Landlord verses tenant..who would win in court?

Question

We moved into a place, we never got a lease to sign after asking quite a few times to sign one. We verbally agreed to stay a year. Very noisey people moved in below us a couple weeks later and we complained a few times. Nothing was ever done about it. It got to the point where I felt threatened by the neighbors below..it was just me and my 6 month old alone during the evening. We ended up giving our 30 day notice after 2 months of living there. We kept in touch with the land lord and kept calling him to find out about getting our deposit back and he made it sound like he would get it back to us. So now three months later and no deposit back we filed a law suit today. Then we just got a letter today with them saying that we broke our lease and that we owed them $1400 for the 2 months that they had to find someone to live there but it was only 1 month and they said that we never gave them any notice that we were leaving and we did give them a 30 day notice. Who would win in court?

Why didn't they tell us any of this for the three months that they made it sound like they'd give us our deposit back. Now suddenly they are lieing about stuff and say we owe them but that they won't charge us if we don't sue.

we feel our verbal agreement was broken when the landlord didn't do anything about the noise issue. it was seriously very scarey living there. The people would knock on my door and when i wouldn't answer they would slam their door and stomp around and pound on the ceiling. We were living on top yet we could hear them walking around and talking and everything. It was horrible. I wouldn't answer my door when I was home alone because I couldn't see who was there..no peep hole or intercom or anything.

the land lord also broke his verbal agreement to take out the discusting carpet on the stairs and to paint and put up our bedroom door and he also first said that he wouldn't charge us an animal fee since we were painting the two bedrooms but then after we painted he changed his mind and charged us for the animal fee. I even had to clean the discusting refrigerator and nasty stove out and it had glass all underneith and lots of grime. I left the place in better condition than when we moved in. We are very good tenants and always send our rent out before its due and I am VERY clean and tidy. I clean with a toothbrush and everything.

We have proof that he is lieing about us leaving after a month. We have our check stubs and bills from the place. We have a letter in writing about us putting our 30 day notice in.
This is so aggravating I don't understand how people can live with themselves and their lies and greedinedss.

we are the ones sueing them. i wrote down every single complaint we ever made and all of the dates and everything. I even have our phone records of every time we tried calling the land lord but he would never call us back. It just ticks me off that he made it sound like he was giving our deposit back for the past three months up until we are sueing him and now he says we won't get it.

We live in Michigan

Answer 1

If you can prove that they are not going to sue you if you get rid of your lawsuit, you can probably charge them with extortion. As far as the verbal contract, it really comes down to a "he-said, she-said" thing, so it's tough to say who would really win, although since you never signed a lease (which I would assume would have to be somewhat illegal), I would say there is a strong chance that you would win. I'm not a lawyer, so don't quote me, I'm just speaking from the experiences that I have heard of. Good luck, I hope you get your money back.

Answer 2

Basics are this. With no lease you are a "tenant at will". You need to provide all documents you might have. Get the voided checks from your bank or your bank statements showing where you paid them and when and how much. If the land lord can't show a lease in court with your signature then it never existed. The $1400 is a ploy to get you to drop the suit. It is standard lease detail to require 2 months rent as penalty for breaking a lease. They figure that a judge would believe them and they might get that or at least scare you into believing that and get you to go away. Did you provide your 30 day notice in writing? Do you have a copy of that? If not find any phone records that may show calls made to the landlord at that time. Also records of the calls made to complain about the noise are good to have. Did you do any of this in writing? If you didn't then start sending them letters summarizing what you agreed to and keep copies.

Answer 3

Do you have your paperwork? Like a copy of your 30 day notice or any written complaints to landlord about the neighbors or a written request for the lease? Courts like evidence, like the above.

It is hard to say who will win. I don't know about your area and who your judge will be.

I guess that the landlord decided that he is keeping your deposit and enforcing it by taking it to court. He is making it worth paying for an attorney by demanding a further $1400.00 from you.

The best thing you can do is be prepared and don't let anyone rattle you about the circumstances. A question that is likely to be asked is, "Did you ever call the police about the neighbors?". That's what you are supposed to do in this kind of situation, of course, not many people would, because it is a neighbor and it's already tense enough.

Look on your calender and type up a time line to take for court.

Good luck!

Answer 4

The winner in court will be the party with the better paper trail. No lease was signed so there's no real agreement about deposits or refund of deposits. Do you have a copy of the 30 notice? Did you send it registered mail? What proof do you have of money being transacted between you and landlord? In court you'll get justice, maybe not fairness. Good Luck.

Answer 5

If you never got a written copy of the lease, they would have a very hard time collecting anything.

If you can prove that you sent a written notice, you would be in a good position in court.

It seems to me that your former landlord is a tad less than professional, and that your odds in court would probably be pretty good.

Much would depend on the laws in the state you live in. If you do a google search with the words
tenants rights [state name here]

You will probably find an organization in your state that will help, or at least have a website with useful information.

If you post the state you live in, I will check back and try to find something for you, if you like.

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It sounds like you have a very good case, with good documentation. I would definitely press the issue.

Answer 6

Verbal "contracts" are valid but not enforceable. They don't have anything in writing that you've signed stating how long you are leasing the place so they can't say that you've breeched a contract that they can't prove exists. I don't know about the deposit though; we always inspect a property before the tenant moves out so that both parties agree on what repairs may have to be done before issuing a deposit refund.

Answer 7

You are hanging your entire case on the fact that you did not have a written lease but you did have a verbal agreement. When you left you did break your agreement. Now the question regarding the 30 days is did you give them notice in writing or was it verbal. If you expect them to honor a verbal notice then you too must honor the verbal agreement that you originally had. I am sad to say but I am afraid that you may not win this case.

Answer 8

Unfortunately, Tenants have more rights then Landlords.
As a landlord myself I have experienced it first hand. Their are many mean and selfish landlords out there that take advantage of their tenants but to be honest, I think you have a great chance of winning, specially because of the little one. I am sure the judge will see that it is not a good place for the baby to be in with such vulgar and disrespectful neighbors.
Good Luck.
P.s Don't worry, I am sure everything will be alright !

Answer 9

In this case, you would probably prevail, as long as you followed the law regarding giving notices of your intent to vacate. (You DID do this in writing, didn't you ?)

Meanwhile, if you decide to head for court, the judge will ask for a copy of your signed lease from the landlord so that he can examine the lease to see if the terms were violated. NO LEASE will be available.

Of course, if you have no written evidence that you gave proper notice of intent to vacate, then you are in just as much of a mess as is the landlord.

My guess on this one is that, absent ANYTHING in writing, the judge will simply throw his hands in the air and tell you to split the difference.

Answer 10

i've got been a sources supervisor for some years in long island and NJ. You did no longer state whether you had a periodic hire settlement or a protracted-term hire. This makes a distinction. in case you paid hire weekly under a periodic settlement, then basically 7 days observe is needed (except of direction the settlement specifies another era), if that's a month to month, then 30 days observe is needed. interior the case of a protracted-term hire (e.g. a three hundred and sixty 5 days) no observe is needed except the hire says distinctive. in accordance to California regulation, if the owner would not return the secure practices deposit or supply an accounting of what it grow for use for interior 21 days when you vacate, he/she forfeits the entire deposit. BTW, in case you had a month to month, you probably did owe decrease back hire given which you probably did no longer supply suitable observe, yet because of the fact the owner did no longer meet his criminal accountability, the element is moot. you're able to touch the owner and attempt to barter return of your deposit. in case you do no longer be helpful, your recourse is to accomplish that in Civil court docket. good success and this is a source for you: