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Apollodorus posted:Hey, I just found out (like, today) that my roommate and I have a serious problem. Not with each other, with the management company. Not your lawyer, not licensed in your jurisdiction, and this is not legal advice or an offer of representation. This website breaks down the penalties possible when breaking a lease in Florida: http://www.kleinercazeau.com/faq/florida-passes-flat-fee-early-lease-termination-law/ Going by that site, it seems like as long as the lease had the proper clause, and you signed or initialed next to that clause in the lease, the landlord is entitled to charge you the equivalent of two months' rent if you break the lease. You should probably check your lease to verify that, mind you. I'm not sure what you mean about the manager not allowing you to move out until you pay the penalty. Is he threatening arrest or to physically prevent you from moving out? Or do you mean he's not willing to accept your notice of moving out?
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Apr 12, 2012 18:07
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woozle wuzzle posted:Apollodorus: This is not legal advice. I am speculating on a hypothetical while probably drunk... I'm obviously not a lawyer, but I see two huge potential problems with that: The company renting the apartment out company could keep adding up the costs for rent each month and without a cancellation (and if the lease auto-renews or automatically changes to a month-by-month type thing), do this indefinitely while ruining his credit score by reporting a non-payment month after month. The second problem is they might be able to press charges and eventually he'll get caught (whether it be by being pulled over or found), get charged, get found guilty, then get the poo poo sued out of him. This could be totally off base, but I could see this being possible.
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Apr 12, 2012 18:13
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woozle wuzzle posted:Apollodorus: This is not legal advice. I am speculating on a hypothetical while probably drunk... You've never heard of service by publication and default judgments have you
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Apr 12, 2012 18:55
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Yeah I have, but if you paid attention in civpro then you learned that constructive service is only good if it's within reach of the defendant. For a monetary judgment, there is no real estate pinning the service location to Florida. The rental company doesn't know what state to place the ad to gain constructive service. Here's the statute in Florida: quote:49.011 Service of process by publication; cases in which allowed. If the debt is owing by a party who lives outside of the state, then Florida's published service doesn't reach. So the person leaves a note saying "Hi, we're moving outside of the state of Florida for certain." Publication in Florida would work to gain possession of the property, but not for a monetary judgment. So... yeah. woozle wuzzle fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Apr 12, 2012 |
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Apr 12, 2012 19:17
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USMC503 posted:The company renting the apartment out company could keep adding up the costs for rent each month and without a cancellation (and if the lease auto-renews or automatically changes to a month-by-month type thing), do this indefinitely while ruining his credit score by reporting a non-payment month after month. USMC503 posted:The second problem is they might be able to press charges and eventually he'll get caught (whether it be by being pulled over or found), get charged, get found guilty, then get the poo poo sued out of him.
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Apr 12, 2012 19:27
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woozle wuzzle posted:Yeah I have, but if you paid attention in civpro then you learned that constructive service is only good if it's within reach of the defendant. For a monetary judgment, there is no real estate pinning the service location to Florida. The rental company doesn't know what state to place the ad to gain constructive service. Here is the more likely scenario: the rental company moves forward with a debt collection case and uses service by publication. Assuming that our friend here has moved out of Florida, and thus out of reach of service by publication, the rental company is still going to get a default judgment in Florida. They are then going to report that judgment to the credit bureaus and BAM our friend's credit is shot. But wait, you might say, our friend can easily fight the judgment for failure to provide service! Yes, he could, but he'd have to fight in Florida court about all that, and if he does that before the statute of limitations is up on the original debt, he would just get served anyway - either in person while down in Florida contesting the default judgment or by mail if his current address gets put on any filings with the court (which it almost certainly would). He could avoid those issues if he hires an attorney to fight the default judgment for him, but that is probably more expensive than paying the rental company in the first place. So, uh, yeah, your idea isn't really feasible. entris fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Apr 12, 2012 |
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Apr 12, 2012 19:38
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Uhhh.... the burden is on the proponent to prove service. It's not "whatever, we published it" and therefore good service. They have to prove that the person is within the state. This is not assumed. I don't know why you think a judge would grant a default judgment based on publication alone, it's a 2-step process. So the company files the suit, publishes in Florida, and the judge asks "OK so why is this good service?". A shrug of the shoulders and "well they're probably still in the state" is not an answer. Are you guys lawyers? Service is lawschool 101 first week material. Minimum contacts and all that, and how publication is a 2-step process. First you publish, then establish that you achieved constructive service. The judge doesn't skip part 2. I'm not intending to be a jerk, but none of these responses are close to how the world actually works. woozle wuzzle fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Apr 12, 2012 |
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Apr 12, 2012 19:51
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He could put an ad on craigslist and try to sublet the rental.
