am i liable to pay?

[kiran]

I stay in CA. Recently we bought a home and hence moved out of our appartment. I had a 1 yr lease.(feb2000 - feb2001) I broke the lease on Nov 28th giving a one mopnth notice. I used to pay $1420.00 and now they have hiked their rates to $2100.00 it has been a month since and no one has moved in yet. It is a one bedroom apt.

With rates this high no one seems to be willing to move in. Can i do something about it? I am asked to pay rent till the property is re-rented or Feb 2001 which ever is first.

Can anyone advice me?

Thanks.

 

[djdj]

YES you must take your ex Landlord to court and sue for your deposit back...and for breech of contract

This is a scumbag landlord trick, to hike the rent then sue the tenants for the remaining time on the lease, because no body rented it.

The Landlord has a duty to re rent at the last rental price, so since you gave your 30 day notice, and moved out and he hiked the rent you are NOT obligated past Jan 1st to pay anything.

Did you get your security back?.....

Send him a certifed return reciept letter stating the breech of contract. And you would have been obligated to pay for the remaning time if he had tried to rent it at $1420 and nobody rented it.

Find the ad stating $2100 you will need it to show a judge.

[Edited by djdj on 01-15-2001 at 05:02 PM]

 

[LL]

djdj is right. That goes in CA, too.

LL must try to mitigate his loss by trying to find a new tenant to fill the unexpired portion of your lease. That mean, under exactly the same conditions as your lease: ren, the unexpired term of your lease, everything the same. He is not allowed to profit because you left.

Right now, in Southern California and many other places, LL are able to raise their rent by very large amounts because the value of apartments has gone up. So the LL may decide that it is more worthwhile for him to look for a new tenant at the new price, than to re-rent to fill your lease at the old, lower price.

If the apartment is under rent control with vacancy decontrol, then it would be important to the LL to get the higher price now that you moved out, but he then cannot charge you for the rest of your lease.

 

[kiran]

Question for djdj:

is an advertisement on the net good enough a proof that the LL has hiked the price?

 

[djdj]

And why shouldnt it be? It has a phone # to call the price, size of apartment, any other details that would lead someone to belive it was your old apartment.

Make copies of it, also are there no other empty apartments of the same size.... right?

Also VISIT a local real estate agent and see if he listed the apartment...say thru MLS...or is there a city wide database that agents can see all the apartments available for rent. That should have a price too.