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Anyone have experience with Contract Law?

gococksDJS

gococksDJS

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Alright I'll try to keep the explanation short, but I need some help because I have to be in court tomorrow morning at 9. Last year me, my brother and two other roommates moved into a 4 bedroom house. The rent was $1200 a month so $300 per person. All four of us signed the lease, but the lease didn't specify an amount each person would pay per month. We also put down a $1200 security deposit ($300 each). About 3 months into our lease me, my bro, and the 3rd roommate leave for the weekend, and when we got back our 4th roommate(a chick) had moved out all of her shit. She also refused to pay rent.

At first, our landlord bitched and complained to the chick who left, but she claimed to sue him because of "a mold problem in the house" and he backed off like a pussy, and this whole time the 3 of us were paying our $300 a month. Now he never told us, but for 4 months our landlord used everyones security deposit to cover the girls rent(which we were planning on using for the last months rent), and when that ran out he started bitching at us for the rest of the money. So this summer me and my brother get a court summons at our new house saying we are being sued for over 3 grand, and the summons says "2 months non-payment" when it was actually 6 months of the girl not paying rent. The landlord had everyones name on the summons but only mailed it to me and my brother, and since it's not our responsibility to tell the other two roommates about it, we never did. We told him that he would have to tell the other two, but he didn't. Well me and my brother filed a counter suit against him for breach of contract because he made us leave 2 months early without ever filing an official eviction notice with the city. The summons to our counterclaim was mailed to just me and my brother again, telling the 4 of us to show up in court tomorrow. Me and my brother are going, we have reciepts saying we paid rent for the full 10 months we lived there, and the other 2 roommates won't be showing up because they don't know about it. I'm afraid we're fucked, but does anyone know anything about contract law that could help me out? If anyone knows any info that can help me out, ill father your children.
 
The laws vary by state, so you'll need to post that info.

Usually, the renter gets screwed though. I'm not a lawyer (hell, I don't even play one on IM), but the contract was ambiguous. Ambiguity does not necessarily benefit any party in a contract. What it does do is give the judge some room to make an "interpretation". Just dress nicely, be very polite, and speak in as educated a way as possible and, at the very least, the judge may split the difference of the missed months (plus any fees actually spelled out in the contract).

Oh, and always make sure to call the judge, "Your Honor."
 
I know nothing of the sort, but unless you and your brother lived in the 5000 sq ft mansion of the appt, and the other two shared a cramped closet.. Any reasonable judge will conclude that the monthly bill should have been equally split between all four of you equally unless otherwise noted/arranged.

Be sure to point out the monthly payments per individual were $300 each which would correspond with that. Assuming the 4 of you were all there under a 12 month contract, and you and your brother paid your 1/2 for each month you were there, the judge should smack the landlord upside the head for not summonsing the other two people, and probably let you go.
Make sure you've read through the contract(if you have it) for any unussual clauses(ex: Claus 1,981, section 12, Paragraph C: If any tenant misses a payment, all and any tenants using an online name with,"cock" in it must give the landlord possesion of their first born. ... ect)

Seriously, Its not your duty to call in other people under contract so long as you can prove you both paid anything you owed.(1/4 of the costs each)

One worry you might have is that if he didnt officially evict you all.. he could try to claim you were there those two other months. Anything you can pull up to show thats not the case may be overpreparation, but nice to have.

My feeling is that the judge is going to order the other two be summons'ed(If you dont know the word, make it up!) as well, and all four of you might be coming back together.

Thats just my 2 cents- My total experience in legal matters is being summons'ed(lol) for jury duty once :(


post 1338 lol
 
Note that the landlord knew that each person was responsible for only $300 of the $1200, this is evident by the pillagery of the security deposit. Fact is he knew the score between the 4 and should have acted upon it before diving into the deposit.
 
I am not sure, but I believe it to be illegal for him to touch a security deposit or last month's rent as well. That money is typically deposited into an escrot account and not touched until the end of the lease. If he looks to recover any loses by means of the security deposit or last month's rent, I believe all parties must be privy to it. The fact that he took the money out without your permission or a court order could be a strike against him.

Also, if you have any cancelled checks showing a history of your $300 payment they would be useful to you. If it wasn't too far away you could prolly get copies of them online.

TP qould prolly know for sure, but he is never here any more.
 
Dale Mabry said:
I am not sure, but I believe it to be illegal for him to touch a security deposit or last month's rent as well. That money is typically deposited into an escrot account and not touched until the end of the lease. If he looks to recover any loses by means of the security deposit or last month's rent, I believe all parties must be privy to it. The fact that he took the money out without your permission or a court order could be a strike against him.

Also, if you have any cancelled checks showing a history of your $300 payment they would be useful to you. If it wasn't too far away you could prolly get copies of them online.

TP qould prolly know for sure, but he is never here any more.
Click to expand...

I think you are correct about the security deposit being placed in an escrot account. Check the details of the lease to see if there are any statements about security being used if rent not received.

Definitely take copies, or even better the original checks, for every rent payment as well as your original lease with you to court. If you wrote any letters, email, notes to the landlord take them with you as well as anything written to you by the landlord. If you have anything written by the girl who left you high and dry take it with you as well. Be prepared for anything and everything to be tossed at you, but stay calm and don't loose your temper or patience.

