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I am in dispute with my previous landlord about money due. The original lease was for 1 year, 12 months. Yet she made an error on the end date and stated the Start was August 1st and end was August 30th. I did not realize it was wrong until the end of my lease was nearing and I intended to move out in July. When I brought this to her attention, she insisted this is how leases are written. I felt obligated to stay as I had signed the lease and seemed I was stuck. I moved out before the end of July yet left a few boxes inside as I was paying for the whole month of August even though I was no longer living there. Just recently I looked into this issue with a local legal firm and here is what I was told.
12 month lease is for 365 days.
The drafter of the lease holds liability for the error.
I open to advice, knowledge of law and your opinions.
I am in dispute with my previous landlord about money due. The original lease was for 1 year, 12 months. Yet she made an error on the end date and stated the Start was August 1st and end was August 30th. I did not realize it was wrong until the end of my lease was nearing and I intended to move out in July. When I brought this to her attention, she insisted this is how leases are written. I felt obligated to stay as I had signed the lease and seemed I was stuck. I moved out before the end of July yet left a few boxes inside as I was paying for the whole month of August even though I was no longer living there. Just recently I looked into this issue with a local legal firm and here is what I was told.
12 month lease is for 365 days.
The drafter of the lease holds liability for the error.
I open to advice, knowledge of law and your opinions.
Given it's now November, I'm not understanding why it matters now. It's over and done with.
You should have read the lease prior to signing it. You signed it, which means you're obligated to it.
Also, you left contents in the unit after July and paid rent for August, so unless you were leaving the items for her to dispose of, you were still the tenant. You paid for August, you had items occupying the unit in August, you had a signed lease saying you were the tenant for August. I don't see you winning this one. It's probably not what you want to hear but, if I were you, I'd cut my losses and shuck it up to an expensive lesson on reading documents before you sign them.
And, no one forced you to move out before the lease was up. The wise thing would have been to reside in your apartment until the lease was up to avoid paying two rents.
You could try taking the landlord to small claims court, but when you consider the time, money, and emotional effort you will expend, it may not end up being worth it.
I would chalk it up to a lesson learned: always thoroughly read anything before you sign it, and if something doesn't make sense, ask for an explanation, in writing, to be added to the contract.
I have not paid all of it, only half, that is the dispute. Yet they do not want to go to court as they do not claim the income. I wanted to do the right thing, yet found out by law I am not obligated. So forking out another $1,000 does not excite me. I want to shuck it up and let go. Just thought I would get some feedback before I surrender completely.
I appreciate your advice, the high road is usually the best regardless.
I am in dispute with my previous landlord about money due. The original lease was for 1 year, 12 months. Yet she made an error on the end date and stated the Start was August 1st and end was August 30th. I did not realize it was wrong until the end of my lease was nearing and I intended to move out in July. When I brought this to her attention, she insisted this is how leases are written. I felt obligated to stay as I had signed the lease and seemed I was stuck. I moved out before the end of July yet left a few boxes inside as I was paying for the whole month of August even though I was no longer living there. Just recently I looked into this issue with a local legal firm and here is what I was told.
12 month lease is for 365 days.
The drafter of the lease holds liability for the error.
I open to advice, knowledge of law and your opinions.
YOu were right up front. You are wrong now.
The error was hers...but you bought it. And when you did...you bought the month.
You can try small claims court...but they will likely find what I suggest.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Yes, if it says both 12 months and the start-end dates at 13 it would be contradictory and up to a judge to decide the intent. Chances are they would have fouind for you except now that you have kept your things there beyond the end of the 12th months you clearly owe for that extra month.
Yes, if it says both 12 months and the start-end dates at 13 it would be contradictory and up to a judge to decide the intent. Chances are they would have fouind for you except now that you have kept your things there beyond the end of the 12th months you clearly owe for that extra month.
Uhhh no.
Mistakes are always taken against the one who wrote them. And there is no assent in not getting the last box out. So I suspect the right way to resolve this one if for OP to let go of what he has paid and LL to eat the rest.
If LL takes it to small claims court I would go to get the money back and turn LL in to the IRS. May even get a finders fee.
Who says that the landlord did not include that month on their taxes, so turning them in to the IRS can be called harassment.
If the lease says from August 1 to the following August 30, and you kept some possessions in the unit after August 1, you are giving notice you are keeping possession of the unit through Aug 30 per the contract.
Actually a lease runs for the period stated in a lease. It can be a 3 month lease, a 6 month lease, and even a 13 month lease, or a 60 month lease. The beginning and ending dates stated in the lease, are the lease period. You signed the lease with the dates specified exactly. As the lease period was spelled out exactly, take it to small claims court and end up getting told by the judge to pay the money and give the landlord a judgement against you and if you don't pay immediately the landlord will record the judgement as a lien which will go against your credit report, and may make it difficult to rent in the future, and can cause other credit problems.
Looks to me like you accepted and signed a 13 month lease agreement while your intent may have been only a 12 month lease. This is why one needs to read the contracts before signing them to be sure that the numbers and agreement match what you've discussed.
If you'd brought this up as an error to the landlord in a timely manner earlier in the lease term, you might have been able to come to an understanding about the real intent.
But by having retained occupancy of the unit by not removing your possessions, vacating, and giving timely notice to the landlord, you've exercised your leasehold on the place through the 13th month.
You cannot now claim that you should receive that last full month for anything less than the full month's payment. If you were there on the 1st of the month, you were in possession for the month.
Best to pay up or be at risk of civil action by the landlord. The time to have discussed an amicable departure and possible reduced lease payment was in July, perhaps even as late as early August ... if you had an accomodating landlord. At this late date, your tenancy is owed. However the landlord treats their tax situation does not alter the fact that you had a lease and exercised that leasehold to your benefit.
Did the lease actually state that the term was "12 months" or was there simply blanks to fill in for the start and end dates? I've never seen a lease that actually said "this is a 12 month lease beginning __________(fill in the blank date)".
I've had a few people think their lease ended on the same date that they may have moved in such as the 7th of a month. They're all shocked to find that they owe a full month's rent and that the lease ends on the 30th of a month. "You said this was a 6 month lease!" and I reply, "It is clearly written on page 1 the start and end dates." We never end a lease on anything but the 30th unless the tenant specifically asks for it to end on a certain date earlier than that.
Lesson learned - read and understand what you sign before you sign it.
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