Verbal Leave Date...

[robinson12]

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

My spouse and I rent and are caretakers for our apartment building (we pay $550 instead of $850 for maintaining the grounds). For personal reasons, we gave our landlord a last day to continue care-taking. He said that was fine, but that we would need to be out by Feb. 1st because he needs our apartment to house a new caretaker. The following week we informed landlord that we found a place and would be out mid-Jan. Then landlord tells us that the caretaker that was lined up failed the background check and that we're bound to the lease until he finds one. We can't back out if this new place or we forfeit the deposit and then will still need a new place when landlord replaces us.

Can we honor this verbal eviction?
Do we have to pay rent to this landlord?

Thanks for all advice

 

[STEPHAN]

This is not an eviction. He canceled your lease. Do you have any evidence for this?

What did the original lease say?

 

[robinson12]

The lease doesn't say much. Says we're paying 850, if we decide not to renew we must give a 60 day notice. The bottom in the comments says that in return for maintaining the building we get a $300 allowance as independent contractors. What kind of proof would work? When he told me this, it was just me and him talking. My spouse was at another job at the time.

 

[quincy]

The lease doesn't say much. Says we're paying 850, if we decide not to renew we must give a 60 day notice. The bottom in the comments says that in return for maintaining the building we get a $300 allowance as independent contractors. What kind of proof would work? When he told me this, it was just me and him talking. My spouse was at another job at the time.

This is not a standard landlord/tenant agreement because you are employed by the landlord as a property manager, with the apartment and a discount in your rent considered compensation for your work.

What you will need to do is have your terms of employment and your current lease personally reviewed by an attorney in your area, to determine better if you are legally obligated to continue paying rent on the apartment if you are no longer employed as a property manager. In other words, this can get complicated.

As a note for the future: Never rely on an oral agreement. Always get your agreements in writing. There is never a guarantee that both parties will remember an oral agreement in the same way, for one thing, and trying to prove in court what was agreed to can come down to who the judge finds more believable.