Letter From Landlord- wwyd?

[JeepMom]

Dear Jeepmom & JeepDad:

We are in recipt of your letter informing us of your intention to vacate the property rent at 000 Overpiced, House, IL approximately the middle of August.

The lease that you signed in December 2005 does not expire until December 2006. Therefore, you will be accountable for any rent from the day you vacate until the property is re-rented.

As we get nearer to the date that you plan to vacate, we would apprreciate a couple of days notice of the specific date.

Thank-you,

Jerk LandLord

We pay rent 15th-15th. We are now turning in the keys 9/14/06.

So, will this hold up in court?

[NASCAR20FAN]

I would check you states renters laws to see what your rights actually are.

[BassBoy]

From my experience and research.........

The first thing you need to do is check your lease. In virtually
every lease agreement, there is a clause stating how much (if any)
rent you must pay if you break the lease (breach your contract) before
the end of its term. Your lease is legally binding on both sides - if
your termination of contract clause states that you must pay XX
months rent or the remainder of the lease, I'm afraid you're probably stuck. (My own lease
agreement says that if I break my lease with 30 days notice for any
reason, I am obligated to pay for the *entire remainder of the lease
term*, or until the house is rented out again, whichever comes
first.)

If you do not have a copy of your rental agreement, your landlord is
legally obligated to provide one at your request:

"Civil Code Section 1962, 1962.5, and 1962.7 now require that
landlords must provide to tenants a copy of the rental agreement or a
written statement of its terms. (Upon request of the tenant, once a
year). Also required is that the rental agreement must disclose how
and to whom rent payments should be made."

In an article at Real Estate Today, a couple poses the question of
breaking a lease because they are moving into a house. Counselor of
Real Estate and Certified Property Manager Robert Griswold had this to
say:

"[...]you are responsible for the balance of the lease term yet the
owner must mitigate your damages; he must make a reasonable effort to
re-rent the property under the same or similar rental terms. You can
be held responsible for the (reasonable) actual advertising and other related
costs (credit checks, etc.). But, you are not responsible for the rent once
the house has been re-rented."

[Minnymouth]

You signed the lease and yes the landlord can hold you too it till the property is rented again....

Read over your lease real closely and see requirements of breaking lease.....

Make sure your signature is on the lease......... not just a copy of a lease agreement.

Unfortunately, this does happen when you sign a lease... Their going to force you to live there till the lease runs out or pay anyways.....

It will hold up in court, plus added court expenses, etc.....

[BassBoy]

Here's something you may be able to offer the landlord. When my wife and I left our very first apartment into our first home, we left 3 months before the end of our lease agreement. Then, we got a certified letter stating what we owed them. Well, considering we owed them $1980, and we just bought a house, it was almost impossible to pay that off with one payment........so........we contacted them to work something out. The first thing was that our security deposit covered one month, but we still owed $1320.....so.....what we worked out with them was an agreement that we would pay so much per month until the balance was paid off. Of course, this had to be done in writing......basically, we had to provide a letter of good faith. This could be a good end result for you and for your landlord.

[JeepMom]

The contract is barely one at that. There is nothing on it really.

It's one shet that states:

JeepMom & JeepDad
Lease agreement
Dec 15, 2005-Dec 15,2006
XXX Crappy House
Mycity, IL

$800/month

It was the loosest lease I have ever seen. There was nothing to it. If I can find it I will scan it and post it.

[Minnymouth]

Post a copy of it for us to look at...... may not be binding at all...........

Court wants to see documents.............. not a joke of a document.....

[JeepMom]

Its a simple piece of paper, no double/triplicate copies. It's not even a "go to office max and fill in the blanks" it's something he typed up in MS Word. There is no out statements.

I've figured out what we are going to do and I'll post it here once iget it all typed out.

[JeepMom]

Adding for here, this window is at floor level

[JeepMom]

If he decided to evict us dh works with a guy that has a trailer that we could live in until we close on the house.

[Minnymouth]

Yes, and anything else you can find to add to this that needs his repairs..... he is the landlord, responsible for repairs.......

Will give him something to think about............

Might work............. hope so..............

PS If he files eviction notice................. he breaks the lease, not you....

[JeepMom]

I know the pictures are huge but I wanted you to be able to read them.

[Minnymouth]

Okay,

The lease is on a "month to month basis" only........

If you leave before the 12 months period, ONLY THEN is the DEPOSIT is non-refundable.......

Sorry about the landlords luck................. he cannot collect anymore rent or future rent that you might have paid.......

He can only take your security deposit (300.00) and cleaning fee (200.00)....... nothing else.....

Heck, you can live there, pay no rent and make him evict you since its a month to month contract.

Bad looking lease in my business..................

A contract cannot state "month to month basis" and then stipulate 12 month lease...........

[JeepMom]

Also notice the dates under monies rec'd. 12/15/05 to 1/15/05 that makes no sense. Did he mean 06 or 07? I don't know. The next paragraph says month to month. I would take it as month to month? If he meant 07 that's 13 months, not 12. If he meant 06 that's month to month, not 12 month.

I'm tkaing out the part about not paying any more money. Here's the new top-paragraph:
We will be terminating our lease for XXX XXXXXXX on September 14, 2006. The original date of August 14, 2006 for moving out is no longer valid. This is giving you two months to re-rent the house and to fix the following issues allowing to re-rent the house prior to our vacating.

[Minnymouth]

The dates only reflect that your rent is paid till the next month and that he received a deposit and cleaning fees from you also...... and yes he made that typical year end date error......

Yes, delete the part about not paying any more money, just give him the date of moving and turning in the keys......

You probably won't get your deposit back.... but that's the way it goes sometimes......

Just make sure he don't try to charge you MORE for damages...... you have already got a depost down for any damages.....