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My boyfriend and I are on a bit of fixed income. Being that we're going to college, we get paid a stipends from the VA, but only as long as we are in school. Recently we discovered (This being about the day before yesterday) that our status at the school has become compromised and that we can no longer afford the school. This means we'd be losing our income.
Top that off the same day we found out that my dad's health is not doing so well and that my family needs us to come home.
The day before we found out we had just moved into our new place. It's for 6 months and we've paid first and last month with a depost. A grand total of 750 dollars. (325 first 325 last months rent and 100 dollar deposit)
We notified our landlord right away that we would not be able to pay rent for next month and that because of my father's health we would have to move back to Montana from Colorado. We also told her that we would be enrolling into the school for the fall semester there and are willing to pay her for the rent we owe as well as help her find someone to fill the place. We gave her 30 days notice that we'd vacate and we would up hold the penalties of breaking the lease.
But she doesn't believe us. She feels that we came in committed to living here (Which we did until we found out our income and whole reason for being in Denver is suddenly being pulled.) She even talked to our other landlords and apparently she was told that "We tried to skirt them on their lease several times' Which we didn't. She made it sound like we had to move in july when all she asked for was a deposit, and when we sorted that out we complied fully with their lease. I even washed the bathroom (By hand) and vaccuumed and when asking our previous landlords for a toilet brush to finish were denied. They also did not mark on the lease who was paying what percentage of the utilities we were paying and through 3 lawyers who stated it's a breach of contract, stayed and paid utilites for them. I feel their word at this point about us is a bit void. Still she believes we're trying to cheat her out of her rent.
We told her when we move back and start school she will be getting 2 full payment checks from my stipends (936 a month) in a total of 1800+ dollars to cover the 6 months we wouldn't be here.
My questions are, as a rentor in Colorado do I have to live in the rental to pay rent on it? If we offered to work out the rest of our lease with her, are we being irresponsible? We're leaving voluntarily because we cannot pay rent while we are in Denver, and we have been looking for jobs everywhere but being limited to the bus system it's been hard, are we in the wrong for telling her, we'll move out in 30 days so you can find someone who can pay you monthly, and while we are working in Montana pay the back rent we will owe you for the 6th months?
If anyone knows anything please help. She's told us she's going to ask her lawyer and that she wants us to stay in the state until we can pay her the money for them but the only jobs we were offered are back in Montana and the only income we've been able to scrounge while we were here is our VA stipends (Between us both though we make about 1878 a month it's enough to live on for 2 people so while we hunted jobs and found none ((I'm honestly tired of getting declined by McDonalds for not having enough work experience. I've applied for the lowest of low jobs with an empty application where it says previous work experience and getting turned down.)) school has been our only income) we can't pay here if we stay in denver and we're totally willing to work out EVERYTHING that we owe if she just lets us get our jobs in montana to pay her.
-sincerely,
WTF tenant getting threatened with a lawyer for telling her landlord right away the we've lost out income....
Not everyone in life is going to believe you - and frankly your story is rather complicated - so you may just have to live with your current landlady not believing why you're leaving. But that's okay!
Read your lease and figure out what you need to do to break the lease legally. And hope that she is able to rent the unit out quickly, so that you don't owe rent for the months it's not rented.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bloo21
I even washed the bathroom (By hand) and vaccuumed and when asking our previous landlords for a toilet brush to finish were denied.
Cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming before you leave a rental is not an optional thing, and not a favor to the landlord. And you should have your own cleaning supplies to do the job.
And in this case? Where you're breaking your lease early? You better make sure the bathroom and every other square inch of that rental is clean and in perfect condition. If you leave it a mess, that will only delay how long it takes the landlord to get a new tenant in - which will cost YOU money!
I know the cleaning was manditory but they said they'd supply the supplies (Will never believe this again. Also told us in email that we were welcome to use anything needed for cooking (with a list including, spice, sugar, and flour) then went about as I was going to use their flour that it's considered stealing if we never asked Again I'm not ever going to believe a landlord when they tell us we're allowed to use their stuff and then renig it a few months in.)