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Apr 12, 2012 19:51
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woozle wuzzle posted:Uhhh.... the burden is on the proponent to prove service. It's not "whatever, we published it" and therefore good service. They have to prove that the person is within the state. This is not assumed. I don't know why you think a judge would grant a default judgment based on publication alone, it's a 2-step process. So the company files the suit, publishes in Florida, and the judge asks "OK so why is this good service?". A shrug of the shoulders and "well they're probably still in the state" is not an answer. Considering that his default address is going to be the rental that he's trying to abandon, the judge is going to say it's good service until proven otherwise. Jurisdiction what?
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Apr 12, 2012 20:15
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You should stop posting in this thread unless you're an attorney in the specialty of the question, because you have no clue what you're talking about. There is no "default address" in a legal proceeding. Service is not good "until proven otherwise". The burden is on the proponent to affirmatively prove service. Instead the address is their current address, which would be unknown. The judge would say that the rental company has the burden of proving the defendants could be served within Florida. They can't prove that, therefore no service.
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Apr 12, 2012 20:28
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woozle wuzzle posted:Uhhh.... the burden is on the proponent to prove service. It's not "whatever, we published it" and therefore good service. They have to prove that the person is within the state. This is not assumed. I don't know why you think a judge would grant a default judgment based on publication alone, it's a 2-step process. So the company files the suit, publishes in Florida, and the judge asks "OK so why is this good service?". A shrug of the shoulders and "well they're probably still in the state" is not an answer. Well, I'm not a litigator so I'll confess that I don't know the ins and outs of service. But just looking at my state's statutes, the procedure here is: 1. Go to clerk's office, fill out an affidavit stating that the defendant is nonresident, or is unable to be found, or that his last known address was within the county/city of the court's jurisdiction. 2. Get the order for publication from the clerk, publish the notice once a week for four weeks. 3. If the defendant doesn't respond by the date set in the publication, you proceed with trial and get your default judgment - and you don't have to prove the validity of your service by publication or otherwise convince the judge that it was good service. 4. The defendant gets two years from the entry of the order to attack it, unless the defendant was served with a copy of the order in the first year, at which point s/he only gets a year to respond. In my state, claims on written contracts have a 5 year statute of limitations, and actions on unwritten contracts are 3 years. So either way, the rental agency is going to win here - either they get a solid, indefensible default judgment after two years or the defendant responds before the two years are up, they serve him then. So at least in my state, you can't just move out of state or move your address and escape service/default judgement. Your proposed strategy wouldn't fly here. woozle wuzzle posted:You should stop posting in this thread unless you're an attorney in the specialty of the question, because you have no clue what you're talking about. I know you're not responding to me, but whoa nelly we don't get much lawyer-on-lawyer action in this thread. And you may be correct with regard to Florida rules, but you certainly aren't right everywhere, so uh maybe tone it down? Also, I was previously unaware that basic service of process qualifies as a legal specialty - I'm not even a litigator and I managed to pull out the rules and look them up in about five minutes. Are there lawyers in your jurisdiction that restrict their practice to service of process issues? While that seems like a decent premise for a TV show, or maybe a mini-show on YouTube, is doesn't seem like a viable business model. entris fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Apr 12, 2012 |
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Apr 12, 2012 20:32
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We have to return to town at the end of summer for year 2 of our grad program anyway, so we'll be in the state. Honestly it is sounding like getting someone to take over our lease is the only option here. drat.
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Apr 12, 2012 20:37
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entris posted:1. Go to clerk's office, fill out an affidavit stating that the defendant is nonresident, or is unable to be found, or that his last known address was within the county/city of the court's jurisdiction. And anyway, the Florida statute is pretty clear. It doesn't say "if they used to be here", it says "any party on whom process can be served within this state." Service against the last known address would bounce back as invalid. I don't know how Florida court rules handle this, but it would seem a violation of the statute for last known address to work because that has nothing to do with whether the party can be served within the state. And as a practical matter, the rate of return on rent judgments is extremely tiny. No company is going to pay for publication on all claims or they'd definitely net negative. It's just weird to tell people that a rental company would even attempt publication, assuming it would even work. entris posted:And you may be correct with regard to Florida rules, but you certainly aren't right everywhere, so uh maybe tone it down? Also, I was previously unaware that basic service of process qualifies as a legal specialty Apollodorus posted:We have to return to town at the end of summer for year 2 of our grad program anyway, so we'll be in the state. 
