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Roybot posted:Ok, here's a dumb question. The past couple places I've lived at had battery op fire detectors, so when I was searing meats or just dicking up in the kitchen I could pull the battery out ahead of time and no one would be the wiser. Try using a showercap. That should do it.
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May 14, 2013 06:06
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Scurvy posted:So I'm trying to move from Chicago to NYC... how the heck do I pull off finding housing? Stuff seems to go off the market immediately, and Craigslist is full of scammers (not to mention I don't want to rent something without looking at it first). In addition to what I posted on the previous page, tell EVERYONE you know that you're looking to move to NYC. Post on LinkedIn. Post on Facebook and Twitter. Post in the SA LAN threads, even. Tell your friends' moms and your mom's friends. Chances are SOMEONE will know someone. I just asked for you on my facebook because I know a lot of women in NYC. (You are a woman yeah?) Eggplant Wizard fucked around with this message at 14:09 on May 14, 2013 |
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May 14, 2013 14:07
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Blargh, looking for summer roommates on Craigslist for the first time, and it's been interesting. Posted an ad last night and have well over a dozen hits as of this morning, most of them from legit, real people. Living close to a university makes finding summer renters super easy. Cheap rent and the fact that I have real furniture that is not beanbag chairs or milk crates helps too. Anyhow, most prospective renters are fine - interns and students taking summer classes, but some just seem sketchy or rub me the wrong way, like mothers inquiring on behalf of their college-age kids and asking all these questions I clearly answered in my ad, or a guy whose last name is 'Divine' and wrote in broken English. I have no interest having a roommate that is so sheltered/inept that they can't even rent a room by themselves (I briefly lived with a girl who didn't know what a can opener was - that was fun), and with the inquiries I've gotten from perfectly normal people, I'd rather just not bother with Mr. Divine. Is it cool to just lie and say the room is taken or something? The truth is just that I don't like the sound of their emails and since these people will be living with me for three months, I'm kind of just trusting my gut.  But I don't want to be a dick and not respond either.
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May 14, 2013 16:22
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You're under no obligation to respond. Don't stress over it.
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May 14, 2013 16:34
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Authentic You posted:Blargh, looking for summer roommates on Craigslist for the first time, and it's been interesting. Posted an ad last night and have well over a dozen hits as of this morning, most of them from legit, real people. Living close to a university makes finding summer renters super easy. Cheap rent and the fact that I have real furniture that is not beanbag chairs or milk crates helps too. I've found the one upside to sheltered roommates is that you can depend on their mom to show up with rent every month.
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May 14, 2013 16:35
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Authentic You posted:But I don't want to be a dick and not respond either. I just went through the process of looking for a room and emailed around 30 places. Three of them got back to me. One of them is my new apartment. I also just posted an ad for my old room and my roommates got over 100 emails about it. They are not emailing back a single person who they wouldn't like to live with. This is just how it goes. It isn't rude, any more than it's rude to pass a flyer on the street saying "I'm looking for an apartment!" and not phone the person up on the spot.
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May 14, 2013 16:47
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Scurvy fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Mar 12, 2017 |
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May 14, 2013 16:48
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Roybot posted:Is there an easy way to temporarily disable this thing? What are the wires leading up to it? If it's two, it's just the power. If it's three, it could be interconnected with other smoke detectors, but that could be the extent of it. They'll beep once, and someone could attribute it to a power blip. Your excuse for the disconnection is reasonable.
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May 14, 2013 18:52
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Scurvy posted:Thanks, Eggplant Wizard! I guess to clarify on some things: I'm not an expert on New York, but there should be a pretty big radius around the city where you can easily hop commuter train into Penn Station or Grand Central Terminal. I think North of the city and Connecticut go into Grand Central, and New Jersey and Long Island go into Penn station. You'd save a pile of money on rent, and have room for your cats. Since you're not commuting into the city every single day during rush hour(I'm assuming you'd just be going in for client meetings and such? Or are you trying to then land a job?), you'll probably have a pretty easy time of it. If you do end up getting a job in the city and you want to move into Brooklyn or Manhattan, you'll have a much easier time doing it because you'll be local.
