stephen496
Junior Member
Hey everyone,
My wife signed a lease on a rental property in Los Angeles, Sep.2nd, took possession of the keys Sep.4th but then the next day realized she made a mistake and told the manager she wanted out of the lease. She never moved in and returned the keys. 25 days later, we emailed the manager asking for our full refund. He refused and said he was able to rent the unit for Oct. 1st so he was keeping the deposit as the full month's rent.
We are planning on taking him to small claims in CA. We are mainly wondering if we have grounds to do so based on the details below. We'd like to say that the lease was signed under economic duress and is invalid but feel that will be hard to show. At the very least, we are hoping to have half our deposit refunded because that' what the manager said he would do.
Relevant details: The manager pressured my wife to sign the lease on Sep.2nd and said that the advertised price was only good if she signed that day. The place was a mess when she walked through in August but ensured us it would be cleaned and fixed by Sep.4th.
She took possession of the keys on the 4th but when she went to inspect the unit the parking spaces were filled with garbage and the promised work had not been done on the unit.
We immediately called the manager and said we wanted out. He said fine, and wrote us an email saying he was allowing us to break the lease. He also wrote that he would refund half our deposit if he was able to rent the unit by Oct. 1st. My wife immediately returned the keys.
The manager immediately put the unit back on the market but for $50 more per month than he had listed it to us for.
If we take this to small claims I'm hoping we can show that my wife was pressured to sign the lease under duress and it was invalid. If not that, then I'm hoping that we can get the manager to honor his agreement in the email and return half our deposit because he was able to rent the unit by Oct. 1st.
Feel free to ask for any other details. I'm on the East Coast, my wife is in LA and I'll be joining her soon. The entire process with this manager was very unorganized and unprofessional for what it's worth. Lots of miscommunication and broken promises on what would be done and when.
Thanks for reading this far, sorry for the wall of text!
My wife signed a lease on a rental property in Los Angeles, Sep.2nd, took possession of the keys Sep.4th but then the next day realized she made a mistake and told the manager she wanted out of the lease. She never moved in and returned the keys. 25 days later, we emailed the manager asking for our full refund. He refused and said he was able to rent the unit for Oct. 1st so he was keeping the deposit as the full month's rent.
We are planning on taking him to small claims in CA. We are mainly wondering if we have grounds to do so based on the details below. We'd like to say that the lease was signed under economic duress and is invalid but feel that will be hard to show. At the very least, we are hoping to have half our deposit refunded because that' what the manager said he would do.
Relevant details: The manager pressured my wife to sign the lease on Sep.2nd and said that the advertised price was only good if she signed that day. The place was a mess when she walked through in August but ensured us it would be cleaned and fixed by Sep.4th.
She took possession of the keys on the 4th but when she went to inspect the unit the parking spaces were filled with garbage and the promised work had not been done on the unit.
We immediately called the manager and said we wanted out. He said fine, and wrote us an email saying he was allowing us to break the lease. He also wrote that he would refund half our deposit if he was able to rent the unit by Oct. 1st. My wife immediately returned the keys.
The manager immediately put the unit back on the market but for $50 more per month than he had listed it to us for.
If we take this to small claims I'm hoping we can show that my wife was pressured to sign the lease under duress and it was invalid. If not that, then I'm hoping that we can get the manager to honor his agreement in the email and return half our deposit because he was able to rent the unit by Oct. 1st.
Feel free to ask for any other details. I'm on the East Coast, my wife is in LA and I'll be joining her soon. The entire process with this manager was very unorganized and unprofessional for what it's worth. Lots of miscommunication and broken promises on what would be done and when.
Thanks for reading this far, sorry for the wall of text!