woozle wuzzle fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Apr 12, 2012 |
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Apr 12, 2012 20:51
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woozle wuzzle posted:You should stop posting in this thread unless you're an attorney in the specialty of the question, because you have no clue what you're talking about. quote:83.56 Termination of rental agreement.-- Service of 3 day notice by posting at abandoned premises. quote:83.625 Power to award possession and enter money judgment.--In an action by the landlord for possession of a dwelling unit based upon nonpayment of rent, if the court finds the rent is due, owing, and unpaid and by reason thereof the landlord is entitled to possession of the premises, the court, in addition to awarding possession of the premises to the landlord, shall direct, in an amount which is within its jurisdictional limitations, the entry of a money judgment with costs in favor of the landlord and against the tenant for the amount of money found due, owing, and unpaid by the tenant to the landlord. However, no money judgment shall be entered unless service of process has been effected by personal service or, where authorized by law, by certified or registered mail, return receipt, or in any other manner prescribed by law or the rules of the court; and no money judgment may be entered except in compliance with the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure. The prevailing party in the action may also be awarded attorney's fees and costs. There may be local rules that allow service of process in abandonment cases by either an expedited publication process or mailing to the last known address, which would presumptively be the apartment they just abandoned. That seems to be how it works around me, but this isn't Florida, so take it with a grain of salt. Without knowing the content of the lease, there may be alternate mailing addresses they've provided or a guarantor that they might involve by abandoning the premises. Regardless, the original advice of "try talking with a lawyer/legal aid" probably beats out "ditch the apartment and potentially waive all your defenses" as a good first course of action.
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Apr 12, 2012 21:13
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That 3 day rule provides for the landlord's ability to claim a lease as terminated. It has absolutely nothing to do with legal service of process. That is not a 3 day notice for service, but after 3 days they can treat the lease as terminated. Reread it. Your second quote allows for the logistical merger of possession and rent claims, but: "However, no money judgment shall be entered unless service of process has been effected by personal service or etc etc". So it does nothing to alleviate the burden of service for a monetary judgment. Judgment by publication would net possession, but not money unless the landlord proves they live in Florida. Regardless, a clueless non-lawyer shouldn't snipe with objectively false advice and quotes of law. (I want to emphasize that many non-lawyers know the law perfectly well and have valuable input. I don't think I'm infallible because I've got a sheet of paper. But this guy is misquoting statutes and making it up as he's going along, which is a very different thing) woozle wuzzle fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Apr 12, 2012 |
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Apr 12, 2012 21:39
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We just spoke with the manager, and it sounds like we MIGHT be able to get away from this without any penalties. But we have to be ready for the alternative, so we're making an ad looking for someone to take over the lease. The real message here is, don't lease from big realty businesses based in another state.
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Apr 12, 2012 22:01
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Apollodorus posted:The real message here is, don't lease from big realty businesses based in another state. Wait, what? Apollodorus should have posted:The real message here is, That's better. I feel for you, because I understand that it seems heartless and insane for the company's representative to explain the situation one way but then stick to the letter of the contract when it comes time to actually do something about it, however (IANAL) I would assume it's really hard to show that they did so in bad faith. It's great to try to work things out to your mutual benefit (as it sounds like you may have done yet again with the current manager), but I think it's really in your best interest to at least be prepared for what you've signed to be enforced. After all, you never know when someone is going to find another job, have a change of heart, find out that he/she isn't authorized to make that kind of offer, or just plain forget that the conversation ever took place.
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Apr 12, 2012 23:01
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woozle wuzzle posted:The bolded part makes no sense. If the plaintiff affirms the defendant is a non-resident, then publication doesn't work without a hook (like defendant owning real estate). I'm not in your state because VA doesn't work like that, but typically last known address doesn't work without some indication they remain in the jurisdiction (like calling the local employer to verify employment, or still enrolled in local school, etc). Hey man, I was just looking at Section 8.01-316(1): quote:A. Except in condemnation actions, an order of publication may be entered against a defendant in the following manner: So uh it's not that I disagree with you, but the Virginia statute does authorize service of publication against a nonresident individual. And there aren't any constitutional issues when the individual in question was a tenant in Virginia who executed a lease in Virginia. quote:
I agree with you, but we were talking to the tenant, and not the landlord, so I was simply pointing out that the tenant is taking a risk if he uses your "evade service" strategy. Specifically, he's taking the risk that his credit will get shot by a default judgment. quote:That guy was clueless, talking default address and assumed service. Some one like that should not be responding to legal questions in any context, or at least not forcing people with educated opinions to defend themselves. It's in the OP. I won't tone it down at all when facing that crap. Eeehhhhh I guess. quote:And you're kind of a weirdo assuming that I meant service as a specialty, when landlord/tenant relations is a gigantic field of specialty practice. I was joking.  I'm a little surprised that your non-advice advice is to tell the tenant just to hide. Also, I want to remind you that technically no one is providing legal advice in this thread. That would be irresponsible and probably a violation of our various state ethics rules. What we have here is a friendly discussion.
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Apr 12, 2012 23:25
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Apollodorus posted:We just spoke with the manager, and it sounds like we MIGHT be able to get away from this without any penalties. But we have to be ready for the alternative, so we're making an ad looking for someone to take over the lease. The lesson learned should be "Read a contract before you sign it. If it doesn't match what they're verbally telling you, don't sign it. Make them put what they said in writing. If you don't, they have a written contract that you signed that shows you agree to those terms."