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May 14, 2013 19:32
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Whew, feeling better now.  Thanks guys.john mayer posted:I've found the one upside to sheltered roommates is that you can depend on their mom to show up with rent every month. This is quite true and I did consider it - even if the girl is totally hapless and fills my kitchen with suds and then attempts to mop it up while the dishwasher full of dish soap is still running and still barfing out suds (true story), guaranteed rent is a good thing. I actually had a local subletter a while back whose mother would show up every week to clean his room, make his bed, take out his laundry, deliver clean laundry and place it in his dresser all neat and folded. It was sort of awkward, but rent got paid and he wasn't a slob (thanks to his mom keeping his space all tidied). showbiz_liz posted:I just went through the process of looking for a room and emailed around 30 places. Three of them got back to me. One of them is my new apartment. Very good point. I've gotten back to two prospects, and have already toured with a nice grad couple from the state university in town for the summer, and they were all, 'wow you actually responded!' - they said they'd emailed a crapton of places with an abysmal rate of response. Giving another nice-sounding girl a tour in a couple days. I must have given off the right vibe in my ad because I've gotten a large portion of grads and young professionals There are a couple other folks I'll be responding to as well. I'm now up to 30 replies and counting. Gah. Except now it seems like the friends who were originally going to stay (but then had to bail) might actually be able to bust out of their lease with their terrible landlord - it's been kind of back and forth. So they're my first choice, but I have lots of options if they're not able to move in. I'm still being upfront with potentials and telling them there's a lot of people vying for the place and that I can't make promises. But that seems to be the norm in this game. Also, Eggplant Wizard posted:Anyone apartment-hunting right now will enjoy this (unless they live/want to live in NYC in which case haha sucker) Dear loving god. Windowless, low-ceilinged closets for $1600 a month?? I mean, I guess NYC is cool and all, but I'm perfectly happy in my giant three-bedroom/two-bathroom apartment in a great location and with conveniences like a garage, free street parking, and a bus stop across the street. All for $1100. What's the appeal of living in some ratty-rear end basement for four figures a month? Because you're in the middle of everything? If I wanted to live in NYC (I don't), I'd try to find a not-awful place farther out and commute in on public transportation. I just looked around on SF Craigslist's room share listings for comparison (I would like to live in SF in the future), and poo poo's loving expensive there, but you're actually getting real bedrooms for the same prices that get you horrible plywood lofts, closets, and basements in NYC.
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May 14, 2013 21:47
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AmbassadorTaxicab posted:What are the wires leading up to it? If it's two, it's just the power. If it's three, it could be interconnected with other smoke detectors, but that could be the extent of it. They'll beep once, and someone could attribute it to a power blip. Thanks for this, I had no idea how these work. Looks like a two wire deal. If the disconnect causes an issue for any reason I'll just try the shower cap method. Thanks fellars!
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May 14, 2013 23:00
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Authentic You posted:Dear loving god. Windowless, low-ceilinged closets for $1600 a month?? I mean, I guess NYC is cool and all, but I'm perfectly happy in my giant three-bedroom/two-bathroom apartment in a great location and with conveniences like a garage, free street parking, and a bus stop across the street. All for $1100. What's the appeal of living in some ratty-rear end basement for four figures a month? Because you're in the middle of everything? If I wanted to live in NYC (I don't), I'd try to find a not-awful place farther out and commute in on public transportation. Those places aren't at all typical. Everyone I know here pays less money for nicer rooms.
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May 14, 2013 23:20
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FISHMANPET posted:I'm not an expert on New York, but there should be a pretty big radius around the city where you can easily hop commuter train into Penn Station or Grand Central Terminal. I think North of the city and Connecticut go into Grand Central, and New Jersey and Long Island go into Penn station. You'd save a pile of money on rent, and have room for your cats. Since you're not commuting into the city every single day during rush hour(I'm assuming you'd just be going in for client meetings and such? Or are you trying to then land a job?), you'll probably have a pretty easy time of it. Rent isn't much better in those areas either. Everyone already had that idea years ago. Room mates are your best bet. Even better yet Astoria or Brooklyn.
