She broke the lease, now SHE wants to sue!!!!

[wemisshi]

We live in Georgia.
I posted a question here back in October.
In short the land lady we were renting from, decided to place her home on the market for sale, after my husband and I did MAJOR work on the property.
(When we told her we could not buy the home, she decided she had financial problems and would NEED to sell.)
She said that she had no choice but to break our lease and sell the home.
We are military and moved from her home with the help of the military within 2 weeks of this notice from her.
We moved with her owing us approx $2,000 for repairs, rent and deposit.
She would not sign a move-out agreement or a promisarry note. (I have copies of the ones I mailed her)
In January we decided to take her to small claims court, as was suggested by this board.
She in turn has decided to counter-sue for the remaining rent, stating that WE broke the lease.
Since she did not send me anything in writing, I feel I might get "stuck" not only loosing the monies she still owes me, but paying off a lease, that SHE broke.
Any suggestions????? HELP!!!!!

 

[HomeGuru]

There seems to be some misunderstanding on your part as to what you should have done at the time L stated that she must break the lease. If you were on a fixed lease, yu did not have to move at all. If you were on a m/m lease, you had at leaset 30 days to move. You did not have to move 2 weeks. Did you move because you did not have the money to pay the rent? If I remember correctly, you were thinking of letting your own home go into foreclosure or walking away and filing bankruptcy because you could not keep up with the payments due to tenant problems.
And you wanted to keep your new vehicle rather than your home. I responded to one of your posts asking several questions but you did not respond back. Now your situation is rather confusing because no one can understand the real facts due to inconsistencies with your stories. Therefore we cannot help you at this time.

[Edited by HomeGuru on 02-12-2001 at 09:47 AM]

 

[djdj]

AS USUAL.......you are real bone head people...

When are you going to get it into your thick skull

NEVER USE YOUR MONEY TO FIX THE LANDLORD PROPERTY!

She knew she had people with more money then brains, so she said of course...and with NOTHING in writing, you got ripped off...

You could have stayed untill the lease ended, if she wanted you out before the lease ended,she WOULD HAD TO PAY YOU TO MOVE!

Its your own fault!

[Edited by djdj on 02-12-2001 at 11:19 AM]

 

[wemisshi]

Thank you both for your advice, I will try to clarify.
YES, we did have to move but NOT because we could not pay rent. We had to move once we put ourselves on the military housing list and WHEN they had a house available. We had no choice, once the lease was broken, but to place ourselves on the list and then wait until a unit was available. The wait varied and housing cannot hold a unit for us. The unfortunate thing for us was that we had take a unit once it was offered, or wait another 6 months to get back on the list. (rule of the military) Soooooo,
the offered a house once we stated that our lease had been broken, and we had to take it. It does not change the fact that we tied up our monies in to her home and she does not want to pay us back. What concerns us now, is that she is planning on suing us for the remainder of the lease even though, she broke it.
The other home that was mentioned is OUR home in N.C. We have put a lot of money in to that home and we were having problems with our tennant, we have managed to resolve those problems without bankruptcy, loans, etc.
Basically, we are on a fixed income, were trying to be good tennants and trying to be good landlords. TRUSTING our land lady to keep her word and pay us the monies she owes us, as well as TRUSTING our tennant to pay his rent on time.

 

[djdj]

OK you do have one last chance to get your money....

You should sue her first, and she will counter claim you owe her rent, then you can counter claim that by showing the landlord has a duty to mitigate damages....and she didnt

She didnot advertise the house as soon as you moved out, she didnt show it, or made any attempt to rent it at the SAME RENT you are paying. She was selling he property, you moved out, your obligation to pay rent ends when she refuses to re rent because SHE has made the decesion to keep it empty, for a quicker sale.

Because it is ILLEGAL to let property sit empty or to charge 50% more rent, then sue you a few months later saying no one rented it and you are liable for the rent.

LAST DESPERATE CHANCE..... You have a LEGAL right to attend the closing.... most tenants dont know that, and present any outstanding bills or outstanding lawsuits to the landlord's lawyer, and it must be resolved or the closing can't take place.

[Edited by djdj on 02-12-2001 at 05:18 PM]

 

[wemisshi]

Thank You,
It did occur to me that even though she is lying stating I broke the lease, that the law might be in her favor because the lease is on paper and her breaking the lease was only a verbal agreement.
I was hoping however, that by her waiting to see if the house sells and hoping we would not take her to court, that she might have "stepped in it" and actually screwed herself in the long run. Thus showing her true colors.
I will talk to an attorney tonight and bring up the "duty to mitigate damages".
Thank you for your consideration and time.

 

[wemisshi]

I should have added, when I file this counter suit, can I now add my attorney fee's and any additonal monies I had not planned on suing for in the first place.
(I have additional receipts and my moving expenses that I thought I would not file for, but now that she has decided to get ugly, I thought I might ask for those too?)

 

[djdj]

Attorney fees YES always put those in......

WHY? a lease works both ways...if you as a landlord can ask for lawyer costs if you win..wellll so can a tenant!

Moving expenses, probably not, but since it is a military transfer, laws favor the military, so leases should include a military clause that if you move, you are not liable to pay for rent after the move.....but any damages to the apartment are ALWAYS subject to a lawsuit.

And DONT WAIT, it will be next to imposible to get anything if she closes on the house first!

Too bad you didnt take pictures of everything before you moved...ya know those cheap disposable cameras get 2 or 3 and take lots of pictures next time you move.

[Edited by djdj on 02-12-2001 at 06:36 PM]

 

[wemisshi]

Not only do I have photo's,
I have before and after photo's showing how much work was done on that place.
Thanks again for your help.

 

[djdj]

Thats great now you have a lot of proof to show a judge...

Sorry about the bonehead remarks before...but at least I got your attention

You are one of the only ones to post on this board that you doucmented everything....It will make your job to prove the money you spent, and the results, were well spent and that you should be paid for your work.

 

[MegsMom]

YOU ARE SUCH A BITCH DJDJ. You didn't read her story carefully enough and there fore decided to be you ususal bitch self and try to insult her right off the bat