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Apr 13, 2012 00:04
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entris posted:I'm a little surprised that your non-advice advice is to tell the tenant just to hide. Flip it around and pretend you're advising the landlord. They have a tenant that just vanished, how do you advise them? If you say "get a default judgment by way of publication", then you are nuts. They have zero chance of collecting on that judgment, and would be paying hundreds of dollars just to spin their wheels. The "risk" associated with skipping out on rent is zero in practice. Let's say these landlords get a judgment against these tenants: they're out-of-state students. Is the company going to hire a PI to chase them down 3 years from now when they have jobs in another state, hire an attorney in that state to collect, hope a garnishment lands correctly, and hope they don't file bankruptcy or change jobs in the process? It's a numbers game. The advice to the landlord in that circumstance is to do nothing. My non-advice to a hypothetical person, is that I would like to control them like a videogame to remove emotion and skip out on the rent. woozle wuzzle fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Apr 13, 2012 |
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Apr 13, 2012 02:42
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I see your point, and I agree that it's not economical for a landlord to seek a default judgment in that manner, but I'd still tell the tenant that they run the risk of having their credit take a hit if the landlord, for whatever crazy reason, does decide to pursue the matter. Also, I'd feel weird just telling someone to skip out on a contract that they freely agreed to - but that's not a legal opinion or argument obviously.
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Apr 13, 2012 02:49
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Yeah, I deal a lot in bankruptcy and collections so my fiscal-moral compass is aligned with practical risk rather than actual everyday human life. The risk associated with most contract breaches is way less than most people expect. (And you got me to a degree on the VA statute, I'm not ignoring that and I was like "oh", but I think the court rules prohibit recording those judgments without personal process or in rem jurisdiction. I forget exactly what the hook is, if it's court rules or the clerks or what, I just know that no one does them outside of real estate or divorce because there is no practical effect. But you did correct me in that it is possible to obtain a judgment that way, just the recording and practical effect are what I was assuming it on.)
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Apr 13, 2012 03:09
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I live in Hamilton County, Ohio (Cincinnati). Six months ago I got a ticket for driving with an expired registration. I had forgotten to renew it, no big deal, went home that day and renewed it online and wrote a check for $133 to the town that issued the ticket and sent it in. Tuesday I was pulled over by a sheriff and told there was a warrant out for my arrest over an unpaid ticket. I told him I was positive I had paid it, he got in contact with the township and recited me, giving me a court date a few weeks from now. Since the check was never cashed, there are no bank records, and other than just the carbon copy from my checkbook I have no proof that I wrote the check or mailed it in. Is there anything I can do other than just swear I wrote them a check and mailed it?
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Apr 13, 2012 19:07
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I feel like a doofus for not being able to figure this out on my own if anyone can point me in the right direction I would be very grateful. We sold our old car to a dealership in Charleston SC over just two years ago. At the time we did a vehicle title transfer. My husband's state of residence is in Taylor County KY and that is where our two current vehicles are registered. We live in California if that matters. My mother in law has power of attorney for my husband and went into renew the license registration for one of the current cars, the other one had been renewed several months ago. The DMV wouldn't renew the registration for our current car without us paying back taxes on the car we had sold two years ago to the dealership who apparently never finished transferring the title, this was in their words. Called the dealership they said they have no idea what is going on and they have no record of a car in our names and maybe they sold it for scrap they don't know. And that was all the help they were. How do we prove to KY that we don't own this car anymore so we don't have to keep paying taxes? And put my mind at ease please, I asked someone else about this and they told me that by paying the back taxes we were admitting that we owned the car in that time span so if it was used in a crime we would be in trouble. That's not true right? I hope not anyway! Sorry if this is cars 101 stuff, I'm not from the US and its all very confusing to me.
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Apr 14, 2012 00:00
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Picklesworthe posted:I live in Hamilton County, Ohio (Cincinnati). Bring your carbon copies to court, presumably it will be in order with dates. But I would bet you just show up to court, tell the judge you mailed it but it must have gotten lost, you're sorry and ready to pay, and the warrant goes away.
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Apr 14, 2012 00:43
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woozle wuzzle posted:99.99% of rent does not appear on credit reports, for good or bad. Like paying your rent on time doesn't appear on your credit report as a positive account. It's not listed until there's a judgment. I've seen hundreds of credit reports, many of which had unpaid rent as a judgment, but I've never seen unpaid rent listed in the debt section. I am curious, isn't the whole point of address history on credit reports and rental applications requiring address history so they can call and check if there is an outstanding debt? When I was younger I am pretty sure that's how some shithole apartment screwed me out of renting for a while.
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Apr 14, 2012 03:59
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I live in Anchorage Alaska and I wanted to know what kind of leg I'd have to stand on and where to seek recourse... I spent $100 on a pair of massage tickets from someone I knew for christmas. She had a poster up where I work advertising her holiday rate, and the tickets I bought are "good through march 31st". I have been trying to reach her since February, she's half heartedly offered to set something up "next week" a couple of times but she never gets back with me. She told me that the tickets expired at the end of february last time I tried to arrange something, but I have a picture of the poster she put up in the breakroom that says otherwise. What's the best course of action? I'm going to try talking to her again tomorrow.
