PA - Question on damages, if i am still obligated to lease.

[confusedagain]

I was there for 3 months, and i broke the lease due to moving. they claim i owe them 1500 for breaking the lease, which equates to 4 months of rent. however, isnt it true that they cant charge rent on an apartment since it was immediately rented out? I am under the understanding that once its rented, my lease is void/null. This seems easy enough, please post a response on what you think, I would appreciate it, thanks.

 

[happy&lucky]

The FIRST question should be:

What exactly does your lease say about the fees involved with breaking it?

Did you pay all the rent? If you had some move in special such as a free months rent of $xxx amount off each month, YOU would have to pay it all back since you broke the lease.

If the landlord re rented asap, then it would be up to YOU to sue them in small claims court and let a judge decide if the landlord is entitled to the money.

Did you take pictures before you left?

You see its not an easy question to answer, If you are dealing with a corporation they will ALWAYS be asss holes, they are NOT allowed to break the rules or they will be fired.

 

[confusedagain]

Thanks for the reply:

There was no "move in" special.

I did not take pictures, only because of my situation. I was 18, and didnt have a clue. No excuse, but I was very stupid in the way I went about it, as far as not taking pictures. The people I dealth with there are complete morons. After I moved out, I met with the manager, and she told me due to getting a job and them immidiately relocating me, that she would hold me to the amount. Of course I couldnt get anything in writing, and due to my inexperience of life, I just shrugged it off. She obviously wont admit to that.

The lease claims that there is a 4 month penalty if it is broken in the amount of time that I did. That works out to around 1500. She sent me a list of things I owed, including 11 months, and that I owed her 3500. She claims I owed her 11 months of rent, when i was there for 2mo/3mo. Also, she totally didnt care about what the lease said when she came up with the 3500. That is how unorganized they are there.

Also under PA law, if the landlord doesnt give you the security deposit back, or give you a list of damages, within 30 days (as long as you give them new address, which i did), you are able to sue them for twice the amount of the security deposit.

I dont know how the 4 months rent penalty comes into affect since that would mean she's collecting rent on something that is already rented out. Let's suppose it took her a month to rent out the apartment, then I should only owe her one month of rent, and the other 3 that I know the lease says I owe should be negated. That is the way I took it, among others I have spoken about this to.

Let me know what you think. I left out alot huh?

Thanks

 

[happy&lucky]

This is why we live in AMERICA........

This is why YOU pay taxes.....now is your chance to use a government service. The Courts,

You have to sue her in small claims court, dont worry its pretty informal, and most wont allow lawyers to defend you.

Thats it......YOU have a claim for twice the deposit, and she will counter claim for the $3500, she will have to prove you owe the money to a judge.

She just cannot make things up out of thin air.

`Good luck!

 

[confusedagain]

Thanks again.

Here is my goal:

I would rather explain this to them in my dispute letter, and not have this end up in court. I live 2 hours away now, go to work fulltime/school fulltime, so there is relatively no time to make the trip. Of course I know that is life, and I have no choice if it comes to that.

What I need to put in the letter is the actual PA law on this. I have found parts, but I cannot find the part of collecting rent from 2 people for same apartment building. I have discussed the true amount with their manager about a month ago, but she still sent the bill of 3500 and reported me to a collection agency.

The way I see it is that these people had to of gone to court before, since they rent out about 750 apartments, and if I present it the right way, they know they will not be able to get what they want from me, and this way it saves us both the time of going to court.

Truefully I could care less about the security deposit part. How could I prove I gave them the right address? I returned that with the key. But they never sent stuff to the right address. They will argue they never got it.

My only problem is stupidity, because I did not know these things.

Thanks.

 

[happy&lucky]

YOU DONT HAVE A CHOICE but to sue them TODAY!

And serve them the papers, and to drive the 2 hours....

YOU have a valid lease, YOU will LOSE if you dont show up in court, and the landlord may not even have to mail you the summons, just leave it at your last address...

did you leave a fowarding address with the post office?

Then when you dont answer the judge will only have the landlord word and YOUR signed lease to look at.

So get off your ass and make time or else in a few months you will have a bill collector call you for the $3500...or whever the judge alloews the landlord to sue you for!

So the moral of the story NEVER NEVER NEVER more far away without tying up all lose ends regaring your lease IN WRITING!

Now THAT is life!

 

[confusedagain]

You misunderstood.

Ok follow me on this.

I got a letter from the apartment manager on december 1st saying i owe them 3500. I called the manager that day and talked to her. I told her that I dont think that I should pay a dime. However I told her that she misread the lease, and that it said differently. She told me that she was going to resend an invoice with the correct amount on it. I never recieved that. 2 weeks later, i had a bill collection agency call. They want a dispute letter. This collection agency is some 2nd rate company, they cant even touch my credit, and they only have the case for 30 days. Once the 30 days is up, they go back to the apartment place, tell them nothing happened, and the apartment place takes it from there. That is the explanation i got from the credit agency, who also was more than eager to tell me that i should sue the apartments because they are notorisouly known for screwing people over, and are very disorganized.

I have never recieved a proper invoice from the apartment place. These people at the apartment place dont even know what happened to them yesterday, and is the reason everything is unbeliavably hard to figure out.

So...I need to see what the apartment place says about the dispute letter, whether or not they stop pursuing me, or plan on taking me to court. If they do, thats when I 1.) countersue, and 2.) prove their dollar amount is bs.