What is the name of your state? Florida
I have been renting a house for 2 years now and just started my 3rd lease (year to year) in November. When my family and I moved into the house, we rented through a realty company and were told the owners lived out of state. Upon move-in we noticed two enormous bushes in the front and back yards. Basically a mixture of kudzu, palmettos, and a few other trees mixed in there. The property manager even mentioned the “islands” on the initial lease and how they were overgrown. The backyard fence line is over 80 feet and the island back there scales about 60 feet of that and is about 20 feet wide and in certain spots over 10 feet tall. But there was no mention of removing them, just keeping them trimmed and maintained (remember these two words, trimmed and maintained). The end of the first lease agreement drew near (with no problems might I add from us or the property manager) and the owners decide to have an inspection and meet us for the first time. At this point in time it is about month 11 of the 12 month lease. So they come by, inspect, etc., etc. We go outside and talk about the islands and what they would like. I mention that I have been trimming them and they are okay with that. They mention that they would like to see the island in the back trimmed back about 3 or 4 feet. So we discuss it further but nothing amasses. Skip to the end of the first lease. The owners have decided to cut out the realty company and have us deal with them directly. Now skip to November of 2007. After the second lease is about up one of the owners calls me about renewing the lease and then starts jumping down my throat about how we didn’t do anything to the islands and it was covered in the leases and she’s not going to renew the lease unless I agreed to cut them down and removed them. She basically stated that I should just go ahead and do it because if she did send the new lease removing the islands would be included in it. I didn’t agree to it but she sends the lease anyway. But what gets me is the fact that the new lease mentions NOTHING about removing the islands. It says the same thing the other 2 leases state about lawn maintenance (basically the lawn and all bushes will be trimmed and maintained). And when I say that the new lease says the same thing the other 2 leases say I mean verbatim, word for word, exactly the same paragraph as the other leases. I even talked to my original landlord, the property manager at the realty company, and she says that I don’t have to cut anything down because it’s the owner’s responsibility. So basically out of fear of eviction we have about 90% of the back island removed (I think this may hurt my case in the end though). Even with all of this removed there’s still ALOT more work to be done to it. So Christmas Eve the landlord “pops by” (this same lease says she can’t do that) with no warning and is inspecting what we have done. She still isn’t happy with the work and storms off after my attempt at showing her the leases and what we were responsible for. About 2 weeks later I get a certified letter from her saying that we had 2 weeks from that date to have it all removed and a month to remove the island in the front yard or she was going to have a company come out and remove it and then bill me. So I send her a certified letter saying that I am not responsible for removing it, that I will not be paying anyone else for removing it, that my deposit should not be taken because of this, that I will continue to maintain it, etc. Then I get a call from the other landlord asking what was going on and he’s telling me that we are in violation of the lease and we all need to work this out. So he’s coming by for an inspection sometime in March to see what has been and what needs to be done. So after all this can they evict us for this? Can they hold our deposit for this? Am I liable for removing this mess?
I have been renting a house for 2 years now and just started my 3rd lease (year to year) in November. When my family and I moved into the house, we rented through a realty company and were told the owners lived out of state. Upon move-in we noticed two enormous bushes in the front and back yards. Basically a mixture of kudzu, palmettos, and a few other trees mixed in there. The property manager even mentioned the “islands” on the initial lease and how they were overgrown. The backyard fence line is over 80 feet and the island back there scales about 60 feet of that and is about 20 feet wide and in certain spots over 10 feet tall. But there was no mention of removing them, just keeping them trimmed and maintained (remember these two words, trimmed and maintained). The end of the first lease agreement drew near (with no problems might I add from us or the property manager) and the owners decide to have an inspection and meet us for the first time. At this point in time it is about month 11 of the 12 month lease. So they come by, inspect, etc., etc. We go outside and talk about the islands and what they would like. I mention that I have been trimming them and they are okay with that. They mention that they would like to see the island in the back trimmed back about 3 or 4 feet. So we discuss it further but nothing amasses. Skip to the end of the first lease. The owners have decided to cut out the realty company and have us deal with them directly. Now skip to November of 2007. After the second lease is about up one of the owners calls me about renewing the lease and then starts jumping down my throat about how we didn’t do anything to the islands and it was covered in the leases and she’s not going to renew the lease unless I agreed to cut them down and removed them. She basically stated that I should just go ahead and do it because if she did send the new lease removing the islands would be included in it. I didn’t agree to it but she sends the lease anyway. But what gets me is the fact that the new lease mentions NOTHING about removing the islands. It says the same thing the other 2 leases state about lawn maintenance (basically the lawn and all bushes will be trimmed and maintained). And when I say that the new lease says the same thing the other 2 leases say I mean verbatim, word for word, exactly the same paragraph as the other leases. I even talked to my original landlord, the property manager at the realty company, and she says that I don’t have to cut anything down because it’s the owner’s responsibility. So basically out of fear of eviction we have about 90% of the back island removed (I think this may hurt my case in the end though). Even with all of this removed there’s still ALOT more work to be done to it. So Christmas Eve the landlord “pops by” (this same lease says she can’t do that) with no warning and is inspecting what we have done. She still isn’t happy with the work and storms off after my attempt at showing her the leases and what we were responsible for. About 2 weeks later I get a certified letter from her saying that we had 2 weeks from that date to have it all removed and a month to remove the island in the front yard or she was going to have a company come out and remove it and then bill me. So I send her a certified letter saying that I am not responsible for removing it, that I will not be paying anyone else for removing it, that my deposit should not be taken because of this, that I will continue to maintain it, etc. Then I get a call from the other landlord asking what was going on and he’s telling me that we are in violation of the lease and we all need to work this out. So he’s coming by for an inspection sometime in March to see what has been and what needs to be done. So after all this can they evict us for this? Can they hold our deposit for this? Am I liable for removing this mess?
