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First, I am a student at RIT and myself and a roommate signed a lease for a small home in downtown Rochester for $610/mo + all utilities. The lease is month-to-month but it is not oral, it is a signed document. We signed the lease in September at the beginning of my school year.
Around the end of January, the owners of the property sold it to new people. We never signed a new lease or anything, and continued to pay the rent but to new landlords.
That is all swell but mid-March they sent us a letter stating that we had "two options." Option 1 was to vacate at the end of April, Option 2 was to sign a year lease starting in May for $800/mo + all utilities. Both options are obviously not going to work as my school year goes until the end of May and I do not want to live there for another year.
I reasonably sent them an e-mail requesting that they simply let us stay until the end of May at our current rate and all would be fine and we would be out. They refused to accommodate this even though I very politely expressed that I would have nowhere to live for my last month of school. After bugging them a bit more, they told me that I could have until May 14th but at the $800/mo price but this is not long enough (right during finals week!!!).
I did not formally agree to any of these options and there is no signed document stating that I have agreed. There is no doubt that I am staying until May 30th since they wouldn't be able to evict us on such a short time scale. I would like to go about it in the best way possible though and pay the rent for May, but I simply cannot afford to pay the extra $200 on my student budget.
Now that you have some background, here are my questions:
1. Wouldn't we have to sign a new lease in order for them to charge more than what is already stated on the signed lease?
if that's not the case then...
2. Does the "options" form that they sent us count as a legitimate notice of rent increase if we do not choose any of those options? Note that there was nowhere to sign on this form although it was dated and we have not returned it to them nor will we choose either of the options.
3. I read somewhere that in order to legitimately increase the rent, the house must be up to code. The house does not have a working stove/oven, the toilet does not flush properly and there is a raccoon or similar animal living in the attic. Are they even allowed to raise the rent while these are the conditions? (ha now you see why $800/mo is ridiculous)
4. I was planning on just ignoring all of these little "option" things (if you can call them options) and just sending a 30 day notice that we will be out by May 30th later this month and just paying the last month's rent on May 1st. The way I see it right now, the signed lease is the only legally binding contract that we have. Would I be wrong in assuming that? Note that we expect the security deposit back so my worry is that they will not return it based on their "rent increase."
5. Another idea I had was to just not pay the rent for May and squat for that month, letting them keep the security deposit (which is equal to our current monthly rent). They would be lucky if they even got a court date for eviction by May 30th and by then we'll be out... so would this option be feasible?
I will most likely have more questions as you kind forum goers reply, but please help me fight these total jerks who are trying to force me out during my finals week!
kicker. I am a 30+ year landlord. You have a month to month agreement. Either you or your landlord can terminate or change the agreement by giving a 30 day write notice. This must be at least 30 days and the landlord did notify you before the first day of your last month.
A couple a things to ponder:
-While yu are probably correct, that by the time the eviction goes to court, your time requirements will have beeen met, and you are gone, you would still be liable for the higher rent, while you were there, late charges, as well as all attornies fees, even the landlord's. You most likely agreed to attornies fees with your original agreement, however, you are the one violating the contract, so expect to be liable.
-Problems with the property do not trigger a renegotiation on the rent (by you). Notify your landlord to get these repairs done. Here's a shocker for you--there is a racoon in the attic? I hope you've notified the landlord and/ or animal control people. The tenant has a legal obligation to be aware of problems with the property and can even be held responsible for subsiquent damadges caused by problems that cause more damage.
-you take your chances with a mtm rental. You should have worked this out before you even signed.
_ your best bet is to somehow come up with the money. You do want your deposit back (make sure the old owner transfered it to the new owner), and you sure don't want to start out with a nasty judgement on your credit report.
while I see what you're saying about being liable, it is just an extra 14 days. Do you think they would actually even go through an attempt at eviction for that? The landlord has been informed of the animal but I swear I have read that rent can not be raised while building codes are not met, not by my own negotiation but by law, and I don't see how having an animal in our ceiling would be up to code. In addition, the stove/oven does not work which they have been aware of for months.
How can I tell by reading my lease if I am responsible for their lawyer fees if they try to evict? I gave it a quick glance and did not see anything about that.
Last edited by kicker23232; 04-05-2011 at 12:27 PM..
Sounds like you should have moved long ago if your landlord doesn't fix things. However, at this point it looks like your talking about $95-100 more for the 2 more weeks. Pay the man. It's not worth the hassle. That thing about not raising the rent while out of code-never heard of it. In fact I've had a judge rule in my favor full rent, when I was evicting someone. They reported me to the city for a violation I didn't previously know about, but it didn't matter
OK, sounds like I will just have to eat the extra $200. I wish I could have moved out, but when school is going I don't have time to look for another apt (let alone for a single month), plus I didn't expect they would spring this on me.
The thing is, they KNOW that I am a student and it was understood that financial aid is helping me and that I have no other income. I just can't believe that they won't let me stay one more month at the original price.
I hope that you wouldn't do this to one of your tenants, regardless of whether you're allowed to or not.
OK, sounds like I will just have to eat the extra $200. I wish I could have moved out, but when school is going I don't have time to look for another apt (let alone for a single month), plus I didn't expect they would spring this on me.
The thing is, they KNOW that I am a student and it was understood that financial aid is helping me and that I have no other income. I just can't believe that they won't let me stay one more month at the original price.
I hope that you wouldn't do this to one of your tenants, regardless of whether you're allowed to or not.
I bend over backwords for some of my tenants. Fact is though, landlords get burned regularly. Everyone has their "story". You had an agreement. now you're blaming the landlord because you want to change the terms? BTW, the landlord pays a lot in taxes, including financial aid.
Wow, I am sorry but you are wrong on this. They have no reason for wanting us out other than their plans to fix up the house for their next tenants. If you think it isn't wrong to cause students hardship during their finals then you need to rethink your logic. I don't care what the contract is, that is devious and we have been fine tenants, paid our rent every month and caused no problems for them or the house. Our reward is an attempt to force us out of our home.
I can't even believe you would side with them from anywhere but a legal standpoint. Accommodating an extra month for the same price we've been paying since they bought the place months ago would be the right thing to do. No one changed any terms but them when they decided to try to force us out with a yearly lease for no reason on a house that doesn't even have a proper kitchen.
Every person pays taxes btw, perhaps if they personally paid my tuition I'd understand... I can see you share the same backward, penny-pinching mindset with these jerks.
Greed runs rampant in this country dude, and part of it is the overtaxing of the working class, like landlords. In your case, as a struggling undergrad stressing his finals, I'd probably let you slide the lousy 14 days. Sounds like the new landlords are the kind of people that should just do the rest of us a favor and get hit by a fuggin bus.
My advice? Follow Rochester protocol and bust a cap in someones a$$, seems to be the norm.
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