Landlord has Broken Lease

[chessy2309]

What is the name of your state? Virginia

We have been renting this house for 7 months and we have a two year lease. The basement has been flooding (fully finished basement) since we moved in and the landlord knows about it (in fact, according to our neighbors this is why the previous tenants moved out - though our landlord told us there had been a problem in the past but it was fixed now. The neighbors were surprised it was rented to us as the landlord told the last tenants he was selling the place as he couldn't afford to make the repairs). He has promised to fix it but hasn't. It has now gotten worse and mold is now visable, though the building inspector we had in said the mold problem was probably very bad but was behind the dry wall. We contacted the landlord again and he told us he is selling the house as he can't afford to fix it. He said he has a deadline of July 2007 to get us out. So I found somewhere else to live and gave the landlord notice. He is now saying that WE are breaking the lease and he wants 3 months in rent as per our lease agreement! We told him that he had broken the lease and that we would pay until we move out. A man from the gas company turned up today to turn off the gas! We phoned the gas company and they said our landlord had phoned them and told them the property was vacant and they should let themselves in through the back gate and shut everything off. Luckily I was home and managed to stop them! We haven't been able to use to basement at all for two months now and the landlord has refused to reduce our rent accordingly, even though the laundry room is down there as well as my childrens playroom. It is also our guest bedroom.

I just want to move out. The landlord broke the lease, we have proof in the form of emails from him saying that he can't fix the problem, is selling the house, needs us out by July and that we have been great tenants - but wht do I do now? Are we in the right here? Can he make us pay for three months? Does this have to go to court? Can he have the utilities turned off? (which we pay and all are up to date)And what about the mold issue?

If anyone can help i would really appreciate it!

[Cvillecpm]

You need pictures of the mold, documentation as to the utility turn offs, the inspector's WRITTEN report and then let the landlord sue you and you counter sue for moving expenses.

Small Claims court limit in VA is now $5,000.

[chessy2309]

Thank you for the reply! I indeed have photographs and video evidence. I also have the written report from the building inspector, statements from the neighbors, emails that go back 7 months from the LL showing that he knew about the problem, can't afford to fix it, is selling the house, etc.

So you think i should just sit back and wait? Move out when the new place is available on june 15th? I'm worried as he seems to be up to something. I was out front talking to my neighbor when my 4 year old daughter says that a couple came into the back garden. When they saw her they said 'hi' and walked out again. Our yard has a 6 foot high brick wall around it, they would have had to reach over the top of the gate (somethng that my husband has a hard time doing and he is 6 foot) so that they could pull the bolt to get in! My daughter has identified the man as our landlord. I ran out back but there was no-one around anymore. Does the LL have any legal recourse against us or are we definitely in the right? And is he allowed to let himself into my yard and scare the life out of my daughter?

[Cvillecpm]

If you don't pay your rent, it will take 4 to 6 weeks to get you into court.

You can PAY your rent into the court (Tenant Assertion forms are available online) under the VRLTA and have a hearing where the judge will make the landlord fix the problem or allow you out of your lease....to be PERFECTLY safe, this is what you should do....tell anyone and EVERYONE who comes anywhere NEAR the property that there is M*O*L*D at the property....that will stop the LL from sending people over and hopefully give you some privacy until you can get out mid-June.

[chessy2309]

Thank you again. We have paid rent for everything up until now, we have always paid on time and the utilities are also up to date. However, we have not yet paid rent for May (though it is only May 1st today). The LL has our security deposit and we have absolutely NO faith that he will return it. He never answers us on anything and has not provided us with any contact details so I do not even know where he lives! All we have is an email address. So we are hesitating on paying the may rent as we cannot afford to cover the security deposit on the new place, pay rent for May for this place and also not get our deposit back. We figured that as we have email proof from him that we would be entitled to a full refund of our deposit, that the safest thing to do would just be to let him keep the deposit as Mays rent, therefore ensuring that we do not get messed around on getting money back from him.

Also, should I file a police report on him breaking into our backyard? My daughter is really shaken up. Would this help us if this goes to court or is it not worth it?

Thanks!