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Apr 14, 2012 06:15
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Chafey posted:I live in Anchorage Alaska and I wanted to know what kind of leg I'd have to stand on and where to seek recourse... Ask for a refund if she refuses to commit to a time. If she refuses to either give a firm date or a refund, there isn't much you can do other than complain that she is a scammer and threaten to take her to small claims.
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Apr 14, 2012 08:12
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Not sure if this should be here or in Business/Finance. The company I work for (located in Georgia) is in the process of potentially being bought by a a larger corporation. The owners have been lying out what has been going on and trying to keep everything hush hush, but myself and several of the "core" employees know what is happening. If the deal goes through, what (if anything) would stop us from leaving the new company and starting our own? We would most likely contact existing customers. I cannot find any documents that I signed with non-compete agreements, but does that even matter if I do not have ownership in the company? Are there any sort of contracts that the employees could be subject to after the deal goes through that we may not even know about (i.e. Employees can't do X)? If so, we would need to start the company before the deal is official/closed to prevent from being binded to some unknown conditions. I also have a few personal agreements/arrangements with the owners that I don't think a large corporation would go for. These agreements are only verbal, but the owners have been carrying them out. Would it be acceptable to get them written down and have a clause where "upon change of ownership" or whatever, they would continue to be carried out?
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Apr 14, 2012 16:01
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SirBoobsALot posted:Not sure if this should be here or in Business/Finance. The company I work for (located in Georgia) is in the process of potentially being bought by a a larger corporation. The owners have been lying out what has been going on and trying to keep everything hush hush, but myself and several of the "core" employees know what is happening. If the deal goes through, what (if anything) would stop us from leaving the new company and starting our own? We would most likely contact existing customers. I cannot find any documents that I signed with non-compete agreements, but does that even matter if I do not have ownership in the company? Are there any sort of contracts that the employees could be subject to after the deal goes through that we may not even know about (i.e. Employees can't do X)? If so, we would need to start the company before the deal is official/closed to prevent from being binded to some unknown conditions. If you don't have a non-compete agreement with your current employer, there's nothing stopping you from starting your own competing business in the same field as long as you aren't doing anything that would run afoul of IP or trade secret laws (e.g. stealing your current employer's proprietary processes or taking a work for hire you created for them and using it for your own company). Poaching their clients might be a little more iffy, though. It depends on how much insider information you have about their customers and whether you use that to try to get their business; e.g. if you know how much a client is paying for their current services (assuming the price is not public knowledge) and use that to undercut your employer, that might get you in trouble. The new owners cannot arbitrarily impose outside-of-work restrictions on you that you didn't agree to and sign something for. They might have their own deals with, say, their own vendors or clients that say those vendors or clients can't hire you away from them, but that's between them and their clients/vendors/etc. and would have no effect on you starting your own business or going to work for some other company. They can't enforce a non-compete you didn't agree to, but they can hand you one on the day the buyout goes through and say "sign this or you're fired," of course. If you have signed a non-compete at some point, you'd best obtain a copy of it before making any other plans. "I don't remember signing that" isn't much of a defense if you did actually sign one. Enforcement of noncompetes varies a lot and courts don't seem too keen on overly broad provisions (more than a couple years or covering an absurdly wide field like "IT" instead of a narrow scope that actually competes directly with the employer), but more reasonable ones can usually be enforced, and you would almost certainly be in violation if you tried to poach your current employer's clients. quote:I also have a few personal agreements/arrangements with the owners that I don't think a large corporation would go for. These agreements are only verbal, but the owners have been carrying them out. Would it be acceptable to get them written down and have a clause where "upon change of ownership" or whatever, they would continue to be carried out? What are these arrangements, exactly? Georgia's an at-will state, so getting your employer to put some "arrangement" in writing does nothing to guarantee it will survive a change of ownership; the new owner can alter your terms of employment however they like, within the law. If it's a compensation-related arrangement, having it officially added to your current compensation package would make it more likely to continue, but if it's some sort of off-the-books special treatment like an odd flex-time schedule or your employer washing your car for you every other Friday, you'll probably be out of luck.