And yes it is complicated, and she never gave us a copy of the lease...well she had one but it was edited in pen not fully typed up filled with typos, she never went through it throughly just giving us this "You've to give me 30 days notice before you move, you're reponseble for any rent within that period, <some incoherent speed reading part of it in spanish>, We can't make repairs to the place unless we notify her." And then some more incoherent gibberish.
We did a skimming read of it because the rest of it was such a mess and she told us that she would type us up a new copy to sign after we signed this lease (We didn't get any). She is coming tomorrow and we are going to ask her to bring the only copy of the lease. Over the phone she told us that the least states we're responsible for the rent until she fills it, and we said ok because hell we signed the lease!
So thank you for the info about looking at the lease! I really never thought much about that because it IS such a mess.
So a new question just popped up. State law says that if the rent is late she has to give us a 3 day notice. This is Colorado law. I was just wondering if she's so uptight about us not being held true can we tell her to wait until rent is do next monthn and since we aren't able to pay the rent (my mom is picking us up well within the 3 day notice to either pay or leave) would it just be easier to evict us? I honestly don't mind having that on our credit and will happily explain the situation to any and I mean -any- landlord again. Considering moving home to take care of a dying father after loosing our income.
Quote:
[SIZE=1]When a Colorado Tenant Has Not Paid Rent Before filing a suit in Colorado to evict a tenant for nonpayment of rent, the landlord must post a written, signed demand giving the tenant the choice of either paying the past due rent or moving out within three days. In computing the period of days the first day is excluded. Therefore, the three day time period begins the day following the posting. The notice must be posted in a conspicuous place on the premises. After the notice has been posted and if the tenant has not paid the rent or moved out within three days, the landlord need not accept the rent and may file an eviction suit at your local Justice Center. The time begins running whether or not the tenant discovers it posted. Also the time continues to run regardless if it is a Saturday, a Sunday, or a holiday. The tenant's legal right to this three day notice prior to eviction for nonpayment of rent cannot be taken away by the language in a lease.
Why would you consider letting her evict you? Just break the lease legally, leave the unit clean, and get on with you life. The sooner you get out, and the cleaner you leave the place, the MORE likely it is that she'll be able to rent it to someone else, and that will get you off the hook for the rent while it's sitting empty. Make it happen!
You'll probably still end up owing her money, but it will be a lot less than if you stay and let her evict you.
Still I feel a bit like a female dog on this one. I thought when our income changed telling our landlord was the right thing to do. I felt being honest and up front about the fact that when we signed the lease we didn't know our income would be compromised.
So if her lawyer contacts us and we tell him/her the major reason we are breaking the lease is because our income has changed and we can't pay for the apparentment and then a secondary reason is my father has gotten really sick?
And if her lawyer says that we need to stay in colorado the thing we tell him/her is that if we do we won't be able to uphold the obligation of paying off any of the back rent since our jobs are in Montana?
So if her lawyer contacts us and we tell him/her the major reason we are breaking the lease is because our income has changed and we can't pay for the apparentment and then a secondary reason is my father has gotten really sick?
And if her lawyer says that we need to stay in colorado the thing we tell him/her is that if we do we won't be able to uphold the obligation of paying off any of the back rent since our jobs are in Montana?
Your reasons for leaving don't really matter - the point is that you can't pay the rent, so you need to break the lease and move out.
And no lawyer can tell you that you can't leave the state.
According to your first post you've paid first and last month's rent, and you've now given your landlord 30 days notice of your intent to move - so if you get out in the next 30 days, and if she rents it out fairly quickly your liability may be fairly low. You may end up owing a fee to break the lease, and maybe some rent, and then reimbursement for whatever damages you cause. So don't let the fact that she has a lawyer rattle you. No one can force you to stay in your current state.
That makes me feel a little better. Though coming from a military background I wonder how she'll take to someone having to leave on a shorter notice then we are.
If someone can help a bit:
She told us that the first, last, and deposit were to protect her from situations like this. Now what exactly does that mean?
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