[Southside Shrek]

the lawyer will then blame the agent for feeding him bad info and the agent will blame the lawyer for careless lease drafting...finger pointing back and forth.

[SleepingDragon]

Originally Posted by Southside Shrek

the lawyer will then blame the agent for feeding him bad info and the agent will blame the lawyer for careless lease drafting...finger pointing back and forth.

THAT'S not the Lessee's problem nor bother, Shrekster.

[Southside Shrek]

Originally Posted by SleepingDragon

THAT'S not the Lessee's problem nor bother, Shrekster.

I want to be in court to see the agent and the lawyer ridiculing one another while the judge is up on the bench laughing at the show.

[SleepingDragon]

Originally Posted by SleepingDragon

THAT'S not the Lessee's problem nor bother, Shrekster.

Lease-holder, go after the Agent who told you to "sign here"

[Southside Shrek]

and try to contact all the other tenants/lessees who got the same raw 'ooops' deal. if that agent had that lawyer draw up around 250 leases with water included in the fixed monthly rent, we're talking about some real money over a couple of years

[macguy]

Originally Posted by Southside Shrek

I want to be in court to see the agent and the lawyer ridiculing one another while the judge is up on the bench laughing at the show.

Unless someone files a suit this will not be in any court. They may have a arbitrator of some kind help them come to an agreement but either way it's just a civil matter and not of any interest to anyone other then the principles.

[maggiekate]

Originally Posted by mrshvo

I am in a situation in which I have a 2 year lease that I had signed in May. Today I just got word that they made a "mistake" when they created my lease. An utility that on the lease the landlord is supposed to pay, they are now saying "whoops" and that it is my responsibilty. Can they change a lease like that? Someone is saying "no, it's binding", and then someone else is saying yes, all they have to do now is create an amendement and make me sign it. Couldn't they then just change anything and everything in the lease, creating all kinds of different amendements? How is this possible?

You could always go to small claims court, or T.V. court.

Or you both may agree to split the fee?

judy

[SleepingDragon]

Originally Posted by Southside Shrek

I want to be in court to see the agent and the lawyer ridiculing one another while the judge is up on the bench laughing at the show.

Shrekster?!! Lease-holder is going to be in simple district court with Landlord over a water bill. No agents, lawyers, bells nor whistles. Stop being dramatic or are you dense?

[Jeffrey Spaulding]

Originally Posted by SleepingDragon

Just sashshay on over to your local district courthouse and ask for a hearing and a ruling on whether or not the water bill is to be your responsibility. It might cost you all of $10. Now go to your local Board of Realtors and file a claim against the Realtor who screwed up your lease. Ask for $10,000 or more for his negligence. I am not kidding.

Once again my utter disgust for realtors is validated.

This person suffered no harm. They suffered a slight inconvenience and, at the end of the situation, will likely end up paying several months FEWER water bills than if this small oversight not occurred. And yet you are advising they try to gouge $10,000 out of this??

First of all, such an outcome is absurd and would not prevail. NO LOSS HAS BEEN INCURRED! Were it a large realty company I suppose an activist judge might possibly try to teach a lesson, but the lessor here is also a "small fry" with one unit! Do you think any court is going to award $10K against them for an oversight? Worse, pursuing such a greedy result would IMMEDIATELY turn mrshvo's from a postion of sympathy to one of disgust and revulsion; SHE would immediately become "the bad guy" in this story! "Mrshvo's landlord forgot to include the water bill in her lease...SO SHE TRIED TO STEAL $10K FROM HIM" would become the refrain in Mrshvo's neighborhood.

But it can get far worse than that. Some people - myself included - can get a little sore when someone tries to steal -- and that's really what you are talking about, since no loss was incurred -- $10K from them. And when that happens, people can get mighty vindictive. They watch you. And wait. For a small slip up, some way they can proceed against, for money or, more satisfying, to ruin a deal or a career or a life. Why not, you deserve it - you tried to game the legal system to gouge $10K out of someone!

Mrshvo, you've got many, many responses here and should now have a basis for determining a reasonable course of action.[cut] In the long run, trying to steal $10K over a drafting error about a water bill is ***NOT*** going to serve your interests.

[momof2dfw]

We have had a similiar experience but w/ a commercial building. There are 3 seperate buildings on 3 seperate tracts of land all next to each other and we were renting the one in the middle. Tried to purchase the property from the aging & ailing owner but to no avail. He died and left a mess w/ ex-wives, current wife, kids from both, etc. Each getting a piece of property of the many he owned. In our lease it was up to the landlord to pay the water but we covered the electricity. So this one grown child (elderly herself and in another city miles and miles away) inherits our building. The whole thing was in court for over a year. Then the guy next door comes over and hands us a bill for the water and says we are to split it w/ him because our 2 buildings are on one meter. Now, in this state that is NOT supposed to be but because of the location of this property being in the county and not city limits, it did. But only after the proper authorities came out to make sure that we did indeed share a meter AND we forced our "new" landlord to put in a seperate water meter for us as it was spelled out in the lease that they MUST provide such. It took months to get it all straightened out but it finally got resolved.

FYI, as a warning just in case any of you move to another state. There are VERY FEW landlords that will pay for the water even if it is a multi-tenant building. The only ones around this entire area are in low income areas. The rest it is up to each tenant to get the utilities in their own name and pay for them. So the poster that said it was ALWAYS the landlords responsibility to pay for the water is not quite right. It may be so in Florida but beaware that is not the case in every other state around. I have had rent houses and I have NEVER paid for the utilities including the water.

Good luck.