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kedo
Nov 27, 2007

I have a question regarding late fees.

Location: Geographically DC, incorporated in VA, doing business all over the place.

I do a lot of freelance graphic design work and unfortunately a lot of clients are very slow to pay. I have a set of boilerplate terms that I make every client sign, and that I've been using for ages. In those terms is a line item stating that I charge an additional 5% for past due invoices. The number comes from the boilerplate – I didn't put it in there.

My question is this: Is there any sort of legal limit for late fees? Can I charge more than 5%? Googling just turns up a whole lot of people talking about late fees for renters, which seems like it's probably covered by different laws.

My main goal is to try to get people to pay on time, but 5% is practically nothing. On big invoices ($5,000+) it's just a drop in the bucket, and on small invoices (sub $1,000) it's laughably small, so the end result is that it has zero impact.

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joat mon
Oct 15, 2009

I am the master of my lamp;
I am the captain of my tub.

NESguerilla posted:

I am in sort of a lovely weird situation. I got married 3 1/2 years ago to my then girlfriend who is not a US citizen. After about a year and a half poo poo fell apart and we started fighting constantly and she moved in with her sister. We sort of stayed together in an on again/off again thing for a while after that until she eventually decided she wanted to move to New York.

When she moved to New York I told her that I had no interest in lying to the INS, so when we were called in for the inevitable interview we told them that we had split and how she was living in NY for the time being etc. They also asked why we haven't gotten a divorce of course. The reason for that is basically just pure laziness. I had intended to pursue it earlier on, but being married to her wasn't really inconvenient and neither one of us was looking forward to dealing with it.

This has lead to her being denied by the ins. She just found this out yesterday. She will be seeing her lawyer today so I am sure she will be briefed on her options (Hope there are some for her sake)so I am not really concerned with that.

What I am wondering is where does that leave us as far as marital status is concerned? Does the marriage remain or become nullified or what? I have no idea. Also, what are the chances that I am going to have to go to court over this? The INS is already aware of the situation but I am worried that I have handled this so stupidly that I am going to end up in a hot seat.

You are still married.
The marriage remains. Getting married is a completely separate and independent thing from getting citizenship.
You will have to get a divorce and you will most likely have to go to court, if only briefly.
Your wondering whether the INS USCIS denial would nullify the marriage raises the question of whether the marriage was done to get around INS ICE regulations. If it was, you need to be quiet about that, as it's illegal and carries up to 5 years.
Get the divorce done already.

Not a NY attorney
Not an immigration attorney
Not your attorney.

veni veni veni
Jun 5, 2005


Thanks. Definitely sounds like I need to get on this divorce.

The reason I asked about the marriage nullification is because we are no longer together and will be divorcing anyways.

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I was planning on filing for divorce about 6 months ago when we went to the last interview. Her attorney had asked if I would be willing to wait until her case was processed to file the paper work and I agreed.

veni veni veni fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Apr 2, 2012

Green Crayons
Apr 2, 2009

NESguerilla posted:

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I was planning on filing for divorce about 6 months ago when we went to the last interview. Her attorney had asked if I would be willing to wait until her case was processed to file the paper work and I agreed.
BTW her attorney is her attorney and not your attorney, so if the lawyer starts asking if you'd be cool and wait or something, that attorney trying to get you to act in the client's best interest. You are not that client. That client is your wife.

I'm not saying be a dick or anything, but just be mindful of whose interest that attorney is looking out for.

testifeye
Sep 24, 2004

maroon moon

testifeye posted:

I'm located in Cincinnati, OH.

I live in an apartment where I've had problems with the water for the past 2 months. I live in a building with five apartments, one of which (on the main floor) wasn't rented out when I first moved in at the end of June. Come October, when a new tenant moved in, water flow to the third floor (where I am located) became problematic. It's worst when someone is using the washing machine in the basement. Water flow will halve in strength and eventually come to a complete stop (i.e., no water coming out of any tap in the apartment).

After telling my landlord this in October, they immediately sent the city in, who determined the problem is due to plumbing in the building, and that the water is flowing into the building from the city at the appropriate strength. I have suspicions about what is causing the problem, namely a poorly repaired pipe in the basement that moderates flow up to my apartment.