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May 14, 2013 23:52
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I may have found an apartment! Im seeing it thursday. The downside is its listed as "no cats." Using the magic voodoo that is MLS (my sister is a realtor) it has historically allowed cats and other apartments in the same building allow one cat so we might be able to negotiate. Also it may require a broker fee. The upside is I'm pretty sure the broker is Yosemite Sam.
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May 15, 2013 01:28
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Authentic You posted:
Posts like that make me thrilled to live in a Podunk town of 32000. My boyfriend and I recently broke up and my kids and I had to move out of his house. I got an approximately 1100 sq.ft 3 bed/2 bath apartment for $585 a month. That's high for the area. I guess there are a few perks of living in a small town.
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May 15, 2013 03:05
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Absolute Evil posted:Posts like that make me thrilled to live in a Podunk town of 32000. My boyfriend and I recently broke up and my kids and I had to move out of his house. I got an approximately 1100 sq.ft 3 bed/2 bath apartment for $585 a month. That's high for the area. I guess there are a few perks of living in a small town. Oh I know. I just moved out of a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom place in a podunk college town ($700/month total) and now I'm temporarily in a 2 bedroom/1.5 bathroom place in a town of <1,000 people and it's $300 a month. For two bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. $300/month is not my share, that's the whole rent. And there's a washer and dryer in the house. I mean, it's pretty junky but...it's a million times nicer than those horror shows from the NYC Apartments tumbler, good lord. I'd say it's about 600 square feet.
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May 15, 2013 04:56
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Oh man, finally I get real answers. My deposit is going to be less than I accounted for as the amount they put on the website already covered the pet deposit. I'm going to be allowed the keys before I sign a lease in order to redecorate the hideous lounge wallpaper, and I'm going to be able to pro-rata the rent for a couple of days before the move in date so I can move in using a free day off at work and only one day leave. Unfortunately I now only have two weeks to sort out absolutely everything as my move in date is the 30th. It should be a fairly painless move for me as I'm going to have the movers pack everything at the old place and I'll just have to unpack the new one. They're also going to disassemble and reassemble furniture. This is costing an arm and a leg but it's worth it as there's no way I am gonna be able to get my kitchen appliances down the stairs at my current place, and packing isn't going to cost a whole lot extra over just moving me. All to the good, as it avoids putting a strain on an abdominal injury I got recently. I'm also going to be getting a copy of my lease this evening that I can use to show I'm allowed dogs at the place and reserve the awesome greyhound I met at the rescue last week. Sorry for this post, kind of just needed to write something down and get it off my chest so I could stop getting worked up about all the stuff I have to do. This is gonna be exciting! Edit: fixed typos Cluncho McChunk fucked around with this message at 14:34 on May 15, 2013 |
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May 15, 2013 11:21
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Two weeks is really not too bad, especially if you are getting packers and movers. Mostly I would just recommend that you focus on identifying and getting rid of the poo poo that you don't need, so that you can avoid that end-of-move-day situation where there is a big pile of totally random crap (usually from the kitchen) that you just throw into a box and move because you don't have time to deal with it. I have been in the situation of calling movers for the next day, and it worked out alright. Congratulations on getting a place!
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May 15, 2013 14:27
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Ashcans posted:Two weeks is really not too bad, especially if you are getting packers and movers. Mostly I would just recommend that you focus on identifying and getting rid of the poo poo that you don't need, so that you can avoid that end-of-move-day situation where there is a big pile of totally random crap (usually from the kitchen) that you just throw into a box and move because you don't have time to deal with it. I have been in the situation of calling movers for the next day, and it worked out alright. Thanks! I'm gonna start going through my loose stuff, but I think my kitchen is going to be fairly easy as I'm still relatively under-equipped in that area as it stands. Mostly I need to get everything as tidy as possible as I have a tendency to let stuff build up and then tidy up in one big sweep rather than doing a bit each day. I also need to make sure all my furniture is clean and ready to go, in addition to sorting out my clothes, which are mostly going to be thrown in a couple of suitcases. It's gonna be an exciting time, and I'm so happy as the new place is basically everything I want from a home at the moment! 
