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Co-tenant removed me from commercial lease without notice Florida

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sdeanl

Junior Member
Thank you in advance for any help with this, I rellay appreciate all of you who take your time to assist others with legal issues!


I moved into a warehouse with a friend/business associate early 2014, and I paid all the move-in costs/deposits. Our lease has his name, his company name and my name clearly printed and signed by all parties.

He paid me back in short order and everything was fine until he decided that he is "too OCD" (in his own words) to share a location with someone else and needs full control of everything. I told him I was open to moving, and to make me an offer. He offered me only my half of the security deposit, to which I replied, "thanks but no thanks, it cost me a lot more than that to move in here"

Ever since the second month he has paid the rent to the landlord and I just pay him because I am only at the property maybe once a week while he is there every day. One a couple occasions I have been late a few days on the rent to him and I told him upfront and it was no problem. This last month has been very slow for my business and I told him this, and told him I will have the rent to him ASAP. He made no big deal about it. I contacted him telling him I have the rent money on OCT17th, to which he replied "too late for that, I had you taken off the lease".

Yes the rent is very late, I wish I could have had it sooner.

He then emails me OCT 18th 2014 with a copy of a document "Addendum to lease". This addendum has my name listed as a party to the agreement, and says "landlord hereby accepts XXXXXX's request to remove SDEANL, an additional lessee from the orignal lease agreement"

I have NOT signed this addendum, I DID NOT agree to this, and was not notified of this document ever being drawn up and signed by the other parties.

Furthermore, this Addendum to lease document was dated, signed and witnessed on AUGUST 22nd 2014!

Is this even remotely legal and what should be my next course of action?

Please help, I really appreciate the advice!

SDEANL
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Thank you in advance for any help with this, I rellay appreciate all of you who take your time to assist others with legal issues!


I moved into a warehouse with a friend/business associate early 2014, and I paid all the move-in costs/deposits. Our lease has his name, his company name and my name clearly printed and signed by all parties.

He paid me back in short order and everything was fine until he decided that he is "too OCD" (in his own words) to share a location with someone else and needs full control of everything. I told him I was open to moving, and to make me an offer. He offered me only my half of the security deposit, to which I replied, "thanks but no thanks, it cost me a lot more than that to move in here"

Ever since the second month he has paid the rent to the landlord and I just pay him because I am only at the property maybe once a week while he is there every day. One a couple occasions I have been late a few days on the rent to him and I told him upfront and it was no problem. This last month has been very slow for my business and I told him this, and told him I will have the rent to him ASAP. He made no big deal about it. I contacted him telling him I have the rent money on OCT17th, to which he replied "too late for that, I had you taken off the lease".

Yes the rent is very late, I wish I could have had it sooner.

He then emails me OCT 18th 2014 with a copy of a document "Addendum to lease". This addendum has my name listed as a party to the agreement, and says "landlord hereby accepts XXXXXX's request to remove SDEANL, an additional lessee from the orignal lease agreement"

I have NOT signed this addendum, I DID NOT agree to this, and was not notified of this document ever being drawn up and signed by the other parties.

Furthermore, this Addendum to lease document was dated, signed and witnessed on AUGUST 22nd 2014!

Is this even remotely legal and what should be my next course of action?

Please help, I really appreciate the advice!

SDEANL
Based solely on what you have posted, this would appear to be an invalid addendum to the lease. Your next course of action depends on your end goal.
 

sdeanl

Junior Member
Based solely on what you have posted, this would appear to be an invalid addendum to the lease. Your next course of action depends on your end goal.
Thanks for your quick reply!

My end goal is really to find a new location and move anyway, obviously this person is not someone I want to do business with any longer.

However, I would like to not worry about moving until the end of the year, especially since I need time to find a new location.
 

BL

Senior Member
Do you still have access? If so, sent a return receipt certified letter ( keeping a copy ) to the business partner and the Landlord stating you never signed nor agreed to the addendum an wil not . State that you will be looking to find a new location by the end of the year .

If they give you a hard time consult an attorney and have them write a letter to both of your legal rights for a small fee.
 

latigo

Senior Member
That is or would be absurd.

But is it true? Have you spoken with the lessor to determine whether he/it or whomever actually signed the purported addendum? And if so, were they out of their cotton pickin' mind to think it would have any legal significance. And if so, why couldn't you have conspired with the lessor to unilaterally oust the other lessee?

Obviously I don't know enough of the situation to understand why you would want to continue to be associated with this ass-"O", but your "next course of action" should be to consult with your attorney concerning, among other things, filing a tort action against the pompous jerk for interference with your contractual relationship with the lessor.

Incidentally - just for general information only - unless this so-called addendum expressly reserved the lessor's rights against the tenant remaining in possession - that is, it specifically bound him to continue to perform all of the covenants to be kept and performed by the named lessee - it would have the effect of nullifying the entire lease. Why?

Because the release of one or more joint obligors automatically releases all obligors that do no reaffirm.

And the only reason I mention this is because if the lessor was stupid enough to think he could so remove you from the lease, he may have been equally stupid enough not to realize its alternate consequences.
 

sdeanl

Junior Member
*UPDATE*

I informed my co-tenant in person yesterday that the addendum was completely invalid and essentially a fraudulent, worthless document since I did not sign it and had broken no terms of the lease. I also gave him checks for both October, and November.


This morning I went to the warehouse and the LOCKS WERE CHANGED! I have no idea how long they have been changed because the last number of times I was there the main bay door was wide open while he was doing business.

I was never notified of any change of locks, asked permission, etc etc.

As far as I know, this is now a crime and I will be asking the police to come file a report / arrest, or however this is handled.

I would love to hear further advice. This is unbelievable now, I have nearly $100k worth of property and equipment inside the building.
 

sdeanl

Junior Member
*UPDATE2*

Called police, police informed him the addendum is meaningless and told him he must provide me with keys or change the locks back. Turns out the lock on side entrance was not changed, but was completely seized, so I was still effectively locked out.

Sad when you think someone has some character and they prove you completley wrong.

Thank you so much for taking the time to help on this forum!!
 
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