Water is included in my rent. I've talked to the property manager about this for two months, and just get emails with vague updates that lead to no significant change. This is getting ridiculous. Sometimes it stops in the middle of my shower.

I've been patient, I've been nice. I pay my rent on time every single month. Finally today I sent an angry email (which is really counter to my usual approach), to my property manager and to the landlord saying that I'm getting fed up. That we have a legal agreement where they promise to provide basic services (including water) and that I promise to pay rent. And they're not living up to their end of the bargain. I told them that if it's not repaired by the end of the month I'm considering withholding my rent.

Was this stupid? I just feel really powerless in this situation and I'm reaching the end of my patience. What are my options?

I just wanted to post my appreciation to the thread. Through being directed by you guys I got a copy of my local landlord/tenant laws, submitted a letter with a 30 day notice of taking my landlord to court. As a result, the building had a massive repair done that fixed the water and the landlord gave me a month's worth of free rent for my troubles. It didn't happen right away (they tried to do a few failed repairs before the final correct one), but it worked. Thank you!

Schitzo
Mar 20, 2006

I can't hear it when you talk about John Druce

Green Crayons posted:

BTW her attorney is her attorney and not your attorney, so if the lawyer starts asking if you'd be cool and wait or something, that attorney trying to get you to act in the client's best interest. You are not that client. That client is your wife.

I'm not saying be a dick or anything, but just be mindful of whose interest that attorney is looking out for.

This. I can see her point of view, as obviously a divorce would likely hurt her if she otherwise had a legit appeal, but you need to look out for yourself.

No idea how it works in your jurisdiction, but maybe an agreement that she'll sign the necessary paperwork if you agree not to file it until after her appeals are exhausted? Definitely not advice, talk to a lawyer in your jurisdiction.

veni veni veni
Jun 5, 2005


We talked about needing to get a divorce asap today. She pretty much just asked me to do the paperwork and said she would sign it. Thanks for the input guys. I realize it's her lawyer but I didn't see the harm in waiting. I just need to get it taken care of in case she ends up getting deported.

Actually, I have another question after looking at the separation paperwork. It seems to have a section to for splitting up debt. We both have our own debt in our own names only. None of it is shared. I am not aware of all of the things she is in debt for and I don't even trust that she is either.

Would I be at a big risk for inheriting debt that is only in her name? I can't tell if the form is requesting me to only list debt that is currently shared by both of us. That's really the only thing that worries me. We have had our own lives for some time now so there isn't really any issues of who owns what. I just don't want her credit card debt and I doubt she's interested in paying my $35,000 in student loans.

I'll look into my options as far as a lawyer is concerned. Considering I don't have a penny to my name I may just have to educate myself enough to make sure I fill this paperwork out correctly.

BirdOfPlay
Feb 19, 2012

THUNDERDOME LOSER

Folly posted:

I am not a lawyer in Virginia.

First, stop a sec. You are treading dangerously close to the practice of law without a license, which is a crime in most states. You probably can't represent your aunt in a court proceeding unless you're a lawyer. That's generally one of those things that always counts as "the practice of law" in pretty much every state.

At this point, your aunt is involved in a (admittedly minor) criminal proceeding, so standard thread advice is to get a lawyer. Don't take it lightly because it started as a parking ticket. Where I am, which is not VA, parking tickets don't usually result in a summons. Here, that would happen if you got a citation with a full-on court date and then missed the court date. I might or might not have been close to having my license suspended due to missing a court date for a parking citation when I was 16. So, in some states, this can add up to real penalties. I don't know the law where you are so I can't tell what's true there.

Your aunt, not you, could probably call the chambers of the judge, ASAP, and explain what happened. They would probably tell her what she needs to do next. If she's lucky, and the state allows it, they'll tell her to send in her paperwork along with what paperwork to send and how, then drop the summons. Even in the best of situations, that would probably be totally at the judge's discretion, so be polite.

Don't rely on this as legal advice. There are lots of other things your aunt could do. And you and your aunt probably already know to take a summons seriously.

