i am being sued for rent that i never signed a lease. what type of lawyer do i need to get? and around how much are they?
2007-01-03 14:40:03 · 6 answers · asked by jenks1545 4 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
A landlord-tenant lawyer.
First off, this is a small claims matter. You don't say. What are the landlord's damages? This is important. If the issue is only one month's rent, you would be in small claims court (in California). I don't know about your state but they must have a similar structure to separate the small money cases from the big money cases. You don't have legal counsel in small claims court. You just argue the matter in front of Judge Judy or whoever you have the fortune to end up with.
The thing is, unless you are counter-sueing your landlord for a good deal of money, you would have to pay the lawyer by the hour, since you are a defendant in this matter. Lawyers only take plaintiffs on a contingency basis (where you pay nothing until the money rolls in). The lawyer will also want money up front, what's politely known as a "retainer" in the thousands of dollars. Unless you can find yourself a crusader that just can't stand greedy landlords. Good luck with that. If you have a case, just explain it to the judge, that you never signed a lease. My guess is the judge knows the law and will mention that in that case, your tenancy is month-to-month, and the rent is due every month, the same day it always was due.
2007-01-03 14:49:40 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you never signed a lease but you and landlord agreed for you to pay monthly rent even if it's a verbal agreement, that's called a month-to-month tenancy and you still have rights.
Check with your local housing authority on what your rights are as a tenant before searching for legal counsel. When I lived in NJ, I spoke to a free lawyer about a similar issue. There's a few that work pro-bono or even for nothing and wish I could tell you the link but I found it after looking through public housing issues on the state website.
2007-01-03 22:46:59 · answer #2 · answered by SloBoMo 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are going to have to get a civil laywer. You can get on the net and find out if the lawyer has any grievences out on them due to poor represntation. They also have a thing called a Relastate lawyer that could possibly help, but not go to court for you. Do not pay your laywer 100% of the money up front. Make them work for it. Also a woman laywer uaslly fights harder than a man. A man uaslly looks at the bottom line the money.
2007-01-03 22:46:48 · answer #3 · answered by tgo14 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A crooked lawyer.
2007-01-03 22:44:49 · answer #4 · answered by robert m 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One the practices Landlord-Tenant law.
2007-01-04 00:24:40 · answer #5 · answered by John D 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You need to get a real estate Atorney.
2007-01-03 23:32:36 · answer #6 · answered by Jarod R 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