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Apr 14, 2012 22:50
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Location: Baton Rouge, LA A few pages / weeks ago, I posted about my landlord trying to get all wacky with my security deposit at renewal time. Long story short, I told him we wouldn't be renewing after all, and I started looking for new places to live. Then comes today, when I check my email to find a notice of eviction with 5 days to vacate! Completely shocked, I called him and asked what it was about. He hedged a little bit about what it was, saying we had a lot of complaints lodged against us and because the police had to get involved he was forced by the condo association to evict us. I don't know if he was being vague for legal reasons or plain ignorance. He said the association told him to evict us "immediately" but that he was being "lenient" by allowing us 5 days. We have NEVER had a police officer come to our door, and with the exception of a single noise complaint posted on our door last week, no other complaints. That noise complaint was false, as it detailed loud arguing, yelling and excessive vacuuming (wtf) one night but I work night shifts and my boyfriend was out with friends that specific night. I was probably naive for this, but the notice didn't ask for any further action (except to be quiet, obviously) and I figured it was a one-off, random thing. I asked my landlord if I ought to call the condo association to see what the complaints were exactly, as I had no idea what was going on and this was completely out of left field. He said I could try, but that he couldn't comment any more on the issue. So, I call the condo and the lady there asks if we received the noise complaint last week. I explain that we did, and why I ignored it. She then goes on to tell me that she lives at the apartment complex next to our condos, and that, in addition to all the supposed complaints lodged against us, she herself had witnessed on several occasions, young guys out on the patio partying into the night. At this point, I cut her off and tell her emphatically that those boys were at the unit NEXT to us, and that we actually have had to go over to tell them to quiet it down before. What makes this weirder is that those guys don't live in that unit -- a lady and her young daughter live there alone, but on occasion, we'll come home to see high school / college age kids streaming in and out of that condo, obviously having a party. She brings the fact up that it's just the lady living there with her daughter and I explain what we've seen, and that my boyfriend went over just last week (the same week we got the noise complaint) to tell them to shut it up. One of the boys even came over after the party was over and asked my boyfriend not to snitch on him, basically. This whole time we're assuming it's most likely a house-sitting situation where the lady's brother or something is throwing parties in the condo, probably without her knowledge. So, the condo lady says she'll contact my neighbor and call me back. When she calls back, she tells me my neighbor is denying, of course, that the noise is coming from her unit, that we were the cause of the noise, and that she has, in fact, witnessed my boyfriend slapping me around and me crying in the stairwell / hallway on several occasions as well as heard him beating me up and cursing me out through the walls. All of this is bullshit. She also says that there's no way kids could ever have gotten into her condo because even though she does have two younger high-school aged brothers, they don't have the keys to her place. I ask her what now. She tells me it's up to my landlord at this point, but if they, the complex, receive another noise complaint for our unit, we're being evicted forcibly and immediately, no way around it. I am not up to par on eviction statutes, but I'm reasonably sure there's no way they can just up and kick us out, right? That's not the question, anyway. The question is: do I need to start looking for a lawyer now, or is it possible I can get this resolved between me, my landlord and the condo association without having to leave before my lease is up? He's not returning my calls at the moment and the condo association is now closed for business until Monday. Can he even serve me an eviction notice before informing me of what's going on and trying to fix the issue? Can he really just do that? What should I do? Should I stop panicking or am I not panicking enough? BONUS: A picture of the poo-soiled diapers, plural, stacked outside of my neighbor's door. She left them there for 3 days. This is not an isolated incident. 
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Apr 14, 2012 23:26
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dennyk posted:What are these arrangements, exactly? Georgia's an at-will state, so getting your employer to put some "arrangement" in writing does nothing to guarantee it will survive a change of ownership; the new owner can alter your terms of employment however they like, within the law. If it's a compensation-related arrangement, having it officially added to your current compensation package would make it more likely to continue, but if it's some sort of off-the-books special treatment like an odd flex-time schedule or your employer washing your car for you every other Friday, you'll probably be out of luck. There are some washing car type things but also an important agreement where I can purchase a product from them at very little markup. I need this product as I was in the early stages of starting a side business (which is fully supported by my current employers) using their product but not in the same application as them so as to not compete. I assume that if I had the agreement written down (as an agreement between two companies), that it would be more likely to be honored if a buyout occurred?
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Apr 15, 2012 02:24
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chuchumeister posted:That's not the question, anyway. The question is: do I need to start looking for a lawyer now, or is it possible I can get this resolved between me, my landlord and the condo association without having to leave before my lease is up? He's not returning my calls at the moment and the condo association is now closed for business until Monday. IANAL and cannot be assumed to be giving you valid or informed legal advice. When is the lease set to expire? What does you lease say about evictions and specially are the landlord/Condo Association expressly given powers? What power does the CA have over you, as expressly stated in your lease. I'm assuming you have the lease on hand. You're looking for expressly given powers here. My scanning of Louisiana's code, aided in direction by a couple of websites, show the that progression of events looks about like this: Leasee receives a Notice to Vacate (this notice may or may not have been waived due to the terms of the lease) and is given no less than 5 days to do so (CCP Article 4701). (This email may have been a Notice to Vacate.) If the leasee does not vacate (or waived the right to notice), the leasor may seek for a court ruling for an eviction. The leasee will be duly served (this could included having a notice nailed to your door) and the court date will be at least three days after the service. Note, if the property is abandoned, the leasor can reclaim it even without a court order. (CCP Article 4731) If a court order of eviction is awarded, leasee has 24 hours to comply with the order or setup an appeal, which includes a bond. If it is not complied with, the sheriff, constable, or marshal shall execute a warrant of eviction(CCP Articles 4733, 4734, and 4735.)