Alrighty thanks. I really didn't think/know about "practicing without a license." I'll be treading VERY carefully in how I act from here on out.

I'll get her to call up the Magistrate (or "Magisterial Judge") and see what's what. Also, it was from a court in Pennsylvania (probably a Mag. Court in Pittsburgh), not Virginia (her residence), if that matters.

The thing is this whole "summons" thing is confusing to me about it's seriousness. Checking over what two separate Mag Courts have sent me for traffic violations one calls itself a "Summons for a Summary Case Traffic" and the other is a "Notice of Trial Summary Case." Or these two intrinsically different things? Asking cause the one that called itself a summons, I remember the Deputy talking about how if I ignored the notice, the Magistrate would issue a bench warrant for my arrest. (Yeah probably some soft bravado/intimidation, but I don't hold it against him cause he told me EXACTLY what I needed to do to get the Magistrate to dismiss the citations.)

Schitzo
Mar 20, 2006

I can't hear it when you talk about John Druce

BirdOfPlay posted:

Alrighty thanks. I really didn't think/know about "practicing without a license." I'll be treading VERY carefully in how I act from here on out.

I'll get her to call up the Magistrate (or "Magisterial Judge") and see what's what. Also, it was from a court in Pennsylvania (probably a Mag. Court in Pittsburgh), not Virginia (her residence), if that matters.

The thing is this whole "summons" thing is confusing to me about it's seriousness. Checking over what two separate Mag Courts have sent me for traffic violations one calls itself a "Summons for a Summary Case Traffic" and the other is a "Notice of Trial Summary Case." Or these two intrinsically different things? Asking cause the one that called itself a summons, I remember the Deputy talking about how if I ignored the notice, the Magistrate would issue a bench warrant for my arrest. (Yeah probably some soft bravado/intimidation, but I don't hold it against him cause he told me EXACTLY what I needed to do to get the Magistrate to dismiss the citations.)

I don't want to diminish the importance of what Folly told you, but at least in my jurisdiction minor matters such as traffic court will allow agents to appear on someone's behalf. Call the clerks or pop down to the courthouse, and they'll definitely tell you what is and isn't allowed.

That said, even if agents are allowed, there are issues with the evidence you can give on your aunt's behalf (short explanation, it's not fair to the prosecutor if he thinks the story isn't true and has no way to directly examine your aunt about it). If you plan to do anything more involved than accepting a plea or asking for more time, your aunt reeally should be there.

Also, the clerks can likely clear up the Summons / Notice confusion for you. Clerks are amazing, just make sure you are polite and respectful. They deal with assholes and crazy people more than any person should have to.

Schitzo fucked around with this message at 05:48 on Apr 3, 2012

Baika
Jul 8, 2011

Cap on, apply directly to the rats head.
Any tips on how to serve legal papers to a person who often avoids and slips away from legal issues? My dad is trying to serve papers via company to my mom but they haven't been successful. She is the type who currently has other people after her and manages to get away scot free.

hypocrite lecteur
Aug 21, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post
There's alternatives for substituting service if someone can't be served, or is deliberately evading service. The bar is usually pretty high for it, and the procedures will vary based on your jurisdiction. Clerks at the court may be able to give you some information, but you may need a local lawyer's help to walk through it

chemosh6969
Jul 3, 2004

code:
cat /dev/null > /etc/professionalism

I am in fact a massive asswagon.
Do not let me touch computer.

Schitzo posted:

No idea how it works in your jurisdiction, but maybe an agreement that she'll sign the necessary paperwork if you agree not to file it until after her appeals are exhausted? Definitely not advice, talk to a lawyer in your jurisdiction.

Yes, have paperwork stating you are going to stay married to her so it helps her chances on staying in the country and if it doesn't work, then you're getting a divorce.

Nope, nothing there that ICE would be concerned with and it would be a good thing to have in writing. There's no possible way your wife could ever use something like that against you if she ever had to leave the country, was pissed off at you and wanted to throw you in front of the bus.