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May 15, 2013 14:38
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Roybot posted:Thanks for this, I had no idea how these work. Looks like a two wire deal. If the disconnect causes an issue for any reason I'll just try the shower cap method. Thanks fellars! If you end up having to cover it, condoms work especially well.
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May 16, 2013 02:19
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So, I am moving to Eastern Washington for a new job. Getting full relocation, etc, and just got back from a househunting trip. Renting since this is my first time in a job exactly like this, and my first time living in the area, so buying right out of the gate seems pretty dumb. The first couple days, the options were pretty dismal, Saturday we saw a couple of good options, including one I gave a verbal "I'll take it" to, since I didn't have any other prospects. Woke up today, and got another very good prospect. Both are $1000/mo, which is well within my budget. Both are a 20-25 minute commute to work. Both are very quiet locations. The first option, I'll call the hill house. It's overlooking a large canyon/valley type thing, up a steep driveway, absolutely gorgeous views and interior - this is probably a $400k or more house. The only problem is this nature of the rental situation is.. murky. It is a two story house, essentially two completely contained identical houses stacked on top of each other. I am looking at renting the bottom house, as the lady and her son there are moving out as she purchased a house. There is a fellow that lives in the upstairs house, and a lady renting the master bedroom. The guy is moving out too. The owner of the place built it for his wife, who is now "an invalid" and didn't want to live there anymore. The lady in the master bedroom upstairs is now acting as the "property manager", will be keeping the upstairs house for herself, and renting out the downstairs house. She initially offered me the shared housing upstairs, but I passed on that and she came back a week or two later with the downstairs. She is very keen on having the power and trash bills in my name, since both houses share those bills, which she estimates at $200/mo for the power. She has been there seven months, and now both the other tenants are moving. I'm trying to get her to give me an email or phone number for the owner to talk to him to introduce myself and make sure it's all on the up and up and whatnot, but am meeting a lot of resistance. Apparently he has been having "problems" dealing with multiple tenants and only wants to deal with this lady. I'm also trying to get an official statement on what exactly happens to me and my rental situation if she moves out. She's insisting that will never happen, but I don't, uh, trust that statement since life happens and all. All in all it seems exceedingly odd. Also, the internet out there would most likely be the long distance wireless. The second place is a smidge further away, calling it contractor house, is closer to other people (which might not be a great thing), but is at the end of a no outlet street. The owner is a licensed contractor who seems to have treated the place like his hobby house - two fully plumbed refrigerators, a new heat pump system, 50' deep well with a 9' water table, nice airy house, and promises to build a gigantic garage out front (as in just about the size of the house itself) and irrigated pasture area out back. He estimates power bills would be something like $70/month. On demand hot water, water softener, pellet stove, three bedroom, 3/4 bath and full bath, lots of tall trees that basically knock down the wind entirely, already run for cable and washer/dryer included. I've been burned by people in the past promising to do things and never delivering, but I think even in its current state it is a pretty good option for the price. He has the trusses for the garage sitting in the front yard and is a concrete contractor by trade so the foundation for the garage shouldn't be a problem for him. Jesus christ typing that out makes it pretty drat clear. The view and the gorgeous house was clouding my judgement. There be way too much potential bullshit at hill house. Right?
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May 20, 2013 07:12
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Right.
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May 20, 2013 07:22
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Just the fact that you can't get the owner's contact info from this lady should throw up huge red flags.
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May 20, 2013 07:23
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I like turtles posted:So, I am moving to Eastern Washington for a new job. Getting full relocation, etc, and just got back from a househunting trip. Renting since this is my first time in a job exactly like this, and my first time living in the area, so buying right out of the gate seems pretty dumb. The first situation has loud alarm bells and giant flashing signs telling you to run the gently caress away. The second situation doesn't sound bad at all, even if contractor-guy never follows through on the garage.