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Apr 15, 2012 04:13
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SirBoobsALot posted:There are some washing car type things but also an important agreement where I can purchase a product from them at very little markup. I need this product as I was in the early stages of starting a side business (which is fully supported by my current employers) using their product but not in the same application as them so as to not compete. I assume that if I had the agreement written down (as an agreement between two companies), that it would be more likely to be honored if a buyout occurred? If there was a formal contract between you and your employer to provide this product to you (as a customer) at a certain price, I'm pretty sure that would carry over in the event of a buyout. I don't think a contract like that can be indefinite, though; "SirBoobsALot can buy Product X from Company Y for 1% above cost forever and ever, amen" won't cut it. If this is an important matter to your business, I'd invest in a consultation with a lawyer (assuming your employer is willing to draw up a contract in the first place, of course). I would also be very, very careful about this in relation to starting a competing business. I don't know exactly how the law would see it, but using your current employment status to obtain a very favorable contracted price on your employer's product and then using that product in some way (or even appearing to use it) in the operation of a competing business, especially if you still plan on trying to target your current employer's clients, could be treading on dangerous ground. You should really consult with a lawyer to make sure you are as educated as possible about potential legal fallout from all this.
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Apr 15, 2012 04:29
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chuchumeister posted:Location: Baton Rouge, LA He can serve you an eviction notice, but if you have not violated your lease, I don't think you have to follow it. He will have to take you to court to enforce it. It is really important to read your lease here, a lot of the bad ones I have seen include clauses to waive the 5-day notice to vacate, and a clause allowing the landlord to recover all costs of eviction proceedings. This can be pretty nasty, you have to decide if you want to take the time and spend the money to fight it if it can bounce back on you. You already know about the courts around here, but they won't usually approve an eviction without some proof. What it sounds like to me (very pessimistic outlook based on local experience)is that your landlord is friends with someone in the condo association, has decided to get rid of you, and the CA is helping him do this by falsifying complaint records. Its very wrong, but if he shows up in court with dated complaints on the CA letterhead with your unit number on them, your objections will be ignored unless you can prove a negative. Especially if his buddy from the CA shows up and says they were posted on your door. If you don't realize that this happens here, you really haven't lived here long enough. What will probably happen is that they will claim they served you will multiple CA complaints then called the police "as a last resort." This also gives them independent documentation. Take a look at this document. http://www.ag.state.la.us/Shared/ViewDoc.aspx?Type=3&Doc=220 It is very simplified, but if you want to take the time to go to the footnotes section and google all the referenced sections of the Louisiana Civil Code and the Louisiana Revised Statutes you can. You can also look them up directly on https://www.legis.state.la.us . I did for my last rental dispute, and it doesn't make things easy for you. I am not a lawyer, but as a practical matter, you will spend more money and time fighting this procedure here than it is probably worth to you. Especially if you hire a lawyer. A better option is to get the landlord to agree IN WRITING (with witnesses, pay for a notary if possible, its like $7-10 most places here) to a compromise with an accelerated move out timetable with a return of your deposit. Also, LA is a one-party state; if this guy is that much of a slimeball start recording your phone conversations with him. From a practical standpoint, he wants you gone, he does not want to have to take you to court. He would like to steal your deposit too. But, if he has done this before, he probably realizes that if he does take you to court, he will have to front all the costs, and he may not be able to recover any of the eviction costs from you. But if he gets awarded a judgement, he will probably screw with your credit rating out of spite(its pretty cheap to do that). So, if you get him to agree to a compromise in writing, he gets you out without court costs, you don't get your credit screwed with and you hopefully get your deposit back. If you have a friend who has experience with contracts, try getting them to read over your lease and point out any red flags. If you don't know any lawyers, try an engineer or a real estate agent or something similar; they have all probably read more of those types of documents than you. Good Luck! (you'll need it)
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Apr 15, 2012 20:11
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bigpolar posted:help Unfortunately, I'm a big dumb stupidface who didn't understand the implications at the time and our lease does have a waiver for the notice to vacate as well as that clause about being able to recover court costs. Either way, he gave the 5 days to us, so I'm sticking to it. I mean, this is so stupid because we're moving out in less than a month! I just don't want to get kicked out before we can actually MOVE out! I don't think he's colluding with the CA, only because he and the girl I spoke to have had it out on several occasions (in my last post I talked about how the CA deactivated our clickers because the LL failed to pay the CA fees -- the girl who told me that went off on a tangent about how negligent he was as a LL when we talked to them). But I know it's possible. My last apartment complex screwed me out of my deposit and charged me over $300 for carpet replacement because they had their chucklefuck cousin-or-something-owned carpet cleaning company out in Port Allen falsify a cleaning receipt that recommended full replacement. When I disputed it, they immediately sent me to collections. A friend suggested I call the police departments and see if I can get any of the supposed police reports for our unit. I just don't know 1) which PDs responded (i.e., BRPD, EBRSO, etc.) and 2) if they'll even give them to me. I'm going to give my LL to the end of today, then I'm sending him a compromise email as you suggested. Like I said, I'm leaving in two weeks anyway! Just wait! I'll save you all the trouble! When I did try to call him, he just kept um'ing and err'ing and saying, "I can't talk about it until I'm back in town... I can't speak on it..." I already emailed the CA yesterday and CCed my LL with a full record of what was discussed on the phone yesterday, just for the slightest bit of covering my rear end. I'm so lost right now. I am looking up apps to record my phone conversations...
