Can LL sue Tenant for house not selling?

[Jesort415]

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

Someone at work told me today (after hearing about our current LL issues) that if we interfere at all with the showings/open houses we can be sued for damages for the house not selling. I did a google search on this and I can't find anything. My co-worker said if we did anything like not open the door for a showing (with or without proper notice), intentionally keeping the place messy or making it smelly (even with scented candles since some potential buyers could have allergies so this can be seen as making it uncomfortable for them), packing and putting boxes in a way to make it hard to walk around and look at the place, or even sitting on the couch barely dressed or picking our noses we could be in trouble.

Does anyone know if this is true??

 

[Cvillecpm]

It is called an intentional "tort" and most tenants would not have sufficient assets to make such a suit worthwhile

 

[Cheeseknife]

To an extent the answer is yes. However, the LL would have to prove that you were intentionally preventing the sale of the home and that usually requires something fairly extreme. Normal things like boxes laying round the house when moving, or burning scented candles, simply wouldn't cut it. With proper notice you must make the property available to view, without proper notice you are not required to allow anyone in. It's a courtesy to the LL if they're selling a property to be flexible in allowing showings, but again, without the proper notice you don't have to do anything.

 

[Jesort415]

Thanks Guys!! We aren't standing in the way of showings at all however we are having a problem with our son's speech therapy and them having no consideration for it. It's only 2 days a week for an hour here at the house. We have asked to please not do showings during that time but of course they ignore us and tell us they don't care. Housing court said we could refuse entry if we had to but after what my co-worker said they could sue us I got a little worried.

 

[sandyclaus]

God Bless America, The Land Of Rampant Litigation

Anyone can sue anyone for anything.

The LL CAN sue, but is it worth his time/$$/effort? When he gets to court, he must prove his own efforts to sell were not the proximate cause of it not getting sold. That includes the mitigating factor of him having tenants in occupancy during the entire the time the property was put on the market.

It is LLs house to sell, so it's in his best interest to cooperate with you, the tenant, to ensure that he is able to make the property attractive, available & marketable. That means giving proper advance notice for scheduled showings, working with tenants to make the property presentable (with LL hiring cleaning crews) and making the necessary concessions when required, including offering rent reduction or other incentives to make the sale process more smooth. Any refusal on LLs part to cooperate with the tenant means the likelihood of selling the home while still collecting full rent from inconvenienced tenants is very slim - especialy when they try to blame the tenant for their (LL) own actions (or lack thereof).

Unless you refused entry for reasonable and properly noticed showings, or made the house absolutely inhospitable during same said scheduled showings, you have no liability here. Let the LL sue if he wants. Everyone deserves their day in court. And when he loses, you can recover any costs you had to incur to defend yourself against it.

 

[Who's Liable?]

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

Someone at work told me today (after hearing about our current LL issues) that if we interfere at all with the showings/open houses we can be sued for damages for the house not selling. I did a google search on this and I can't find anything. My co-worker said if we did anything like not open the door for a showing (with or without proper notice), intentionally keeping the place messy or making it smelly (even with scented candles since some potential buyers could have allergies so this can be seen as making it uncomfortable for them), packing and putting boxes in a way to make it hard to walk around and look at the place, or even sitting on the couch barely dressed or picking our noses we could be in trouble.

Does anyone know if this is true??

Tell your co-workers to keep their day job... As stated before, anyone can sue for ANYTHING... Whether or not they win is another story...

I'm sure one of your co-workers was threatened by their own LL at one time and simply complied with the LLs request rather than see what their own rights were.

 

[Alaska landlord]

What the two above tenants did not mention, is that it is equally in your best interest to cooperate with the homeowner. Should you be labeled as a trouble maker the new owner will not be renewing your lease. Then there is the question of whether or not the old landlord will be willing to verify your rent amount to the mortgage company should you decide to buy a home in the near future. I doubt he will.

 

[Cheeseknife]

What the two above tenants did not mention, is that it is equally in your best interest to cooperate with the homeowner. Should you be labeled as a trouble maker the new owner will not be renewing your lease. Then there is the question of whether or not the old landlord will be willing to verify your rent amount to the mortgage company should you decide to buy a home in the near future. I doubt he will.

Which is to assume that the new owner wants to rent the property to be begin with, and who cares if the landlord won't verify you're rent amount? You either qualify for a loan using the lender's debt to income ratio or you don't. What you've paid in the rent in the past is not of any significant consequence.

 

[You Are Guilty]

Anyone can sue anyone for anything.

