Legalities of the Lease in Rental Homes Part 3

Boy did we find out ever so quickly that unless things are in writing and signed by all parties it is worthless and you might as well save your breath. Here is what happened to us just before Christmas.  The owners sent us a new lease with increase in rent which of course I e-mailed to them and asked them to reconsider because fair market rental pricing had dropped in neighborhood to $1350 mo verses $1595 mo.  The owner said  she could not do that and let her know by Nov 22 at 5pm if we wished to renew at the rate of $1595.  My husband called her husband and said fine about 7pm that evening we would sign the lease and stay another year.  The husband said fine and he would tell his wife to disregard everything else and the lease would be forthcoming.  My husband had just had a hip replacement operation on Sept 23 so he was not fully recovered from the surgery and that would make it very difficult for us to move.  Well, we took his word thinking we were ok three days before Thanksgiving.  Not so because I did not get the lease to the UPS office until Friday Nov 26 and they  did not receive it until Dec 1st,  they issued notice to vacate on Jan 8th. 

Have you ever tried to get a suitable place before Christmas and be ready to move two weeks after the holidays?  Nearly impossible for baby boomers in their 60's with 40 years of accumulated furniture and stuff.  God must have been watching over  because he sure helped us with this nightmare. I guess if the owner had told us up front that she wanted to move back in to the house,  it wouldn't have been so bad and we would have accepted that.  They decided to keep our security deposit and I had a feeling this would happen so we took an attorney with us at the move out time.  He wrote a letter to substantiate the condition  of the house and property as an eye witness because we will have to go to court.  We took lots of photos at that time to document the appearance of the house. 

Landlord/tenant security deposit problems are the most prevalent in small claims court today according to the circle of attorneys and judges that I know.  Judges will normally take the side of the person they feel is right and it is usually 50% landlord and 50% tenant. We feel that we did our best to adhere to the rules and keep the owners property in excellent condition and leave it even better than it was after 27 months.  Only a judge will answer that question.  But just because you as a tenant replace broken items or paint and fixes a mailbox or plants flowers or grass doesn't mean anything to the owner because it was not in the lease.  I guess because of our upbringing we try to always be good citizens and care for items of others.