Me and my roomate are suppossed to move into our new appt tomorrow. Our lease at out current place ends and the new one starts. But apparently, my roomate just got a call from the new appts saying that the person in our appt won’t be able to move out for another week and they are going to put us into a 1 bedroom for the duration.
We paid $400 up front 6 months ago to reserve that appt.
I went in and talked to the woman an hour ago and she said she was going to try and find another appt for us - i am going to go talk to her at 4 again. We’ve already signed the lease, is there anything I can do/say to help my case when i go back?
Depends on what your alternatives are. If you take a 1 BR for a week, and your lease says 2BR, she should at least refund a chunk of your first month’s rent. She’s in breach of contract if she can’t deliver the apartment, but you might be better off sticking it out if starting all over again looking for another apartment is not an option.
If she won’t give the refund, then wait until you’ll in the apartment you signed for and then sue for damages. Maybe not the best way to start the relationship, though.
Maybe you can have a free initial consultation with a lawyer, a lot of them will do that.
I think a lot of it comes down to what’s in your lease and what other papers you’ve signed might state.
If you’ve paid money upfront, and you’ve signed a lease for a particular type of apartment, then they have to honor that. (I would think so, anyway.)
This kind of thing really burns me. Recently I found an apt. I wanted to move into. I paid a $99 deposit when I filled out the application, and I was accepted. Now, I had a specific apartment in mind, and they had one that would be available - providing the current tenants moved out when they were supposed to.
Well, of course they didn’t. But they didn’t pay any extra cash, either - they were given an extension (I think the reason they were leaving was that they couldn’t pay the rent, anyway)!
So the landlord gave his current freeloading tenants more time while screwing me over - I had made plans to move in on a particular date and had signed papers to that effect. But since they could no longer guarantee a place, I decided not to take it. And I’m asking for my money back, too. (The form specifically said that although the $99 is normally nonrefundable, it will be returned if a suitable apartment was not found by the prescribed time, which it wasn’t.)
So anyway, it sounds unfair, especially if you had your heart set on the larger apt. At least they’re finding a smaller one for the time being, but that’s pretty inconvenient - you still have to move again when the “real” apt. opens up!
I’ve looked over the Lease and i think it pretty mush states that they must provide us with the appt since we paid - its kind of hard to go through the legalese though.
Its not about the money, its about having to move twice. My roomate and i have too much stuff to fit in a 1 bedroom for one, and secondly, we are both going out of town and won’t be able to move again.
I’m going to tell them to make the other guy move, or else they’ll be breaking our lease.
It’s stuff like this that is a property managers nightmare. You are perfectly within your rights though to use this to your advantage. Take the smaller or an equivelant apartment temporarily and negotiate for your first month’s rent free to compensate you for all the hassles of moving again. I would further ask to be compensated for all utilities until you are settled in your promised apartment. The property manager can turn around and sue the old tenants for the extra cost that they incurred in placing you.
I agree with bare–you should be well compensated for all the trouble they’re putting you through. You may also want to give the local library a call and see if they have a copy of The Landlord/Tenant Handbook for your state. It has loads of information about what your rights are as a tenant and what you can expect.
Calm down, people. It sounds like an honest mistake to me. Yeah, moving twice will be a major pain in the ass but they sure seem to be doing the best that they can for you given what has happened. They informed you as soon as they knew, it was out of their control and they’re scambling to make other arrangements. If they other tenant won’t leave, they can’t make him. The law heavily favors the guy who’s there now.
They really should compensate you further though. First month’s rent for free would be a fair deal. Before you get a lawyer, you should talk to the manager and try to work something out. I’m willing to bet that they’d be reasonable.
Why on Earth would you get lawyers involved at this stage of the game? That has a real good chance of getting things ugly unneccesarily.
Haj
[sub][grumbles under breath]Get a lawyer. That’s the problem with this country[/grumbles under breath][/sub]
meethinks haj has a point, you may get further chatting with them, they are in a business, and hence the business type game. Ask for the sky, and they’ll comeback with dirt, eventually you end up somewhere in between.