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May 20, 2013 07:43
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I'm doing my best to avoid the goon in a well situation, and think I have done so, I've told contractor guy "let's go for it", andquote:Hi Hill lady,
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May 20, 2013 07:51
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For what it is worth, I wouldn't count on that garage. I have rented from a contractor before, and while it sounds like it would mean stuff gets done fast and well, it can also mean that they spend 10 hours a day loving around fixing poo poo and are much less inclined to deal with your improvements on a schedule. Having said that, it sounds like your dude has already done ten times more with the house than mine did, so maybe you'll luck out. Even without the garage though, that was the better choice.
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May 20, 2013 12:03
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My roommates and I have been planning to move in July to a place our friends are living in now. It's a very nice place, and the rent is a bit below average for the area. We've been in touch with someone from the management company, who has been nice but incompetent- she took a week to get back to me in the beginning, never emailed me the lease when she was supposed to, emailed me but forgot to attach the lease when I reminded her, and didn't mark down the included utilities when I reminded her again. Eventually we got the correct lease, and put it in the mail with the deposit on Friday. The agent just emailed me saying that the office "didn't consult with the property owner" before placing us, and the owner wants to raise rent $100/mo. (Or $150? Her email says both in different places.) If we don't agree to that she says they can't rent to us. This is despite my asking her multiple times confirm that the rent was not changing. We've already signed and sent in the lease stating the original price, and paid application fees and a deposit. (The deposit hasn't been cashed yet, and presumably the lease won't get to them until today or tomorrow.) This seems really shady to me- if they can raise the rent now, why not in the middle of the lease? Isn't this what having a lease is meant to protect? Am I right in thinking that there's something fishy going on, and do we have any recourse, or does the fact that the signed lease may still be in the mail make a difference?
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May 20, 2013 16:39
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It is shady as poo poo. Did someone from the management company also sing the lease or just you? If they also signed it, then they're stuck with it for the term. If they hadn't signed accepting it then you're screwed and you should look elsewhere.
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May 20, 2013 16:49
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The lease protects both the tenant and the landlord. If the lease they sent you says you will pay $800/month, you will pay $800 a month. The landlord can't change their mind and go "oh we decided to charge $950 instead!" after you signed it. It'd be like you going up to your landlord and saying "yeah I think I'll just pay $700/month now, 'kay?" Make sure you save those emails, there's a chance your signed lease will disappear mysteriously and they'll try to get you to sign a new lease with the new rent. If you had the foresight to make a copy before you mailed it, even better. I don't know if you guys are students or not, but campus legal services deal with this poo poo all the time. If you're not, a real estate lawyer could straighten things out pretty quick too.
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May 20, 2013 17:01
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edit: ^^^ Yes, but both parties need to sign the lease before it's binding. If the management company drew up a lovely lease and he signed it but the owner refused, then it's not going to be valid and negotiations are still technically open (although it is lovely as hell to try and change things at this point). The thing that protects you from them hiking rent at any time is the lease. So your situation depends entirely on if it is signed or not. If you are the only one that has signed it, they are obligated to hold to their quote in any way that you can enforce and you're basically screwed. If someone on their side did sign it, then they can get hosed because it's binding unless you also agree to change it. In my experience, people always get the tenants to sign first so I would guess you are screwed. Even if that is the case though, you should feel free to blow up at them as loud as you want, Also, is the person you have been dealing with the only person at the company or what? If not, you should dump her and try and get in touch with whoever is actually in charge there. It's clear she is a mess and I doubt anything productive will come from dealing with her.