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Apr 15, 2012 20:58
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chuchumeister posted:Unfortunately, I'm a big dumb stupidface who didn't understand the implications at the time and our lease does have a waiver for the notice to vacate as well as that clause about being able to recover court costs. Either way, he gave the 5 days to us, so I'm sticking to it. I mean, this is so stupid because we're moving out in less than a month! I just don't want to get kicked out before we can actually MOVE out! Don't be too hard on yourself, everyone has to learn somehow. Just don't make the same mistakes twice. There are enough available apartments right now that you should not feel pressured to sign a bad lease due to time constraints. Save yourself some time by requesting copies of leases for when you view apartments/houses. If they decline to bring a copy to the viewing, it's probably because they know it is a lovely lease and are looking to screw you over. The last 2 landlords I have had were thrilled that I requested and read a copy of the lease - to them it showed that I was a responsible tenant. One place even offered us an unadvertised discount, partially because of us requesting and reading the lease. And again, get everything in writing; if you get something added on to a lease, make sure the signature page references all addendum with a title and purpose. Don't sign any leases with attached rules that can be changed at any time - those are just more ways to get screwed over. As a general rule, don't sign anything that gives the landlord the right to change any condition without your consent. Remember to strike through and initial any clauses you disagree with, and make sure the lessor or their agent does the same for both copies of the lease. Make sure you see the actual unit you are going to rent before you sign a lease, preferably before you put down a deposit. If you have to put down a deposit before you sign a lease, make sure that the deposit includes a clause for you get your deposit back if the unit is not in satisfactory condition when you go in to sign the lease. Also, never sign any document you do not get a copy of. Just about all these pieces of advice are all way that either myself or my friends have been screwed over in the past, or things that prevented us being screwed over. One example: Campus view apartments, just south of LSU. We viewed an apartment that was being renovated, put down a deposit. Since the apartment was not ready when we viewed it, we insisted on inserting a condition on the deposit form that the unit had to be in satisfactory condition before we moved in (handwritten, initialed by myself, my wife and the rental agent). When we got there to sign the lease, they wanted us to sign before we saw the apartment. We demanded a walkthrough, but they had no power on. Fortunately we had flashlights, and were able to inspect it. The apartment looked great, except for both bathrooms. One had peeling paint on all 4 walls and the ceiling, the other had damage to the tile tub surround (cracks all the way through the wallboard and places it looked like the tiles had been broken by a hammer, already mildewed). We were able to take pictures and demand our deposit back because even the kangaroo courts here in BR wouldn't call that satisfactory condition. We did offer them the chance to fix it within 48 hours, but management decided it was too much trouble, and just wrote us a check. We did have to make it clear that we had photos of the apartment before they caved though. Oh, one more tip, buy a newspaper so they can't claim the photos are from before they repaired it. Put it in a few photos, and take one close up of the front page and the date. Do this when you move in and out of a place too, to document any damage or lack thereof. Good Luck, post if you have any more questions.
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Apr 16, 2012 00:04
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Hey guys, I have something of a conundrum I need some advice on. It's kind of a story. My dad got suckered into getting his name listed as the primary on a loan for a car for my cousin's kid. At the time dad was still grieving over my aunt, and was thinking something along the lines of "oh, this is my sister's grandkid, I'll help him out" when he should have been thinking "this is the kid of that total scumbag who married my niece, I don't think I should trust him." At any rate, the kid has been constantly late paying this loan, and then skipped town with the car. He won't answer our calls to his cell, and we have no means of finding him since we're too broke to hire a detective. My question is, under Texas law, is there a way to get my dad's name removed from this loan considering we have lost control over this vehicle? Or are we better off reporting the vehicle as stolen?
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Apr 16, 2012 10:51
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Hey Lawgoons, I'm not currently involved in a legal dispute, but I do have a question regarding ownership of and methods to legally prove said ownership of intellectual property stuff. I'm in Hawaii and I'm currently in the process of developing a game; let me pose the hypothetical situation that somehow, my work got into the hands of a dishonest sort of person who would take advantage of the programming and ideas and assets therein. Short of spending forty-something smackers to register my partial work with the Library of Congress or applying for copyright, what are some options for proving ownership of those nebulous "creative property" written and drawn pieces?
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Apr 16, 2012 11:30
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notwhoyouknowiam posted:Hey guys, I have something of a conundrum I need some advice on. It's kind of a story. This is a textbook example of why you never co-sign for a loan. Sorry, but your dad's hosed.
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Apr 16, 2012 13:53
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