I wanted to know that if I had signed a lease with a friend and the landlord's added changes such as, tax increase of 12% and additional late payment fees, is it mandatory that all people who are on the lease (me and friend) to agree and sign for it together, or can just one person (my friend) sign for it without telling me anything? Also, when such changes are made, does that make the lease that I originally signed still active? I know that both parties need to agree on any changes(landlord and tenant), but I'm confused about if these parties also includes me. In my case, I felt left out not knowing about the changes and that I should have some control over the lease too.
-
Welcome to our legal community! Click here or the create new topic button to ask a question and receive answers and comments from our friendly and helpful legal community.
Articles that answer frequent legal questions are in our Law Guide. Important legal news is reported in The Law JournalYou can find a lawyer near you in the Lawyer Directory. If you know that you need to hire an attorney, you can submit a case review from a lawyer.
Changes to lease
- Thread Starter Shartiger
- Start date
- Status
I'm not sure I understand. Typically a landlord will provide you with a lease that you and any roomates will sign. I've never heard of tenants offering a lease to a landlord for a premises that they do not own. As with any agreement, if you did not agree to those additional terms then you should not be bound by them. Could you explain further this situation?Shartiger said:
Respond to changes on lease
Thanks for the advice. I pray that they will not bind me.
In April 2003, I and another person signed a 1-year lease for a 1/1-bedroom house. For that first year, there were no problems. In April 2005, I was served with a court order to pay for unpaid rent. I hired a lawyer because I didn't know why the landlord waited for a year to tell me that I had not been paying rent and filed a case against me. I thought that the other tenant told them that I was not living at the house because he asked me to move out and that he would be responsible for the rent.
In May 2005, that other person who was the tenant living there was arrested and may possibly be deported to his country. The landlord's had a good relationship with him and let him live there until they found out that he was going to be in prison for fraud. One thing I know for sure is that the landlord's thought that they were being nice to him and thought he was a nice person before that. Now they totally hate him and me too.
I started gathering as much information for court and the landlord's lawyer sent me a copy of the lease that looked different from the one I signed in April 2003. There were additional fees added and with the initials of NH for the landlord and MF for the tenant dated 12/3 (there was no year, just Dec. 3, so assuming it was Dec. 3, 2003) my initials were not there. This would be my defense to not hold me fully responsible for any other charges that they are trying to get. But the landlord's still wants me to pay for the time he was there because my name was on the lease I signed in 2003. What doesn't make sense to me is why would they wait a year to tell me about this after making the changes with other tenant and making him the primary contact, the one they would call. It felt as though I never even existed.
One thing I learned is you never know who your with or even lived with a man for only 1 year who turns out to be a criminal caused sensible people to do insensible things.
thelawprofessor said:
Thanks for the advice. I pray that they will not bind me.
In April 2003, I and another person signed a 1-year lease for a 1/1-bedroom house. For that first year, there were no problems. In April 2005, I was served with a court order to pay for unpaid rent. I hired a lawyer because I didn't know why the landlord waited for a year to tell me that I had not been paying rent and filed a case against me. I thought that the other tenant told them that I was not living at the house because he asked me to move out and that he would be responsible for the rent.
In May 2005, that other person who was the tenant living there was arrested and may possibly be deported to his country. The landlord's had a good relationship with him and let him live there until they found out that he was going to be in prison for fraud. One thing I know for sure is that the landlord's thought that they were being nice to him and thought he was a nice person before that. Now they totally hate him and me too.
I started gathering as much information for court and the landlord's lawyer sent me a copy of the lease that looked different from the one I signed in April 2003. There were additional fees added and with the initials of NH for the landlord and MF for the tenant dated 12/3 (there was no year, just Dec. 3, so assuming it was Dec. 3, 2003) my initials were not there. This would be my defense to not hold me fully responsible for any other charges that they are trying to get. But the landlord's still wants me to pay for the time he was there because my name was on the lease I signed in 2003. What doesn't make sense to me is why would they wait a year to tell me about this after making the changes with other tenant and making him the primary contact, the one they would call. It felt as though I never even existed.
One thing I learned is you never know who your with or even lived with a man for only 1 year who turns out to be a criminal caused sensible people to do insensible things.
- Status
Share this page
