Over the past 3 months, my roommate and I have gotten multiple noise complaints that led to fines from our neighbor downstairs. It's because she can hear our footsteps and sometimes can hear us talking. She has called the police on us 3 times, and all 3 times they left without citing us because they can't hear anything. We complained of this to our landlord and the homeowners association, and they apparently told her that she is no longer allowed to call the police on us - instead she is to call a board member and our landlord if there is ever excessive noise. She started doing that, still complaining of walking and talking. Unfortunately for us, the board members are entertaining her complaints and now we have $450.00 in fines. The thing is, though, is that we have not seen these fines. In the rules and regulations of the community, as well as our lease with our landlord, it states that all notices/ fines/ violations are to be mailed directly to our home. They have not been mailed to us. We have expressed multiple times over the past 3 months that if we are to pay these fines, they have to be mailed to us so we can see them for ourselves. I think it would be irresponsible on anyone's part to pay any fines that they do not see in writing for themselves. It has now gotten to the point where our landlord says we have to include our fines with our rent. Again, we told him to mail us the fines. He did, but in an email. According to the lease agreement, that is not an acceptable method of communication - all notices must be certified mail or hand-delivered. We also contacted the management company, which is like the middle man between us and the homeowners association (we can't speak to the HOA directly because we are renters). Even management has failed to properly notify us in a timely manner. So now, months after the violations, we are seeing these fines through email and we have notified that we would like an appeal. They are saying that we don't have the right to an appeal because we are renters. But the fines state that if we had contacted them within 10 days of the mailing date, we could have asked for an appeal. Seeing as we didn't get anything, we lost that opportunity. I feel as though everything they are doing they are doing the wrong way.
So I will stop rambling and get to my questions.... Seeing as our landlord violated the lease by not certified mailing/ hand-delivering the fines, we have told him to stop harassing us about the fines. He took this as us also being in breach of the lease - because we are refusing to abide by the rules of the community. He has told us he is starting an eviction process. I can see how he thinks we are violating the lease - but it's because he did so in the first place. So, does he have a good case against us in court?
Also, can he argue that he DID in fact send us the fines, even though it was an email and not the agreed communication in the lease? Do emails like this hold up in court for this situation?
So I will stop rambling and get to my questions.... Seeing as our landlord violated the lease by not certified mailing/ hand-delivering the fines, we have told him to stop harassing us about the fines. He took this as us also being in breach of the lease - because we are refusing to abide by the rules of the community. He has told us he is starting an eviction process. I can see how he thinks we are violating the lease - but it's because he did so in the first place. So, does he have a good case against us in court?
Also, can he argue that he DID in fact send us the fines, even though it was an email and not the agreed communication in the lease? Do emails like this hold up in court for this situation?
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