Apartment suing for the $250 security deposit.

[Zigner]

As to the rest of the witty banter back and forth, if there was a verbal contract, the landlord was in breach as the unit was not ready.

The unit was ready when it was supposed to be.

 

[tranquility]

Oh, kind of like requesting the apartment be held and made ready for their move-in?

Except for the service of holding the apartment and making it ready for their move-in.

No, like ordering a pizza and the pizza maker demanding you sign a form that spells out your rights before he makes it and you don't do so.

So, you're saying that if the OP took the apartment that when he left the landlord could withhold from the *deposit* the cost of making the apartment ready for the OP to move-in? Do you have a cite for that?

 

[Zigner]

No, like ordering a pizza and the pizza maker demanding you sign a form that spells out your rights before he makes it and you don't do so.

That doesn't fit the facts of this matter.

 

[tranquility]

That doesn't fit the facts of this matter.

Um...how so? Do you think the landlord would have let the OP into the apartment without signing the lease?

 

[Zigner]

Um...how so? Do you think the landlord would have let the OP into the apartment without signing the lease?

If we're going to GUESS at what MIGHT have happened, then all bets are off.

MY guess is that the LL would have won the lottery with the money that he didn't get from the check that was stopped. Then, this would all be moot as he wouldn't care any more.

 

[tranquility]

If we're going to GUESS at what MIGHT have happened, then all bets are off.

MY guess is that the LL would have won the lottery with the money that he didn't get from the check that was stopped. Then, this would all be moot as he wouldn't care any more.

It's not really a guess when it is the standard way apartments are rented and the OP was supposed to go there to sign the lease. We have a lot of landlords here, how many rent to a tenant without a lease/rental agreement? Could the OP have forced the landlord to let him into the apartment as a tenant even if he decided to not sign? "Yes Mr. Landlord, I'm here. However, I'm bringing in my pack of dogs and cats and intend to run a high traffic business out of the apartment involving my oversight of parolees. I don't think I like your lease limitations on pets and running a business out of the home or the fact the rent is due at the beginning of the tenancy rather than the end. So, I don't think I'll sign it. Where are my keys?"

we were supposed to sign the lease on the day of move in,

 

[Zigner]

It's not really a guess when it is the standard way apartments are rented and the OP was supposed to go there to sign the lease. We have a lot of landlords here, how many rent to a tenant without a lease/rental agreement? Could the OP have forced the landlord to let him into the apartment as a tenant even if he decided to not sign? "Yes Mr. Landlord, I'm here. However, I'm bringing in my pack of dogs and cats and intend to run a high traffic business out of the apartment involving my oversight of parolees. I don't think I like your lease limitations on pets and running a business out of the home or the fact the rent is due at the beginning of the tenancy rather than the end. So, I don't think I'll sign it. Where are my keys?"

Tranq - seriously - let's not make up facts to fit the argument.

 

[tranquility]

Tranq - seriously - let's not make up facts to fit the argument.

It was a contract or it was not. If you are correct, my latest scenario is completely valid. There is no making up of facts to fit the argument, there are only the facts we have in front of us. And those facts indicate the OP still needed to sign the lease.

 

[aabbcc]

Since OP doesn't like the idea of paying $250, OP should go to court and see what happens.

OP can then post back the results.

Problem solved.

 

[LdiJ]

Tranq - seriously - let's not make up facts to fit the argument.

I completely see where Tranq is coming from on this...assuming that it was a security deposit. No lease/contract was ever signed, the unit was not occupied, no damages could have been done. In addition, there was only a 2 or 3 day gap between the writing of the check and June 1. Therefore the unit was not off the market for any appreciable amount of time. The unit would have had to have been made ready for a tenant anyway.

However, I also saw the OP use the term "application fee" in there somewhere. If the 250.00 was really an application fee, rather than a security deposit, and was designed to cover the cost of checking the OP's credit, running the OP's references etc., then its likely that work was done, and that particular "contract" valid, and therefore quite likely the OP really owes the money.