Can you be sued for rent if you never signed a lease?

Question

I started renting in april and was paying 325 a month in cash to someone i knew on a personal level. I never signed a lease and continued paying my rent as usual each month with cash. Well in July the gas began to leak and was shut off. I tried over and over to get the owner to fix the problem and continually ignored it. I had no hot water or heat which wasnt a problem being it was summer. Finally in September he came back and disconected everything except the hot water tank so the gas company would turn the gas back on. I went without heat and refused to pay my rent in september and october. Now he claims i never paid rent at all and have no reciepts to prove otherwise. He says i owe him 1500 dollars and need to pay or he will file civil suit in the district magistrates office. I dont have the money to pay him let alone afford an atorney. Im wondering if he has the power to do so since i never entered a contract to rent from him to begin with.. Any input would be appreciated

Answer 1

A verbal agreement WILL stand up in court. Him telling the judge that you havent paid rent in 8 months is kinda out there. I dont know if the judge will believe that. He has to prove that. Your mistake is that you didnt get reciepts. Big mistake. This one is going to court. I would get a lawyer

Answer 2

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a lawyer, but basically what you're hearing is correct. Without documentation - which neither of you have - it's your word against his. The results will really come down to how good the presiding magistrate is.

He'll have a much harder time making his story seem accurate - having let you stay there for this long without collecting rent - than you will. So, if the judge pays attention to that, then it should be fine.

In regards to a contract, you don't need anything in writing to rent. Technically, you're on a month-to-month tenancy. Now, like I said before, all of this is your word against his, so the only thing that matters is the story you tell when you get your chance to tell it, if it goes that far.

Something that CAN help your case, however, is if you have any bank records showing withdrawls in the amount of the rent each month. You may not have it, but if you do, then you have a very loose attempt at a receipt that MAY be beneficial.

Either way, best of luck to you and I hope it all works out for the better.

Answer 3

First of all, you should always get a receipt. Your money in one hand should never leave that hand until you have a receipt in the other. Yes, he can take you to court because even though you didn't have a written and signed lease, you still had what is referred to as a "month to month" lease. When the problems with the gas arose you should have put your rent in a savings account and told your landlord that as soon as he fixes the problem he will get his rent. You could have also notified the health dept. or housing authority, depending on where you live. You need to gather all the evidence you can as to not having any gas for those months, go to the gas company and ask for any documentation on that, get written notarized statements from friends who know first hand about your plight. Not hear say. Was someone with you at any time you paid your rent? Get their statement too. Look up your landlords record as how he/she has treated tenants in the past. Talk to other tenants as well. Take pictures of your apt. when you vacate so he can't say you tore it up either. Cover your butt!!! Good Luck!!

Answer 4

The final word. Yes, you can be sued for rent if you never signed a lease. When you go to court, the landlord is going to try to get you to admit what your verbal agreement was with the landlord. If you admit that you did agree to rent the place for a specific period of time then you have a verbal CONTRACT which is enforceable in almost all states. Some states do require that leases for more than a certain length in time be in writing. You may wish to check on this.

You can countersue the landlord for failure to provide necessary utility services and argue that you did not receive the full benefit of your bargain. You had agreed to rent a place with heat and hot water but didn't get it for the entire time. You can claim damages for the diminished value of the premises.

You didn't go about things correctly when you didn't pay rent at all in September and October. Most states require that you give written notice of the repairs that need to be made and only after the landlord has failed to make repairs for a certain length of time can you ESCROW the rent with the clerk of courts or PAY to have the repairs done yourself.

In short, tell him to go ahead and sue and you will countersue for the diminished value of the premises for the time you had to put up without utility services.

Answer 5

I signed a lease, and had a similar problem where they never fixed anything, so I up and left. If you never signed anything, a verbal agreement means nothing. They can take you to court. They will be called dumb by never having anything in writing. Plus, I would have asked for receipts, but if there is nothing stating you ever paid, then once again, there is no proof you were ever there. If you never changed your address on an id, that is great too! I on the other hand, they had my signature, but after looking at the laws, I had to be at least 21 to sign a lease (which I wasn't at the time) and they never photo copied my id! They had no proof to me being me, or someone else forging my name! They will lose if they take you to court. Personal friend or not. A friend would have fixed it. By law you cannot let water probelms go untouched when you own a building that someone else is renting... and you never signed a lease! Congrats!

Answer 6

You should at least show up to court. Eviction and small claims court is pretty informal. You should tell the judge your side of the story. Your friend is suing you because the apartment complex is suing her. I don't see why you couldn't get a money order and said it from was from your friend. On the other hand your friend could lose because she violated the lease by not getting permission from the landlord to sublet it to you. Complicated but not too hard to solve.

Answer 7

In U.S.A. it's known as a month to month if no lease was signed. Unfortunately you did not get any receipts but my question would be if he claims that you did not pay any rent, why did he let you stay there for so long ?

Answer 8

First, you are asking two different questions: Do I pay rent if there is no lease, and Do I pay rent if there is not heat.

1)-- no matter if you have a lease or not, you are paying for rent on a month to month basis.

2)-- IF there is not heat you are entitled to all or partial credit on your rent, as your landlord is obligated to give you a "safe and comfortable' living environment.

Answer 9

I don't know how the law works in your area, but where I am (NJ), if the landlord does not provide receipts for cash payments, he cannot take you to court for unpaid rent. You either provide receipts, or you give up your right to file for unpaid rent.

If I were you, I would stop screwing around and hire a lawyer to write him a letter to stop his little extortion scheme.

Did you give him written notice that you weren't paying until he fixed the gas? If you did and he didn't counter with a letter correcting you saying that you had never paid rent, no one will believe his claim.

Answer 10

A verbal agreement is binding, but can be difficult to prove. If you are inhabiting the space, you owe at least partial rent unless you both agreed that you could stay there for free, even if you got shitty service. Paying in cash was stupid, especially without getting a receipt. Now this is your word against his, though it may be very difficult to prove you owed him anything to begin with. You may want to call the IRS to make sure he reported that income.