IA Still NAL but it certainly is in their control to control their own property. If someone is staying past his lease they can certainly make him leave, although it would take longer than a week anyway. I would agree that all the way around it would be better for all parties to settle this without lawyers, but that’s what law and lawyers are for. HomeSlice has a legally binding agreement that the landlord is not honoring. It is not HomeSlices’s problem as to why, it is the landlord’s problem but the landlord is trying to make it HomeSlice’s problem. Don’t take ownership of someone else’s problem.
Does the complex have storage areas or garages? If you won’t be able to fit all your stuff in the 1BR apartment, tell them you want a free garage to keep your stuff in until you can move into the larger apartment.
You’re correct, they can eventually get them to leave but the process will take a few months. If the people who are currently there want to stay an extra week, there is nothing they can do about that fact. After the fact they can sue them for an extra week’s rent or even more for lost business if the person on the new lease decides to walk as a result. Unfortunately, none of this will help the OP on moving day.
Yes, the landlord will not have honored the contract. The OP’s remedy is to find another place, get their deposit back and maybe sue for some expenses related to the new apartment search assuming that they can or want to find a new place in time…or try to work out a fair deal in a friendly way. It seems like a pretty obvious choice to me.
The landlord’s hand are tied. Please give them the chance to do the right thing before you start talking about getting lawyers. It sounds like they are trying to make something work. Why start things off by being a litigious jerk?
OR to run with this a bit…try and negotiate a deal to get a BETTER apt for the same price. If a slightly higher priced unit is available maybe they would give you a Unit that is $40-$50 a month more for the same price rather than the freebee month. You get a nicer place for a good price, you only move once, they get you as a customer, they get time to deal with problem tenant, everyone happy…
Depending on where HomeSlice is located, the current tenant may have up to a month past his overdue rent before the landlord can even get an eviction notice. I think no matter where he lives, they won’t be able to get an eviction notice for one week.
I’m with Haj: the landlord finds themselves in a difficult situation and is trying to remedy the situation the best they can. You’re more likely to get a free month’s rent out of them then a higher-priced apartment, though, as that would add up to beaucoup bucks over the course of a year.
IAAL, and I think you’re probably wasting your time with a lawyer right now if you can work a good deal on your own. The landlord seems to be acting reasonably in the face of their problem.
Be sure to ask the landlord to pay for your temporary relocation costs and storage. They might just give it to you without a fight.
How long will it take to get them out? Well, in California, it could take a couple months to get everything straightened out, especially if they fight the eviction and leave personal property behind after they get kicked out.
Free month = $600
12 months of $650 a month upgraded apt at $600/mo = $600
Same price, nicer place. Plus you might be able to keep that rate depending on the laws of your area or the customer service orientation of the complex. At the complex I used to live in many of the “upgrades” were real cheap, that could also be the difference between an upstairs and a downstairs apt in two level complexes. Speaking from experience moving in and out of upstairs apts is a bitch. IF they won’t hold your rate you can always go elsewhere and its easier to move from a lower level apt.
*IIRC lower level apt’s are usually more expensive in 2-3 story apt complexes.
At least in Louisiana, you can evict someone whenever you want - but they have a month AFTER the eviction notice to move out. However, if the landlord was looking to rent the place, chances are that the annoying tennants had already given their one month notice! Once they’ve done that, they’re gone!!! They have no right to be there.
Again, physically, it’s not like the landlord can move their stuff out and kick them to the curb - it just wouldn’t be humane. His/her hands are seriously tied. I think y’all have good ideas: asking for a month’s rent, or asking for an upgrade.
I’m completely with Hajario about the lawyers - leave them out!!!
I feel totally evil for even suggesting this. Can you tell your current landlord that you can’t move until a week after your lease ends? That way, you only move once, and your lease with the new place can just be moved out a week, so you don’t pay extra.