WhiskeyJuvenile
Feb 15, 2002

by Nyc_Tattoo
Not a practicing lawyer, but I'd be interested in hearing if the criminalized fraud is only in the formation of the marriage or in the continuance of the marriage. That is, it is a crime to marry a foreigner for the purposes of their acquiring citizenship, but I'm at least not aware of any requirement to divorce.

veni veni veni
Jun 5, 2005


Keep in mind that immigration is well aware that we are no longer together and will be seeking a divorce. I am not sure why remaining married to someone for a while after separation would be fraudulent unless I had told them we were still together.

Proust Malone
Apr 4, 2008

California renter: landlord's lawyer sent us an email saying they wanted to rescind our lease. We hadn't yet moved in, but we did have storage containers on the property waiting for the landlords to move out of the house. Ultimate disagreement was over whether the landlords could leave a trailer and some other poo poo on the property.

Landlords are claiming we broke the lease and refusing to return any of the deposit + first/last months rent we paid then upon signing the lease.

We're taking them to small claims. Two questions: does that email from their lawyer disprove their claim that we broke the lease? Also, the lease had a mediation clause. Are we bound to it after the lease was rescinded?

baquerd
Jul 2, 2007

by FactsAreUseless

Ron Jeremy posted:

Landlords are claiming we broke the lease and refusing to return any of the deposit + first/last months rent we paid then upon signing the lease.

What is the reason for the claim that you broke the lease?

Proust Malone
Apr 4, 2008

baquerd posted:

What is the reason for the claim that you broke the lease?

It's hard to say. The last verbal conversation I had with the guy ended with him screaming and swearing at me in front of my kids.

In the letter they sent claiming we broke the lease, they said the rescind offer was seeing if we really wanted the place. We agreed to rescind and moved our storage containers off. So.. that means we broke the lease to them.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Ron Jeremy posted:


In the letter they sent claiming we broke the lease, they said the rescind offer was seeing if we really wanted the place. We agreed to rescind and moved our storage containers off. So.. that means we broke the lease to them.

Uh, no that's not going to fly. You might take the letter from their lawyer to a judge, and say "Judge, they offered to rescind. We accepted. Now they are claiming that we broke the lease and are with-holding our deposit." This isn't legal advice but it's what I would do.

Kneel Before Zog
Jan 16, 2009

by Y Kant Ozma Post
Questions involving evictions and leases.

1) Should I still try to sue a tenant for damages (not paying rent or the electricity when it was still under our name) if I wrote on the back of their three day notice something along the lines of ' if you give me in writing that you will leave by monday I won't press charges'. They left by Monday but they didn't give me anything in writing. Only vague texts that came after she left the house after Monday. She texted she left behind the keys but I saw no sight of them. Basically I've given up on the suing for damages process since everyone tells me its unlikely the judge will force them to pay/garnish their wages. Is this true?

2) Also for the next tenant I have been considering a shorter, higher taxed, 3 month lease, for signing under the assumption that once the lease is up you don't have to go through the eviction process to remove them. Is this the case? Also is there any type of lease for renting that lets you get rid of tenants easier through clauses in writing signed by both parties? I know you can't waive away many state statute laws even if you write so in the lease.

Edit: Also what websites do Ll's recommend for? background checks. In Florida, if I have the tenant sign a document giving me the right to pull their credit history, can I pull it myself?

Kneel Before Zog fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Apr 4, 2012

chemosh6969
Jul 3, 2004

code:
cat /dev/null > /etc/professionalism

I am in fact a massive asswagon.
Do not let me touch computer.

Baruch Obamawitz posted:

Not a practicing lawyer, but I'd be interested in hearing if the criminalized fraud is only in the formation of the marriage or in the continuance of the marriage. That is, it is a crime to marry a foreigner for the purposes of their acquiring citizenship, but I'm at least not aware of any requirement to divorce.

He said she wasn't a citizen, so she'd be here on a green card which means you get to go back now and then to get it renewed.

Let's say there's a worst case scenario of having a paper saying they are only staying married unless she's unable to stay in the country. She leaves the country, is mad about something and then tells contacts ICE because she has to admit the fraudulent marriage they kept to try and keep her in and that they would divorce if it failed. Maybe throwing in a few things about how lovely he was.

