E
EarlW
Guest
What is the name of your state? Michigan
We recently decided to move into a rental house after seeing an advertisement in a newspaper. It is individually owned and after showing us the house at 9pm Sunday night (6/15/2003), he verbally told us to take a week to think about it. The landlord's wife called on Monday (6/16/2003), and we verbally stated that we were very interested in the house. On Friday (6/20/2003), we went and paid $700.00 of a refundable deposit to the landlord to hold the property and signed a type of rental agreement drawn up by the landlord but it is still on a month-to-month basis. The next day, Saturday (6/21/2003), we returned once again to view the house as the first visit had been very hasty due to the fact that the previous tenants were still there. My wife and I found the condition of the house to be much worse than what had been originally thought (ie. flooded basement, stripped hardwood floors, unbearable cat spray odor, etc.) and we decided that the condition of the house would require too much of an investment to make livable, and was not affordable. We immediately contacted the landlord who said that they would only give us $550.00 of the $700.00 (withholding $150.00 for having cancelled the newspaper ad and no other tenant possibilities). My wife and I went to the house the same day (6/21/2003 - Saturday) to receive the refund and upon arrival were told that we were no longer to be given the refund until a lawyer had been contacted. Should the $700.00 be refunded since it was part of a security deposit and less than 24 hours had passed since payment? Is there a law stating that contracts can be broken within a 3 day period if one party or the other is unsatisfied?
We recently decided to move into a rental house after seeing an advertisement in a newspaper. It is individually owned and after showing us the house at 9pm Sunday night (6/15/2003), he verbally told us to take a week to think about it. The landlord's wife called on Monday (6/16/2003), and we verbally stated that we were very interested in the house. On Friday (6/20/2003), we went and paid $700.00 of a refundable deposit to the landlord to hold the property and signed a type of rental agreement drawn up by the landlord but it is still on a month-to-month basis. The next day, Saturday (6/21/2003), we returned once again to view the house as the first visit had been very hasty due to the fact that the previous tenants were still there. My wife and I found the condition of the house to be much worse than what had been originally thought (ie. flooded basement, stripped hardwood floors, unbearable cat spray odor, etc.) and we decided that the condition of the house would require too much of an investment to make livable, and was not affordable. We immediately contacted the landlord who said that they would only give us $550.00 of the $700.00 (withholding $150.00 for having cancelled the newspaper ad and no other tenant possibilities). My wife and I went to the house the same day (6/21/2003 - Saturday) to receive the refund and upon arrival were told that we were no longer to be given the refund until a lawyer had been contacted. Should the $700.00 be refunded since it was part of a security deposit and less than 24 hours had passed since payment? Is there a law stating that contracts can be broken within a 3 day period if one party or the other is unsatisfied?