Civil Litigation-Laredo, Texas

We have a two year lease agreement with the Lessors for a car lot. On the lease agreement it clearly states that the water service is only for the office use only (i.e. for bathroom and lavatory purposes). The Lessors began to use the water to wash cars and my father told them they would have to pay more per month for the water they used to wash cars. Since the meter that provides water for the car lot is also a meter that provides water for an apartment complex there is a big difference in the amount on that was paid before Lessor for the car lot starting using the water for washing cars. I spoke to the Lessor about the amount that was being charged for the water and he said he was paying the rental amount now and would later bring the other amount. He never came by to pay. My father spoke to the Lessors again and told them if they did not pay the difference for the water service that they needed to get their own water service and they said they would probably to that. I also wrote a letter to them reminding them that they were delinquent in their rent and also reminded them about the water service. The lessor told me that they would no longer wash cars on the lot and would take the cars to a car wash across the street. Since I collect rent at the apartment complex next to the car lot, I saw that they were still washing cars. I talked to the person that was washing cars and he stated that he had heard something about the water service, but that he would continue to wash cars until the was told otherwise. We went to JP court and a judgement was given to the Lessors. I truly believe that this was wrong since the lessors knew from the start that the water service was not for washing cars and was to be used only for the bathroom and lavatory. They were verbally told about getting their own service and given many opportunities to get the service. My question is, "Do you have any advise that might help us get the rental payment that was due before they moved out? The judge said we were not entitled to this because we cut off their water service. This is truly unfair because as I stated before this information was given to them at the beginning when they signed the contract. What is wrong with the justice system? Now judges are letting renters get away without paying rents that were due and leaving the Lessees out. Please try to answer as soon as you can as we have appealed this case to the County Court At Law and the case is set for tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.

I am respectfully awaiting your advise.


Hilda

My response:

Please help us to help you. It appears that your post is quite lengthy. Since we want to help you, it would be appreciated, and in your interest, if you could re-write your post to shorten its length.

Some suggestions would be to remove any extra words that do not go to the heart of your question and issues. Also, if you have any emotional or editorial type words or phrases, please remove those also. In other words, be your own worst critic, and stick to the facts.

Additionally, if you haven't already done so, please use paragraphs rather than running each sentence into the next. This, alone would make your post easier to read and understand.

Thank you for your kind cooperation, and I'm sure, after you've re-posted, someone will be with you shortly to assist you.

Thanks,
IAAL

P.S. If you haven't mentioned your State name, or the State where your problem has occurred, please tell us in your first sentence.

Due to the urgency noted in your post (court setting tommorrow), I will try to answer your long and somewhat confusing post......

On the surface, it sounds like the judge was in error in not considering the water issue in his decision, but since we were not there, and don't know what was said, it is hard to determine where the fault or misunderstanding is.....

In your appeal (trial De Novo), you need to make a point of the lease providing solely for office water ONLY. Further, you need to bring your letter to them, and get them to admit that they were using water for purposes NOT allowed in their lease.

In my opinion, it is very important that you STRONGLY make the following points in your case:
1) You MUST get the tenant to say that they washed the cars in breach of the lease!
2) That by using water that you were paying for (your water), this was a breach of the lease provisions.
3) That you tried to get them to comply with the lease without success.
4) That they continued to breach the lease after both verbal and written notice.

Did you apply the cost of their improperly used water to their rent payment each month, thereby making their rent insufficient? IF this is the case, then the water issue disappears and this case becomes a simple matter of underpaid rent. For example, lets say the rent was $1000 per month, and they used $100 worth of 'violation' water. By deducting the $100 from that months rent, they are short $100 on their rent. Over the period of the lease, this could be a fairly large amount.

In closing the following random comments:
1) How in the world did you expect to enforce an 'office only' clause when you have a general water meter???
2) If you still insist on a common water meter, you need to provide a clause in your lease that stipulates how much water is provided in the rental amount and that the tenant is responsible for any water usage (also state the per unit fee) over the amount shown in the lease.

Best of luck....