The person she talks to has some personal experience with the issue, maybe with the lovely husband, then has a bug up her butt to try and cause as much trouble for you as she can. She may know it won't go anywhere in the end but she really wants to cause you some grief. Of course as we all know, nobody in a position of power would ever do such a thing.

I just don't see how a signed letter like that could do anything to help the husband in any way.

im cute
Sep 21, 2009

Hey goons, I'm wondering if there might be legal ramifications for exploiting a temporary website glitch.

Specifically, my local grocery store has a loyalty card program where when you spend money at the store, you earn points which you can, on their website, convert over to store credit. The other night I converted my points over to store credit, but on the confirmation screen it showed that I still had the same points balance. So I cashed out again. Still the same points balance, but twice the credit. After a few more conversions I had close to $500 in store credit and the same amount of points as before, but the site said it was having technical difficulties and wasn't converting any more points at the moment.

The following morning I checked back and my point balance had been corrected, but the amount of credit had not.

Now, I never "hacked" the site or employed any kind of devious tricks or defrauding tools; what I did was technically allowed by the site until it broke and could have been done by any casual user. The only information leading from the card to me is a (fake) name, an email address, the stores it's been used at and the date/time/amount of each transaction.

I'm in California and the company is based in California, if it helps. I haven't spent any of the store credit.

Thanks!

hypocrite lecteur
Aug 21, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

paco650 posted:

Hey goons, I'm wondering if there might be legal ramifications for exploiting a temporary website glitch.

Specifically, my local grocery store has a loyalty card program where when you spend money at the store, you earn points which you can, on their website, convert over to store credit. The other night I converted my points over to store credit, but on the confirmation screen it showed that I still had the same points balance. So I cashed out again. Still the same points balance, but twice the credit. After a few more conversions I had close to $500 in store credit and the same amount of points as before, but the site said it was having technical difficulties and wasn't converting any more points at the moment.

The following morning I checked back and my point balance had been corrected, but the amount of credit had not.

Now, I never "hacked" the site or employed any kind of devious tricks or defrauding tools; what I did was technically allowed by the site until it broke and could have been done by any casual user. The only information leading from the card to me is a (fake) name, an email address, the stores it's been used at and the date/time/amount of each transaction.

I'm in California and the company is based in California, if it helps. I haven't spent any of the store credit.

Thanks!

You explicitly acknowledge that you know the points came from some sort of glitch. You also know that the situation is sketchy enough that you felt compelled to seek out advice before spending the credit.

If you do end up trying to use the credit to buy poo poo at the store, be sure to come back and let us know if you end up getting charged with theft, fraud, or both. I'd be curious to know

betaraywil
Dec 30, 2006

Gather the wind
Though the wind won't help you fly at all

paco650 posted:

Hey goons, I'm wondering if there might be legal ramifications for exploiting a temporary website glitch.

Specifically, my local grocery store has a loyalty card program where when you spend money at the store, you earn points which you can, on their website, convert over to store credit. The other night I converted my points over to store credit, but on the confirmation screen it showed that I still had the same points balance. So I cashed out again. Still the same points balance, but twice the credit. After a few more conversions I had close to $500 in store credit and the same amount of points as before, but the site said it was having technical difficulties and wasn't converting any more points at the moment.

The following morning I checked back and my point balance had been corrected, but the amount of credit had not.

Now, I never "hacked" the site or employed any kind of devious tricks or defrauding tools; what I did was technically allowed by the site until it broke and could have been done by any casual user. The only information leading from the card to me is a (fake) name, an email address, the stores it's been used at and the date/time/amount of each transaction.

I'm in California and the company is based in California, if it helps. I haven't spent any of the store credit.

Thanks!

Well as long as it's technical, and you use a fake name, and you get the go-ahead from a lawyer on the internet, it's not illegal.

(I am not a lawyer and it is therefore still illegal.)

im cute
Sep 21, 2009

So, all the sarcasm and ironic "haha @ u for seeking legal advice in a legal advice thread" aside, what's the best way to address this? Should I email the company? Just destroy/lose the card (the credit expires on the first of July)? Go ahead and spend all the money anyway because Bank Error In Your Favor, Collect $500?