I am not surprised that all four people from the lease are listed on the summons, but shouldn't the courts have been given individual addresses for each person? I can understand that if all 4 are on the lease, then the landlord has to sue all 4, but if it was documented that each would be individually responsible for their portion of the rent then the landlord should have gone after the girl only back when she left without notice. However, that is just my opinion.
 
I have reviewed the S.C. state laws and found a few things he did wrong. He gave us an original copy of the lease, but what if he refused me a copy later on and refused to let me see receipts for paid rent?
 
Devlin said:
If you paid by check, aren't your cancelled checks your receipt? Not sure about the orginial copy versus copy later later. I would think if everyone signed an original copy then no copy needed later unless written changes are made at a later date.
Click to expand...
Well I got a copy of the lease before we moved in, but I lost it so a month after we moved out I asked to see a copy of the lease and their record of payment for us and he refused.
 
I would think that if he doesn't have a copy of the lease that he could not prove that you guys are responsible for her not paying and he is SOL. If you asked for a copy and he had one but didn't provide it, that would be illegal. In essence, I believe he has to prove it since he is taking you to court. I think you would be money if you had copies of the checks. If you have a bigger bank (Not a little shithole bank in a small town) you can prolly get the copies online for a check written up to 6 months ago. That is the policy ofmy bank (Wachovia).
 
bulletproof1 said:
chicks :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Hey now...we are not all bad.

I had a bank that would send a copy (front and back) of the checks I had written with my monthly statement of course the checks had been scanned and reduced slightly in size to fit about 4 per page, but it was still a legit copy from the bank showing the back endorsements.

It would seem to me that the landlord is SOL if you can prove each was resposible for own portion and that the landlord needs to go after the chick who skipped out.
 
Well I did find something good. We had to move out two months early because our landlord let 4 more tenants sign a lease that began two months before ours ended. These new tenants knocked on our door asking us when we would be vacating the property. This should be proof enough that he attempted to eject us from the property without filing a court ordered eviction notice, which is against the law.
 
Last edited:
gococksDJS: You want answers?
The Judge: I think I'm entitled.
gococksDJS: You want answers?
The Judge: I want the truth.
gococksDJS: You can't handle the truth!
 
Judge:We find the defendants...Guilty and they are ordered to pay restitution.

goCocks: Your honor, sir, I am wondering if there is anything I uhhh, could possibly do, uhhhh, to change your mind. (Gococks pats the side of his closed fist on his right cheek while making a lude gesture with his tongue on the left cheek, while winking at the judge).

Judge:Sir, I am a judge, not a catholic priest.

GoCocks:Well how bout a little of this. (Makes hand job motion)

Judge: Done and Done! Case dismissed.





Topolo will be crushed.
 
Hi cfs3

InJECTioNS aRe NoT LethaL, ThEy CaN ActUALly bE QuITE RewARDinG wIth ThE RigHT PartNER.

TaKE CaRe

JOHN H.
 
Better than the judge cock GoCocks is prolly choking on right now.
 
You could possibly sue your former roomate for not paying rent. It's easily arguable that you four entered into an implicit contract, in which you would all agree to pay your share of the rent for the duration of the lease. She would be in breach of contract and required to pay damages.

I'm in a Business Law class right now, only undergrad, but I think you have a claim against the girl for the money, if your suit against the landlord fails.
 
He went in at 9am this moring and has yet to report back...

We can only assume..

bushstagedowned_copy_170.gif
 
Well the judge ruled in favor of me and my brother on all counts. The landlord claimed that we signed a contract for the payment of $1200 per month, not 4 payments of $300 per person per month, but the judge ruled that by accepting our payment in the form of 4 checks for $300 without objecting to it, he entered into a verbal contract for each person to pay $300 and that voided the original rent amount stated on the lease so it was thrown out. The judge then said that since he accepted the security deposit as 4 payments of $300 he could not use my deposit to cover the girls rent, so that claim was deemed void and thrown out. Lastly the judge found me and my brother guilty of non-payment of rent for one month because the last month we flat out refused to pay rent after he told us he spent our security deposits so we owed $1200, but by law in the state of S.C., and this is stated in the lease, the landlord must provide a written document to us stating what happened to our security deposits within 30 days of vacating the premises, or we are entitled to 3 times the original deposit we each put down, and he did not do this. The judge stated that due to breach of contract and negligence of S.C. Landlord-Tenant law, he owed me $900 and my brother $900 so a total of $1800 which the $1200 we owed was subtracted from and he still owes us $600. But yes Dale, I did still get gay with him despite the victory.
 
Chain Link said:
He went in at 9am this moring and has yet to report back...

We can only assume..

bushstagedowned_copy_170.gif
Click to expand...
haha, Im just now posting because I was up until about 5 this morning reading and highlighting clauses in Contract Law, Landlord-Tenant Law, and reviewing residential housing case summaries because I don't need no fuckin lawyer. Got 4 hours of sleep, got high on 40mg's of Adderall before court, spread my law knowledge over the courtroom like it was creamy peanutbutter, won my case, made 600 bones in the process and got gay with the judge, so I figured I needed a nap.
 
So, the question remains...Spit or swallow.
 
Gococks...
































:thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs:


Congratulations! :thumb:
An awesome story to be remembered.. The jerk tries to sue you and ends up owing you $600 each.. priceless!!


Im curious though.. How did the judge come to the conclusion that you and your brother were soley responsible for the whole $1200 the last month? At the least shouldnt that have been spread to the 3rd guy, if not the girl too?
 
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