StudentUCSD
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? La Jolla (SAN DIEGO AREA), California
Situation: My friends and I are UCSD students, and we leased out an apartment for 12 months. We are really close friends and the lease was signed under one name. The person, for this case, we will call Dan. We spend our time in Los Angeles during the summer, and decided to sublease it out to two individuals we met online.
Dan is the main person on the lease, and we subleased to two subleases.. With sublease contract for a duration of 4 months and at a rate of 1500 a month. Myself and Dan live in LA, and our third party Alby lives in La Jolla, became the main person in contact with the subleases. The first month, the subleases paid an amount of 1500 for May 2009, the second month they paid us $1000 on May 30th, and promised to pay the other $500 a week later - but nothing. June went and pass without the $500, and by July 15th, we finally managed to retrieve another $1000 from them (meaning we retrieve $500 for the month of June, and 500 for July). On July 30th, they promised the rest of the $1000 for the month of July, but that came and passed. They claimed that they will have it on the 5th of August, but that went and passed too. Today is August 22, 2009 and they have yet to pay us for the month of July ($1000) and August ($1500). They paid us an amount of $3500, leaving $2500 owed, and on top of that they agreed to pay 100% utility on the contract, a total of $2651 dollars owed.
Try to Solve: The subleases claimed that his company failed and he no longer have money to pay us. We try reducing the amount owed by allowing to break the lease term to 4 months to 3.5 months. The subleases say they will move out on the 15th, but on the 15th they say they will move on Friday the 19th of August. We then said to move out the 17th of August, and we will still maintain the 3.5 month and allow them to reduce the total sum owed by $750. Then on Friday, they say they don't want to move out until sunday (tomorrow, August 23), and on the 22nd of August, I called them and they say they will not move out until Wednesday ( August 26th). I am fed up with them, and got rid of the offer, and told them to remain in the apartment until the 31st, because I will no longer offer them the early move out. They can move out on the 26th of August, but I will charge them till the 31st.
Problem: The subleases claim that Alby (our main point of contact, because of his location ) is not on the lease and have no legal claim to ask them for money receive money. They say that Alby called them passed 11 o clock once and hassled them for their social security number. They refused to give the address of their new relocation - making it difficult for us to collect from them. They claim he committed a felony and are using this as an indirect form of blackmail, so we will not sue. Also, they claim that our deal to reduce the sum owed, was used to harass and as a form of eviction to kick them out - but we just wanted to help them out by allowing to reduce the duration of the lease.
Also, the subleases openly offered Alby his social security number, and offered to signed and IOU note (Which is retarded in my honest opinion). They have no proof that Alby hassled them for his personal information, and we cannot prove that he openly offered his social security number (which was the case!) We would send 30 days letter of demand and try to collect from them, but we are afraid they might skip town and we cannot find them. The small claim advisor told us to issue the claim right away, but they are trying to (what it appear to me) blackmailing us.
Would a judge with any common sense see this and declare a judgement for us? Dan, Alby, and myself are straight A students in high school. At UCSD, we are highly competitive students with great grades and a comprehensive history of community service. We receive a large majority of our rent money from Financial Aid, which mean if these subleases are to run off with the money, they are stealing tax payer's money. Also Dan, Alby, and myself work several day jobs (some of us work at minimum wage) just to make a living - this sum of money to us is huge.
We filed a small claim and is strongly motivated to sue, but is there any loophole we are missing. Should we serve them immediately? Do we have a strong chance of winning?
Situation: My friends and I are UCSD students, and we leased out an apartment for 12 months. We are really close friends and the lease was signed under one name. The person, for this case, we will call Dan. We spend our time in Los Angeles during the summer, and decided to sublease it out to two individuals we met online.
Dan is the main person on the lease, and we subleased to two subleases.. With sublease contract for a duration of 4 months and at a rate of 1500 a month. Myself and Dan live in LA, and our third party Alby lives in La Jolla, became the main person in contact with the subleases. The first month, the subleases paid an amount of 1500 for May 2009, the second month they paid us $1000 on May 30th, and promised to pay the other $500 a week later - but nothing. June went and pass without the $500, and by July 15th, we finally managed to retrieve another $1000 from them (meaning we retrieve $500 for the month of June, and 500 for July). On July 30th, they promised the rest of the $1000 for the month of July, but that came and passed. They claimed that they will have it on the 5th of August, but that went and passed too. Today is August 22, 2009 and they have yet to pay us for the month of July ($1000) and August ($1500). They paid us an amount of $3500, leaving $2500 owed, and on top of that they agreed to pay 100% utility on the contract, a total of $2651 dollars owed.
Try to Solve: The subleases claimed that his company failed and he no longer have money to pay us. We try reducing the amount owed by allowing to break the lease term to 4 months to 3.5 months. The subleases say they will move out on the 15th, but on the 15th they say they will move on Friday the 19th of August. We then said to move out the 17th of August, and we will still maintain the 3.5 month and allow them to reduce the total sum owed by $750. Then on Friday, they say they don't want to move out until sunday (tomorrow, August 23), and on the 22nd of August, I called them and they say they will not move out until Wednesday ( August 26th). I am fed up with them, and got rid of the offer, and told them to remain in the apartment until the 31st, because I will no longer offer them the early move out. They can move out on the 26th of August, but I will charge them till the 31st.
Problem: The subleases claim that Alby (our main point of contact, because of his location ) is not on the lease and have no legal claim to ask them for money receive money. They say that Alby called them passed 11 o clock once and hassled them for their social security number. They refused to give the address of their new relocation - making it difficult for us to collect from them. They claim he committed a felony and are using this as an indirect form of blackmail, so we will not sue. Also, they claim that our deal to reduce the sum owed, was used to harass and as a form of eviction to kick them out - but we just wanted to help them out by allowing to reduce the duration of the lease.
Also, the subleases openly offered Alby his social security number, and offered to signed and IOU note (Which is retarded in my honest opinion). They have no proof that Alby hassled them for his personal information, and we cannot prove that he openly offered his social security number (which was the case!) We would send 30 days letter of demand and try to collect from them, but we are afraid they might skip town and we cannot find them. The small claim advisor told us to issue the claim right away, but they are trying to (what it appear to me) blackmailing us.
Would a judge with any common sense see this and declare a judgement for us? Dan, Alby, and myself are straight A students in high school. At UCSD, we are highly competitive students with great grades and a comprehensive history of community service. We receive a large majority of our rent money from Financial Aid, which mean if these subleases are to run off with the money, they are stealing tax payer's money. Also Dan, Alby, and myself work several day jobs (some of us work at minimum wage) just to make a living - this sum of money to us is huge.
We filed a small claim and is strongly motivated to sue, but is there any loophole we are missing. Should we serve them immediately? Do we have a strong chance of winning?
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