The LL CAN sue, but is it worth his time/$$/effort? When he gets to court, he must prove his own efforts to sell were not the proximate cause of it not getting sold. That includes the mitigating factor of him having tenants in occupancy during the entire the time the property was put on the market.

Actually, proximate cause is completely irrelevant. The factors for interference with a prospective contract in New York are: a) were the defendant's actions unlawful (or an independent tort); b) if they were not, was the defendant's conduct entirely and solely for the purpose of inflicting intentional harm on the plaintiff.

As applied to the posters facts, not permitting a showing is neither a crime nor an independent tort (although there may be an argument it is a breach of contract). Further, in that their reason for not showing the unit at certain times was due to their child's therapy, even if they also wanted to "screw the LL", their motives were not entirely based on their bad intent, thus the second-half of the analysis fails as well.

In short, these claims cost many, many thousands of dollars to prosecute and rarely succeed due to the high levels of proof needed. I doubt a LL in this situation has any interest in pursuing such a claim when the cost is astronomical and the chances of success are near nil.

 

[Jesort415]

What the two above tenants did not mention, is that it is equally in your best interest to cooperate with the homeowner. Should you be labeled as a trouble maker the new owner will not be renewing your lease. Then there is the question of whether or not the old landlord will be willing to verify your rent amount to the mortgage company should you decide to buy a home in the near future. I doubt he will.

You really should NOT assume. We do NOT want to stay and are currently awaiting our credit and background checks to come back so we can sign a lease. They have asked us to stay but we have politely declined. We have also been approved for a mortgage already but have decided to wait a little longer to buy. We have been more than compliant but if our son has his therapy at the house that day/time and they refuse to be considerate or they try to be cute and NOT give us proper notice I want to make sure we can legally refuse entry (which a tenant advocate at housing court confirmed we can) without fear we will be sued. Now why would a LL want to stand in the way of medical treatment anyway? So don't assume we are the bad guys, we aren't trying to cause trouble just for kicks.

Now I am going to assume that based on your answers to my previous questions as well as this one that you may have been burned by tenants in the past, we are NOT those types of tenants. We have never been evicted or taken to court for any matter. We are quite and clean (Not "Monk" clean but good enough that Mom and Gma who are "Monk clean" don't ever complain) so please don't lump all tenants in the same boat as I won't lump all landlords in the same boat based on our current experience with these LLs.

 

[tranquility]

Just try and prove in court that a person who picks his nose wasn't just trying to find something to eat.

 

[Isis1]

Just try and prove in court that a person who picks his nose wasn't just trying to find something to eat.

.....okay, i am SO glad i ate breakfast 2 hours ago.....

 

[Jesort415]

Just try and prove in court that a person who picks his nose wasn't just trying to find something to eat.

Okay in all fairness my toddler has in fact sat on the couch during Spongebob Squarepants and eaten his boogies. Some can say he was hungry, others he was bored, or some can say he's 2 and that's what most (not all) 2 y/o do. We certainly don't make him do it for entertainment purposes during showings or open houses and we try to discourage it but it's nice to know we can't be sued for it either way.

 

[Baranov]

Which is to assume that the new owner wants to rent the property to be begin with, and who cares if the landlord won't verify you're rent amount? You either qualify for a loan using the lender's debt to income ratio or you don't. What you've paid in the rent in the past is not of any significant consequence.

it is to his advantage to know or be alerted to how his LL will react to his interference in the sale of his home. In addition, it is basic knowledge to landlords that mortgage underwriters and brokers will invariably contact former landlords for information on rent payments and the tenant’s ability to pay on a timely manner. This is particularly important if the borrower is marginal or has been through a bankruptcy. The information is used to formulate a payment amount for the borrower. A landlord can delay the mortgage process by failing to provide the information or in some cases even kill renter’s chances.



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[Jesort415]

it is to his advantage to know or be alerted to how his LL will react to his interference in the sale of his home. In addition, it is basic knowledge to landlords that mortgage underwriters and brokers will invariably contact former landlords for information on rent payments and the tenant’s ability to pay on a timely manner. This is particularly important if the borrower is marginal or has been through a bankruptcy. The information is used to formulate a payment amount for the borrower. A landlord can delay the mortgage process by failing to provide the information or in some cases even kill renter’s chances.

This is all irrelevant as we have already been approved by a bank for our mortgage we just decided to wait a year longer before buying. They only needed our bank statements when verifying our rent payments and never contacted our LL. Maybe where you are from they contact LL but out here I have yet to hear of any one of my friends/ family members having there LL contacted.