Amount in letter and number dont match

[borreman]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NV

My commercial landlord and I just renewed an office space rental agreement. The contract indicates: "Rent shall be Five hundred Fifty-Five and no/100" ($950.00) per month...."

We both signed it as is.

Is this a valid contract, since the amount written in letters and written in numbers are different? Legally speaking, what am I bound to pay every month?

Thank you

 

[xylene]

You are now embroiled in a major contract dispute and you need to retain a lawyer to clean things up to your advantage.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NV

My commercial landlord and I just renewed an office space rental agreement. The contract indicates: "Rent shall be Five hundred Fifty-Five and no/100" ($950.00) per month...."

We both signed it as is.

Is this a valid contract, since the amount written in letters and written in numbers are different? Legally speaking, what am I bound to pay every month?

Thank you

What were you paying in rent previously - close to $950 or close to $550?

The contract needs to be corrected. The first contract should be voided and a new contract written and signed by both you and the commercial landlord to reflect the true intended amount.

With that said, and according to the Uniform Commercial Code, Section 3.114, written words prevail over the numbers. UCC 3.114: https://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/3

But, you should not think that you can pay $550 per month if you agreed with the landlord to renew your lease for $950, unless you want to have this wind up in court, where you undoubtedly would lose.

 

[borreman]

Thank you for the replies.

We were paying previously $800/month, and we had not agreed over any amount. We received the new proposal and we both signed it without checking the numbers and the letters matched.

Thank you again.

 

[justalayman]

Thank you for the replies.

We were paying previously $800/month, and we had not agreed over any amount. We received the new proposal and we both signed it without checking the numbers and the letters matched.

Thank you again.

Ok, so what was the proposed amount? What was discussed?

If you say you don't know: BULL STUFF. People do not sign contracts without having some really really good idea what they are binding themselves to.

 

[borreman]

Nothing was discussed. The lease agreement was going to expire. We asked the landlord for a renewal, and they sent us that new contract.
It is fine, I am not going to fight the landlord. I just was curious as to what the law says in this instance. We will resolve this peacefully.

Thank you again for your input.

 

[quincy]

Thank you for the replies.

We were paying previously $800/month, and we had not agreed over any amount. We received the new proposal and we both signed it without checking the numbers and the letters matched.

Thank you again.

You had not agreed to any lease renewal amount - but you signed a contract anyway that raises your rent $150 per month? Yikes.

Well, I suggest that you discuss the renewal amount with the landlord so that you both understand exactly what the rent will be, and then I suggest you read over carefully all terms of the new contract before signing. You should know exactly what you are agreeing to before becoming legally bound to its terms.

Although the $550/$950 error seems an easy one to correct out of court as it is obviously a mistake, other errors might not be so easily correctable.

Also, to expand a bit on my earlier statement where I said "words over numbers." If you read Section 3.114, you will also see that typewritten terms will generally prevail over printed terms and handwritten terms will generally prevail over both typewritten and printed terms.