Landlord forged a new lease

[rayburn7441]

So we are renting a house in Florida. My wife actually signed the original lease back in 2011. It was a 24-month lease and that has been the only lease that she has ever signed with our landlord. We are currently in the process of moving up to Connecticut. I have already actually made the move and my wife and son are still in Florida at the same residence that she has been renting for the past 8 years. Our rent has always been $750 a month and has never went up. We have always paid our rent on time as well as all the utilities in the house. Now that we are getting ready to move, we contacted the landlord about our $750 security deposit that was paid back in 2010. He responded to my wife via text saying that he doesn't remember us ever signing a second lease but he said he has a copy of a lease that was signed by my wife alone back in July of 2017 saying that our rent would go up to $1250 a month and it was a 24-month lease. My wife and I both know that she never signed this lease that he is talking about. He sent her an email that had only two pages on it. One of which looks like it has a photocopied signature of hers and the other one describes the terms of the lease but when it comes to The part in the lease that talks about the security deposit it has the year 2010 in it. Under her signature and the landlord signature it shows that it was signed on July 5th of 2017. Keep in mind we have always paid $750 a month and I find a very strange that if this lease was true back in 2017 something would have been brought to our attention that we have never paid the $1250 a month that he's saying is owed. My wife will be moving up to Connecticut with me on the 30th of this month and as always she just paid another month rent on the 1st in the amount of $750. I'm just curious what or if any legal actions we should be doing? My biggest fear since I'm already in Connecticut is that he will try to evict her before I'm able to make the drive back down there on the 30th and actually get them moved out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[LdiJ]

I think that you probably want to just drop the issue of the security deposit. The landlord is obviously playing games and deserves a comeuppance but you would have to sue him in small claims court in FL and it would probably cost you more in travel costs to do that than $750.00.

If he tries to enforce the $1250.00 a month for 24 months, that is when your hammer needs to come down on him. Just make sure that you leave the place sparkling clean and take tons of pictures showing it that way. He knows that after 8 years he is going to have to do a lot of work before renting it to someone else, and the game he is trying to play with the fake lease may be his way of trying to get money to do the work.

 

[adjusterjack]

I'm just curious what or if any legal actions we should be doing?

Agree with LdiJ. Nothing you can do about the LL's hot air. I suspect that he's scamming you because he figures you won't do anything from CT.

My biggest fear since I'm already in Connecticut is that he will try to evict her before I'm able to make the drive back down there on the 30th

Doubtful that he would be successful in less than 3 weeks. He would first have to serve a demand for payment (pay or quit) before filing in court which could take several weeks.

You could, of course, report the forgery to the police. Might bring some heat down on him.

 

[Gail in Georgia]

Yep; it would likely take longer than three weeks to go through the eviction process.

Course you could always argue that now that the rent is $1250 you'd like that $1250 security deposit back after you vacate.

Gail

 

[FarmerJ]

If the LL says a lot about it I would suggest put on your best poker face and you tell the LL you wont have a problem coming back to FLA to sue him should he play games with your deposit funds because you are sure your going to enjoy watching him explain the forgery complaint to the judge.