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May 20, 2013 17:06
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The landlord hadn't signed the copy of the lease we got- they emailed me the blank lease and we signed it and sent it in, since their offices are kind of far away. This has been how most of my apartment rentals have worked, so I wasn't surprised at the time. If nothing is binding until the landlord signs it, what's to keep them from never signing? How does the tenant get any sort of legal protection then? All I have is the blank lease they emailed us and a photocopy of it signed by one of my roommates. I thought about copying the full thing before mailing it in, but didn't because I was out of my office and too lazy to go back. Oops. I guess I also have the emails confirming the original rent, and an email I sent the agent confirming I mailed the lease. So I gather there's probably not a (strong enough) legal leg to stand on to force them to honor the lease, since they didn't sign it. Plus, I don't exactly want to rent from this company now. I think what I'll do is: - Cancel the deposit checks immediately - Call the office and speak to the highest-up person there. (It's a small company, but there seems to be some hierarchy.) Raise hell, get them to refund our application fees. (Will they do this? They'd better.) - See if our friends, the current tenants there, have the owner's contact info. Get in touch with the owner and explain what the company is doing. - If I'm feeling spiteful, respond to any Craigslist ads for the place with warning ads of my own. Guess I can also see if there's any legal services on campus I can call (we're grad students). What's the best outcome there, though? If we legally force them to honor our lease, we have a full year to look forward to with a lovely leasing company that hates us, and they're guaranteed to jack up the rent a lot as soon as that year is up?
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May 20, 2013 17:40
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:The lease protects both the tenant and the landlord. If the lease they sent you says you will pay $800/month, you will pay $800 a month. The landlord can't change their mind and go "oh we decided to charge $950 instead!" after you signed it. It'd be like you going up to your landlord and saying "yeah I think I'll just pay $700/month now, 'kay?" If you've got time, you may want to just ask for all of your deposits/fees back and find someplace else. You should also find tenant resources for the area you're living in, find out what you can do about people pulling a bait-and-switch with regards to jacking up the rent from the advertised rate. It may very well (and should be) considered some form of fraud. Ham Equity fucked around with this message at 17:59 on May 20, 2013 |
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May 20, 2013 17:52
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I mean, you can always call up the company and say 'This is ridiculous and unacceptable, there is no way that we are paying the additional and we expect you to honor the amount in the lease.' It's always possible that the owner will back down or the management company will choke on it and pay the difference. See, if you back out now that means they will have to relist; if that would mean losing a month of rental time, it might be cheaper for them to take you at the rate quoted than lose a full month. Which is why you want to go over the crappy person you have been dealing with, and go to someone who isn't a mess. Handsome Rob posted:The landlord hadn't signed the copy of the lease we got- they emailed me the blank lease and we signed it and sent it in, since their offices are kind of far away. This has been how most of my apartment rentals have worked, so I wasn't surprised at the time. If nothing is binding until the landlord signs it, what's to keep them from never signing? How does the tenant get any sort of legal protection then? I have lived in a lot of places, and I have never been in a situation where someone didn't sign and we didn't get a copy of it. I suppose that might be because I am very suspicious though, so I guess it could happen? I mean, if you sent them a signed lease and then they gave you the keys and you moved in and then four months later they were like 'Hey man, we never signed the lease! Rent is now $5,000!' you could tell them to get hosed - because at that point, they would have to initiate eviction proceedings against you and that sort of dickery would fall pretty flat in court (housing court tends to be pretty informal, and the judge would almost certainly tell them that by giving you the keys and accepting your rent, they were effectively agreeing to the lease as signed). The issue for you is that it seems like the management company has been negotiating, and has only now actually touched base with the owner, who is pushing back - so you don't really have any assumed consent on the owners part. Part of the question is what role the management company actually has. Are they just middlemen? If they are actually agents of the owner and function as their authority, you could argue that your emails/etc. constitute a verbal contract on the property that the lease was just placing into writing? I don't know where you are, and it's possible that there is some sort of law about this sort of bait-and-switch or regulations under sales and standards that you could use to enforce the agreed rent, but it would probably be a huge pain in the rear end and require you to drag the issue out that way. Which brings us to... quote:What's the best outcome there, though? If we legally force them to honor our lease, we have a full year to look forward to with a lovely leasing company that hates us, and they're guaranteed to jack up the rent a lot as soon as that year is up?
