The check he gave me is now marked as “RETURN ITEM CHARGEBACK -$850” and there’s an additional "Returned Item Fee 35", so this situation is now officially costing me .
The way I see it, since there’s really no way I can think of that this guy can countersue me, I don’t have much to lose except the $20 processing fee and a couple more hours out of my life, and I could get a settlement for $850 + bank fees or possibly double that if I sue for both the deposit and August rent (as I understand it, even if I don’t get judgement for part of what I’m suing for, I can still be awarded the other part). By the time the case goes to court, August will come and go, so I had no choice but to find another tenant to cover my August rent.
This guy was already bragging about how his dad is a lawyer when he was going over the contract with us. I wonder if he’s cocky enough to assume he can win by default just because of that?
I say sue him for $1755 ($850 + 850 + 20 +35). You’ll probably only get awarded $850, but the worst that’ll happen is that you’ll lose and be out the $20.
No, it’s just that in a contract matter the court will generally seek to make you whole from the damage that was done to you by the breach. If you haven’t been damaged then you aren’t entitled to a recovery because that would be unjust enrichment of you.
Moreover, you aren’t allowed to “run up damages” just to spite the other person. If you unreasonably failed to mitigate your damages, ie, by not seeking another roommate, that’s on you.
Thanks for the (non-legal) advice, everyone. My co-tenant is actually meeting with another prospective roommate for lunch right now, so hopefully he will be satisfied and I will have someone for August. If not, I will repost to craigslist for appointments starting on Sunday (I am working in the evenings today and tomorrow, and all day Saturday – anyone looking for a place in Greenpoint, by any chance?) and will be sure to keep a record of everything.
Why wouldn’t I at least be reimbursed the bank fees for his stop payment? He submitted that before contacting me at all, and was aware that I already deposited his check before he signed the contract.
I am not “running up damages” here. Everything I am seeking is spelled out in the contract he signed, or is a direct result of him trying to back out of it. It did just occur to me that there’s a “Rent not paid by the 30th is subject to a late fee of $20 per day” line in there too, so that’s a clock that would start ticking in 2 weeks as well.
Have you tried contacting him about it? That’s what the court wants you to do anyway; it’s set up that way. You’ve already spent $15 and some time; maybe you can just get the $35 from him without bothering with the court.
I’m planning on sending him an email which says the following, I’m just waiting to hear back from my co-tenant on the other prospective roommate:
Your deposit check was returned unpaid, and I received a $35 fee for the returned item. Unless you reimburse me this fee immediately (in cash), I will be forced to escalate our situation to small claims court. Can you confirm that your home mailing address after August 1 will still be (his home address), and your work mailing address (his work address)?
If things fall through with this other guy, I will also include:
Per our written and signed contract, you are liable and responsible for rent for the August 1-31 term, as well as all bank fees which result from non-payment, and a $20 per day late fee for rent not paid by July 30th*
Sealed the deal with another roommate. At this point, I’ll just be happy to get my $35 and never see this guy again. I’ve been advised to not let him know this detail yet and still confront him about the $850 + $35 and see if I get lucky.
So no, I’m not gonna sue. Even if you do sorta look like Wyoming…
Hmm - I guess in some circles “getting lucky” might be considered a synonym for theft…
Man, you are just making yourself sound better and better with every post. I think the guy who bagged on the room doesn’t realize how lucky he is to have rethought his living arrangements.
The guy isn’t a bastard, or at least isn’t based on the information you provided. He is a guy who simply changed his mind. It happens. He did it quickly and caused you minimal damage. If I’m you I’d politely request he send you a check reimbursing you for the cancelled check fee and move on. Demanding cash is silly and immature, you think he is going to pay $35 to cancel a $35 check?
While I think the OP kinda of jumped the gun with regards to talking about a lawsuit, the other guy was still a prick. Cancelling the check without warning and then ducking phone calls is not cool. A legally binding contract is a little more serious than a promise to go to the movies; you can’t just shrug it off with “I changed my mind.”
I wouldn’t try for $885, though I would ask for more than just $35. Toss in a bit more to cover your wasted time.
I wouldn’t say cancelled without warning. Cancelled without permission maybe, but he certainly ler her know he was doing it. Also the time period where she tried to contact him before he called her was brief enough that I don’tr really think it is fair to conclude he was purposely avoiding her.
He didn’t let her know he was doing it. He let her know that he did it. Not only that, he let her know that he did it after she told him that she had put it in the bank.
The whole purpose of collecting a deposit and signing a contract is to make everything official in regards to reserving and then renting the room. I mean sure, he changed his mind less than 24 hours later, but he didn’t even provide a valid reason, and I’m still convinced the only reason he even returned my call was because he thought his stop payment failed. That 24 hour period (actually more like 48 in regards to the other steps I took) was enough for me to tell another prospective roommate (who in the end, did end up taking it) that the apartment was no longer available, and cancel 4 upcoming appointments. There was a good chance that I wouldn’t have been able to “lock down” another roommate in time for August 1 - if that happened (and I made an honest attempt to), and the other 1/3 of the rent for an empty room had to be paid out of my own pocket, do you all STILL think he would have deserved to get his money back?
Anyway, I sent him an email telling him that if he reimburses me for that $35 fee, I will void his contract and he will never hear from me again.
Personally, I think it’s a godsend he isn’t moving in now anyway. If he didn’t do this now, he would have eventually “changed his mind” about paying rent, and once he’s moved in, it’s a lot harder to get somebody out against their will.
Hell no. If that’d happened you would have been able to demonstrate a much bigger inconvenience. Fortunately, this was only a pain in your ass and not a hit to your finances. Getting ready to file a claim against the guy might’ve been prudent, but filing before you knew if you’d be able to get another tenant would have been a bad idea precisely because you would have been spending time on the claim instead of trying to find a new roommate.
The guy sounds like a flake and did violate his agreement with you but “trying to get lucky” on the $850 is ethically dubious. Even if you did take that to court, the judge or arbitrator’s first question would probably be “were you able to rent out the room,” and hearing that the answer was yes, they wouldn’t give you anything anyhow.
He already wrote back and said he’d mail me a check for $35. Assuming he doesn’t put a stop payment on THAT one too (and as someone already pointed out, that would be fiscally irresponsible on his part, since it would cost him more to stop payment than to let it go through), then this matter is settled, no court filing required. Thanks for following along!
It happens. Doesn’t mean he was trying to scam you but if you had given him the money it would be hard to get it back.
You do have a responsibility to mitigate damages, which means renting to someone one else. You can try to recover losses from him but it takes time and can be frustrating especially if he avoids paying.
A friend of mine got a judgment against a mechanic who scammed her. He never paid, she got another judgment, months passed and before she could do anything else he declared bankruptcy and she got buppkis.