Thuryl
Mar 14, 2007

My postillion has been struck by lightning.

paco650 posted:

So, all the sarcasm and ironic "haha @ u for seeking legal advice in a legal advice thread" aside, what's the best way to address this? Should I email the company? Just destroy/lose the card (the credit expires on the first of July)? Go ahead and spend all the money anyway because Bank Error In Your Favor, Collect $500?

Don't spend the money. If you knew that you were taking advantage of an error (which you clearly did) and somebody finds out (which they very likely will), you will at least have to pay the money back and can be charged with fraud. Notify the company of the error: you should be able to keep the credit you were actually entitled to.

im cute
Sep 21, 2009

Thuryl posted:

Don't spend the money. If you knew that you were taking advantage of an error (which you clearly did) and somebody finds out (which they very likely will), you will at least have to pay the money back and can be charged with fraud. Notify the company of the error: you should be able to keep the credit you were actually entitled to.

I did this. Just called and the operator had no idea what I was talking about until I told her the exact data I was looking at. Would've been nice to eat for free for a few months, but then I guess I would've been eating for free a lot longer in jail, too.

I'm putting the card away until this whole thing gets settled; odds are the card will be deactivated anyway, so it'll just be another piece of useless plastic. The funny part is more points have accumulated and now I'm (legitimately) entitled to another couple bucks in store credit. :doh:

Salt Fish
Sep 11, 2003

Cybernetic Crumb
East Lansing Michigan:

I am a fixed term tenet in an apartment building. The apartment building was just sold, and I got a letter asking me to send checks to a new organization each month. Does this change of ownership give me a chance to get out of my fixed term lease?

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Salt Fish posted:

East Lansing Michigan:

I am a fixed term tenet in an apartment building. The apartment building was just sold, and I got a letter asking me to send checks to a new organization each month. Does this change of ownership give me a chance to get out of my fixed term lease?

What does your lease say?

Salt Fish
Sep 11, 2003

Cybernetic Crumb

entris posted:

What does your lease say?

There are no terms addressing a change of ownership. It states that I shall pay [original owner] a sum of $425 each month. I will quote the exact text of the lease one hour from now when I return home.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post
How long is the term, and how much is left in your lease? Why do you want to leave?

Salt Fish
Sep 11, 2003

Cybernetic Crumb

entris posted:

How long is the term, and how much is left in your lease? Why do you want to leave?

It is a 12 month lease. I have April May, June and July payments left to make. The April payment is due on the 10th of this month. I want to break the lease because I was notified today that I will be laid off on the 1st of May. Without a job in this city I have no reason to remain and am planning on moving in with my parents while I search for a job (which I have already started doing today).

edit: also my bank account has exactly $1050 dollars in it. I am expecting an additional $1200 in wages before I am dismissed. Consequently these 4 rent payments will be tough, but possible.

Salt Fish fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Apr 5, 2012

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post
One thing that you can start doing is talking to your landlord about finding someone to replace you. If you can find a new renter to take over, you will be able to save the last few payments. Your landlord probably needs to agree to find a new renter, and agree to the person that you find.

This can be either a sub-lease (where you remain liable in the event that the new renter doesn't pay up) or a completely new lease that replaces yours, and has just the new renter on it.

I would call up the landlord, tell them you got laid off and that you want to find someone to take over the lease or otherwise replace you, and get that process started.

Ashcans
Jan 2, 2006

Let's do the space-time warp again!

I am not a lawyer, but if your place just changed hands, it's possible that the new owners would actually prefer to get you out so that they can start with fresh tenants using their own lease and rates - right now they're stuck with whatever your had negotiated with the previous owner, so its possible they'll jump at the chance for you to go and let them re-rent the place at a higher rate or whatever.

Salt Fish
Sep 11, 2003

Cybernetic Crumb

entris posted:

One thing that you can start doing is talking to your landlord about finding someone to replace you. If you can find a new renter to take over, you will be able to save the last few payments. Your landlord probably needs to agree to find a new renter, and agree to the person that you find.