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May 20, 2013 17:57
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Thanatosian posted:While the above is probably true (especially the part about making the lease disappear), you should consider whether or not you want to rent from people pulling this kind of poo poo. The "find someplace else" part is what really gets me- notice is due to our current landlord in 10 days, and we've skipped pursuing a few other nice places because this one looked great. Staying where we are isn't the end of the world, and certainly better than dealing with this company after a fight. But drat, we wanted a place with a porch and a yard, and these people likely just ruined that for another year. It looks like our school doesn't have any sort of legal services, but I'll look around locally. Hey, I'm here for the summer and on grant support, I'll have some free time for a fun court battle!
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May 20, 2013 18:07
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Handsome Rob posted:The "find someplace else" part is what really gets me- notice is due to our current landlord in 10 days, and we've skipped pursuing a few other nice places because this one looked great. Staying where we are isn't the end of the world, and certainly better than dealing with this company after a fight. But drat, we wanted a place with a porch and a yard, and these people likely just ruined that for another year. It costs money to go to court. I would either keep looking for a place or take the higher rent if its still a good price. You don't want to be living somewhere where everyone else involved resents you, and you don't want to waste your money and time on court for shits and giggles.
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May 20, 2013 18:15
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One more question. They currently have our signed copy of the lease, and there's no way I can get proof that it's been shredded or whatever. How do we protect ourselves against their turning around and signing it (say, if they don't find another renter), and holding us responsible? I just spoke to the agent on the phone and told her we will not rent from them, and I'm about to send an email saying the same thing. Do I try to get it in writing from them that the lease is void? What motivation do they have to actually give that to me in writing?
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May 20, 2013 18:23
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Handsome Rob posted:One more question. They currently have our signed copy of the lease, and there's no way I can get proof that it's been shredded or whatever. How do we protect ourselves against their turning around and signing it (say, if they don't find another renter), and holding us responsible? I just spoke to the agent on the phone and told her we will not rent from them, and I'm about to send an email saying the same thing. Do I try to get it in writing from them that the lease is void? What motivation do they have to actually give that to me in writing? I assume you have emails from them talking about the increased rent and such, though? An acknowledgement that they've received it? A court fight will be a pain in the rear end, but with something like that, one you're not likely to lose.
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May 20, 2013 18:33
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john mayer posted:It costs money to go to court. I would either keep looking for a place or take the higher rent if its still a good price. You don't want to be living somewhere where everyone else involved resents you, and you don't want to waste your money and time on court for shits and giggles. On the flip side, if you've got the time and resources to do it, there's something to be said for not letting people get away with this sort of poo poo. The money is almost certainly going to be more trouble than it's worth, but if you're in it for the principle (as opposed to the principal  ), then more power to you.
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May 20, 2013 18:53
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You could probably get a free or cheap consultation with a lawyer through your local bar association, so I guess look at that. 99% they will tell you it isn't worth it and there is nothing you can do and to walk away feeling bad about it. If they do not return the lease to you, you should save all emails and other correspondence indicating that they changed the terms and you are refusing on that basis. You could also send them a certified letter informing them that you are revoking your signature on the basis of the changes they have tried to implement, and keep that in case. Although I would be pretty surprised if they tried that, because even if they did they would have to sue you for the rent to collect - at which point, you would be living somewhere else, they would have never given you keys, etc., and they would be pretty hard pressed to prove you ever took possession. Once again, housing court is a lot less about technical magic and much more about a grouchy old dude being pissed at whoever he thinks is being dumber.
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May 20, 2013 19:14
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Ashcans posted:You could probably get a free or cheap consultation with a lawyer through your local bar association, so I guess look at that. 99% they will tell you it isn't worth it and there is nothing you can do and to walk away feeling bad about it. I'm in a dispute with an old landlord right now, so looked into it for Seattle: in King County, it costs $36.09 to file a case in small claims court. And that cost includes a session with a mediator (mediators are incredibly loving expensive, normally). Also, depending on your locality, there may be laws which give the prevailing party legal fees (I know there are here).
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May 20, 2013 19:21
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