[Cvillecpm]

Pay your May rent to your local General District court per the Tenant Assertion form on the following website...you can complete it online and print it off and take it and your rent to the court where your property is located.

[url]http://www.courts.state.va.us/forms/district/home.htmle[/url]

Take digital photos of the mold, etc....videos are hard to play in court - digital photos can be kept as evidence.

Forget the police. If you do your tenant assertion correctly, the judge will refund your May rent which is the BEST you can hope for.

[chessy2309]

Update - I cannot submit the form you suggested as we do not fall under the Virginia Landlord Tenant Act. I found another form that I could submit if we did not qualify for the first one, however, this option is now also not open to us. Apparently we can only submit through the District Court if there is no other legal action pending. It seems that there is legal action pending as the LL has filed suit against us for breaking our contract. We don't qualify for Legal Aid but we don't earn enough for a lawyer. I'm not sure what to do now. We have also just found out from the HOA that our LL lied in order to get out of a hearing they had set for him. It was regarding the colour of the fence. He had failed to change the colour and was being fined. It appears that he told them that WE had painted the fence white (which is a colour not allowed) and that it was therefore not his fault. We never touched the fence! (we have witnesses to this fact). We also now have information from the previous tenants that this problem was already ongoing since January 2004 when they moved in. They were told it was fixed (as we were) and it wasn't. The LL then told them as well that he had to sell the place as he couldn't fix it. The realtor told him he couldn't sell in that condition, so he decided to rent it out again instead. The previous tenants said they left a dehumidifier in the basement as a clue to the next people that there were problems. However, the LL removed this before showing us the place and told us everything was fixed.

I'm not sure what he's playing at but is my only option now to get a lawyer?

[Cvillecpm]

C- if you DON'T fall under the Virginia landlord tenant act (common law) then you DO have a VRLTA * Virginia RESIDENTIAL landlord tenant act lease which is what the tenant assertion form is for....you need to REREAD your lease and the VRLTA.

[chessy2309]

sorry, I didn't make myself clear. In the lease that we signed it says that we will not fall under the VLRTA.

Also, the clerk I spoke to at the court said I couldn't file any of the forms I wanted to if there is a lawsuit pending against us.

[Cvillecpm]

What lawsuit has been filed? If it is in Small Claims court - you can counter-sue.

[chessy2309]

as far as I am aware (his lawyer has yet to send through the paperwork so I am going on what the LL has told us) it is a small claims court suit. He wants us to pay three months rent if we move out. Our lease says that we can indeed give him three months notice and he will agree to terminate. However, I don't want to pay him anything as he has never fixed anything and, more importantly, he told us he needs us out of the house! We have a mold inspector coming round today by the way. As already stated, this is an issue of habitability and not just a simple repair.

What, if anything, can I counter-sue for? In an ideal world I want to stop paying rent immediately, get back rent for the months we couldn't use the basement, if our health issues are caused by mold (yet to be determined) I would like compensation for that. The fact that he lied to us when we moved in and we have proof, repayment for the building inspector and mold inspector and something for the fact that I haven't slept in over three weeks worrying about this!

Obviously this would be in an ideal world. Are there any realistic things in the above list that we could counter-sue for?

[chessy2309]

in addition to the above I also forgot to ask that if we countersue, can we also recoup the cost of our lawyer and fees from him?

[Cvillecpm]

If he has an attorney filing the suit, it is NOT in small claims.

You should counter sue for whatever monies you think you are owed up to $5,000.

[chessy2309]

thank you again. It seems that it then really is time to get a lawyer. Hopefully we'll be able to find a cheap one??? Not sure there is such a thing

Just had the mold inspector round here. He said it's not a question of whether it's bad, but a question of how bad it actually is. He has taken some scrapings for the lab but he seemed pretty sure that we have toxic mold.

[Cvillecpm]

Make sure you subpeona the inspector into court NOT just his report.

When you call attorneys - make sure you mention you have a mold inspection report....this is BIG litigation bucks and you may get an attorney to work on a contigency fee if you counter sue your landlord.

You sound like you have time to get your ducks in a row and find an attorney to represent you.