 30.
I think this landlord was trying to double up on getting rent but got caught. What could happen is that the landlord can say that you abandoned your apartment..but then again, you payed all your November's rent so you can fight this.
Do you have a receipt of payment or check image from bank statement that shows he deposited your rent money?
If so, that shows good intentions on your part of fulfilling the contract and if your lease expired Nov 30, i dont think you was in any obligation to tell the landlord that you were leaving. unless the cotract you signed says otherwise.
You can either walk away with half the rent and not have to deal with this greedy landlord anymore OR
you are going to need proof that the girl signed a contract lease that overlaps yours.
That would be the only way to get back any monies owed to you. even voice recording a convo with this ladlord might be enough evidence to prove your lease dated til NOV 30 is no null/void.
What happened to your stuff you left in your room? Did he throw it out? I would send a demand letter, certified return receipt, asking for all the security deposit and November rent back, plus the estimated value of the items he apparently threw out. Sue in small claims if he still refuses.
He said he would charge you for half of December, but instead returned half of the November rent? I'm a little confused on that point. You need to get back all of November's rent, plus the security deposit, and pay nothing for December. He can't charge you for the time that another tenant is living there. Since you paid rent and utilities for November and left stuff behind, you did not abandon it. What if you had gone on vacation for a month? That's not abandonment.
You are not obligated to give any notice if you have a set time frame for a lease. At the end of the lease you have to vacate unless a new time frame is mutual agreed.
The way I read you post the lease expired on Nov. 30th so the LL had no right to move anybody in and can't get double rent so the LL had to return you rent money in full from the day the LL got paid by 2 tenants.
You don't have to give notice if there was an end date in the lease term but it would be considered courteous to let the LL know you will not extend but vacate.
The LL is wrong and could have been charged with trespassing since the LL has no legal rights even if the place was empty if you still paid as you were suppose to.
Since the new tenant paid rent from Nov 1st, I agree you should not be charged rent for any of November.
If you would have broken the lease, the LL could charge you rent until a new tenant was found, plus advertising costs. He couldn't charge you for rent for the same period of time he collected rent from someone else.
The guy is nuts thinking you have to give notice after he already moved someone else in without your knowledge.
I'd start by writing him a letter something like this:
Dear LL:
As you know, I did not breach my lease with you. Although I moved out September 1st, I have continued to pay rent, so that I would have good rental and credit references.
When I arrived at my rented room on November 17th to pick up some of my personal items, I learned that you had breached our contract by moving another tenant into my room as of November 1, 2013, collecting another security deposit from her, along with rent for the full month of November, in addition to the full month of November that you received from me.
I am in receipt of your check in the amount of $____________ for only part of November. You stated that the reason is because I did not give you 30 days notice to move. I dispute this claim under the circumstances, and further assert that the point is moot, as Utah law does not allow you to collect rent from two tenants for the same unit for the same time period, even if I had abandoned the lease, which I did not do. The relevant law is § 78-36-12.6.
Additionally, as I was not given the opportunity to do a walk-through inspection, nor given the opportunity to clean, etc., I also request that you immediately return my security deposit in the amount of $_____________ to me, as well as the balance due of the November rent of $________________ for a total of $_______________________. Please mail this to me at the address below by ______________(x date - give him 10 days). If I do not receive this amount by this date, I intend to sue you in small claims court, and will be asking for my court costs and any punitive damages allowed for your bad faith in collecting rent for the same period of time from two different tenants.
Sincerely,
You
Your Address
If you want to see the Utah law I mentioned, it's on this site. Use your search feature and search for "Utah."
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