unlawful rent raise & lease change

We have leased the same rental for nearly 4 years. In 1999 we signed a lease good until July 2000 with a set rent amount. In January 2000, our landlord demanded a rent increase effective May 2000 of $200 per month. He had had the property refinanced for the third time during our residency. A the same time he sent a new lease for the year 00-01. WE did not relaize it but in the lease he had changed the dates to May 2000 to May 2001. I was very ill at the time and had just been released from the hospital from a 5 month hospitalization. We did not realize he could not legally raise the rent. He also tried to insert clauses into the rent increase form that were against our state laws about being able to make us move. This we noticed. Now the jerk has decided to return to our state and wants his house to live himself. He has tried to force us to sign a notice of intent to vacate form by telling us some fabricated story that he wants to buy us a house we can rent and has since told us one lie after another trying to convince us to pre-terminate our lease. He has also began to become abusive, accusing us of all sorts of garbage, screaming at us over the phone, calling my husband at work yelling over some stupid thing that nothing to do with us, also requesting to come over to our house for any reason he can think of. He has shown up here two times that I know of unannounced.

What can we do to get back the two months of $200.00 he illegally obtained and get back the 2 months he has cut us short on our lease. He obviously did this thinking we would not notice, could fool us into signing a notice to vacate that effectively put us on a month to month basis (language he had in it), we refused to sign it. We recently had a major plumbing problem that has been ongoing for 4 years. This time he was forced to fix it but it took him a month to do it. He also ahs a fit anytime you ask him to fix anything. We live in the State of Washington.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by sunset133:
We have leased the same rental for nearly 4 years. In 1999 we signed a lease good until July 2000 with a set rent amount. In January 2000, our landlord demanded a rent increase effective May 2000 of $200 per month. He had had the property refinanced for the third time during our residency. A the same time he sent a new lease for the year 00-01. WE did not relaize it but in the lease he had changed the dates to May 2000 to May 2001. I was very ill at the time and had just been released from the hospital from a 5 month hospitalization. We did not realize he could not legally raise the rent. He also tried to insert clauses into the rent increase form that were against our state laws about being able to make us move. This we noticed. Now the jerk has decided to return to our state and wants his house to live himself. He has tried to force us to sign a notice of intent to vacate form by telling us some fabricated story that he wants to buy us a house we can rent and has since told us one lie after another trying to convince us to pre-terminate our lease. He has also began to become abusive, accusing us of all sorts of garbage, screaming at us over the phone, calling my husband at work yelling over some stupid thing that nothing to do with us, also requesting to come over to our house for any reason he can think of. He has shown up here two times that I know of unannounced.

What can we do to get back the two months of $200.00 he illegally obtained and get back the 2 months he has cut us short on our lease. He obviously did this thinking we would not notice, could fool us into signing a notice to vacate that effectively put us on a month to month basis (language he had in it), we refused to sign it. We recently had a major plumbing problem that has been ongoing for 4 years. This time he was forced to fix it but it took him a month to do it. He also ahs a fit anytime you ask him to fix anything. We live in the State of Washington.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

File harassment and trespassing charges against him. And send him a certified letter listing categorically each and every violation of the L/T law. Then ask for a refund of the amount of rent overpaid and an extension to the lease. If you signed the new written lease agreement, you may have forfeited your rights and agreed to a rent increase and the new termination date.