This can be either a sub-lease (where you remain liable in the event that the new renter doesn't pay up) or a completely new lease that replaces yours, and has just the new renter on it.

I would call up the landlord, tell them you got laid off and that you want to find someone to take over the lease or otherwise replace you, and get that process started.

Unfortunately this is not likely as there are only ~18 rented apartments out of 60 in the building. The general consensus seems to be to call and be very honest. I'll give it a shot. Hasn't really worked out for me in the past, but theres always a first time. :)

john ashpool
Jun 29, 2010
My question has to do with landlord access to my apartment, which is in MA.

So long as the landlord gives prior notice, I understand that its completely legal for a repairmen to enter my apartment to do repairs. The landlord does not have to accompany him, and instead can just give the repairman a key until the repairs are finished.

However, what about repairs to the exterior of the building? My landlord had the roof replaced, and for some reason gave the roofers a key to my apartment. If I lived on the 3rd and top floor I could conceivably see why they need access, but I live on the 2nd floor. The roofers entered my apartment while I was gone, used my electricity, blew a circuit and left windows open. I don't think anything is missing, but I sure as hell wasn't expecting visitors.

Because the roofers weren't doing any repairs to my apartment and because I wasn't given any early earning that they'd need entrance, I am pissed. I'm also worried that they could have made a copy of the key, and that I'll return one day from work to find my apartment stripped.

How unreasonable would it be to demand my locks be changed? If the landlord refused, could I have it done myself and take it out of the rent?


MA /PartII/TitleI/Chapter186 posted:

Section 15B. (1) (a) No lease relating to residential real property shall contain a provision that a lessor may, except to inspect the premises, to make repairs thereto or to show the same to a prospective tenant, purchaser, mortgagee or its agents, enter the premises before the termination date of such lease.

chemosh6969
Jul 3, 2004

code:
cat /dev/null > /etc/professionalism

I am in fact a massive asswagon.
Do not let me touch computer.

Salt Fish posted:

Unfortunately this is not likely as there are only ~18 rented apartments out of 60 in the building. The general consensus seems to be to call and be very honest. I'll give it a shot. Hasn't really worked out for me in the past, but theres always a first time. :)

You could always get a cheap initial with a tenant lawyer since what the landlord tells you might not be true when you may have a recourse that benefits you that they either don't bother to tell your or just don't know about. If they can't find renters, it's not in their interest to help you get out.

If it works in your favor after talking to a lawyer, it'll be cheaper than paying rent. Worst case you're out a few bucks for the lawyer but at least you'd know for sure.

IllIllIll
Feb 17, 2012
So yesterday I got a noise complaint ticket for a party. Well that's not actually true...


I got TWO tickets. Rather, I got one and my roommate got another. The cops came at 1 AM, knocked on the door. My roommate answered, and they requested that someone else that lives there come outside. I go out and they tell us that the city is cracking down on noise complaints in residential areas, and proceed to write a ticket to my roommate and one for me. The tickets are completely identical except for our names, and they wrote 12:00 instead of the actual time which was about 1:15.

My understanding is that noise complaint tickets are on the property, not the individual? Five people live at my house, if three weren't out of town would we have got five tickets?

What's my recourse here? I don't understand how we can get two violations for the same offense at the same time. The cops seemed dead-set on giving us two tickets – they said if people were loud as they left the party, they'd give us another ticket.

This is our first violation, (though there were multiple tickets on the house last year when one of my roommates was still living there, the other 4 people are new tenants), and we're in San Luis Obispo California.

Thanks in advance!

IllIllIll fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Apr 9, 2012

Murmur Twin
Feb 11, 2003

An ever-honest pacifist with no mind for tricks.
Quick question for anyone that can help. This all takes place in Boston, Massachusetts.

I moved into an apartment with Andy, Rob, and Kara back in June 2011. It's a three-bedroom apartment, as Rob and Kara are a couple and shared a room. We signed a one-year lease and paid first, last, and security deposits when we moved in.

A few weeks ago, Andy got into a vicious argument with Rob and Kara. I'm generally the peacekeeper of the house and tried to diffuse things, but the kettle had been boiling for awhile and the argument escalated. It ended in Andy grabbing his things, breaking the lease with the landlord, and moving out. Since we paid last month and our lease expires in June, this only left us on the hook for one month of rent (April) as May was paid for.

When Andy broke the lease, he got the landlord and they did a walk-through of our apartment. The landlord freaked out when she saw that we had chalk on the walls of our apartment. The walls in there are asylum white and it's a basement apartment with few windows, so we wanted to make it a bit "homier". We checked with the landlord before we did this - as long as the walls were in good condition before we left the apartment, we would still be able to get our security deposit back. But she's crazy and aparently forgot she told us this.

No biggie, though. We talked to her and explained that we all want the same thing - for the apartment to be in good enough shape to get our security deposits back. We specifically asked her if we could apply Andy's security deposit towards the month of rent that he screwed us out of. She agreed that as long as all of the walls were in good shape within the week, all would be fine. So we bought some $50 worth of paint/supplies, took Saturday afternoon to repaint the place, and considered it an investment to get our security deposit back.

I just got a call from Kara who had just talked to the landlord. The landlord is now saying that even if the place is in tip-top shape, she can't apply Andy's security deposit to cover his month of rent unless we get his signature. Seeing as Andy's and Rob's last interaction involved threats of violence on both sides and the police getting called, I don't see Andy agreeing to sign anything. I'm frustrated because we did a bunch of work and it seems like a completely fair outcome to use his forfeited deposit to cover his rent, and also because I need to come up with first/security/last for another place for June and can't afford to be covering Andy's portion of the rent.

Do I have any recourse here? Other than picking unstable roommates and failing to get basic-seeming things in writing, I feel like I'm getting totally screwed in this whole thing.

Murmur Twin fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Apr 9, 2012

Dingleberry Jones
Jun 2, 2008
If I'm posting a new thread, it means there is a thread already posted and I failed at using the forum search correctly
Wow this is a big thread.

Okay, here's my question:

Charleston, WV here.

My co-worker has been married for seven years. She just found out that her husband has been cheating on her. She called around to talk to lawyers, and she got the cheapest lawyer she could find. I have a few questions because I'm not well-versed regarding legal issues and she has a track record of choosing the cheapest and then getting what she paid for.

The lawyer told her that she should wait to get a divorce. He told her to just be separated for a while. What is the reason for this?

Second, the lawyer told her that, even though her husband admitted to cheating (with multiple people), and everyone besides her knew about it (even her daughter), that she would need more than that in court.

She's currently trying to hire a private investigator to get pictures of the two of them together. Is this really necessary? She claims she doesn't have any money for important things, like going to see a psychiatrist, which she definitely needs, but she's going to drop a minimum of 500 bucks for someone to follow her husband, who has already admitted that he had an affair. Can she not use text messages from him and the woman saying that they are having an affair to use in court. Why isn't him admitting to it enough?

And finally, being a spurned and angry woman, she repeatedly gets on the phone or texts her husband or the woman and says that they are going to get theirs, and that if she ever got hold of this woman, she was going to kill her. Even from a logical standpoint, this is not helping matters, but if the divorce got ugly (uglier than it already is) can they somehow use those threats against her?

Any advice would be helpful. I went through a divorce two years ago, but it was literally the most civil divorce in the history of divorces. We filled out the papers together and everything. This situation is like the complete opposite of mine, and I really have no idea what to tell her. Even "wait and talk to your lawyer" doesn't seem like good advice if she ends up following her usual routine of going to a shyster and getting screwed.

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big shtick energy
May 27, 2004


peepoogenderparts posted:

And finally, being a spurned and angry woman, she repeatedly gets on the phone or texts her husband or the woman and says that they are going to get theirs, and that if she ever got hold of this woman, she was going to kill her. Even from a logical standpoint, this is not helping matters, but if the divorce got ugly (uglier than it already is) can they somehow use those threats against her?

Threatening to kill someone is a crime. I'm no lawyer, but she should probably avoid committing criminal acts against her husband.

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