Making a Lease Signed a lease for an apartment we're not living in

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yogi

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My boyfriend and I found an apartment to rent, and we filled out the according application and went through the motions for move-in. The leasing agent told us the same day we signed the application that the apartment was not ready yet because the current tenant's lease wasn't up, but he had given notice to leave by August 1st (the last day of his lease). So we were approved for the application and set the move-in date for Aug. 15th. A week before we moved in, the same agent called and said he was staying yet another month, and he was supposed to be out by Sept. 1st. She then told us specifically he could only stay up to 90 days after his lease was up, in case he was having trouble finding another apartment. We didn't know this, but we were assured that he had to leave by Nov. 1st because by that date his 90 days were up. We agreed and signed the lease, which contained no special situation for us. When I brought this to the leasing agent's attention, she said not to worry, that it was on file already. For the time being they placed us in a temporary apartment (same setup, different floor of a different building) with a verbal promise that if we couldn't get into the apartment we signed the application for, then we could leave with our security deposit.
We found another apartment across town and expressed our wish to leave within the past week, and at that point we were told this was impossible. The property manager "gethered information" and told us we could not be let out of our lease because he and his associates have done nothing wrong. He said "all putting an application in does is put you on the waiting list for whenever such-and-such moves out." We were not told this on any occasion! Personally, I feel as though we were intentionally lied to in order to sign the lease, and then the leasing agent said whatever popped into her head to keep us happy. According to the property manager, the leasing agent told us there were "no guarantees" as to when this guy would move out. Do we have a leg to stand on?
 
That leasing agent and manager is full of horse manure! They have failed in their consideration. When you sign an application it puts you on a waiting list for an apartment, true enough. When you sign a LEASE it is for a specific apartment. Your consideration is rent and a security deposit, their consideration is the quiet enjoyment of a PARTICULAR piece of real estate (in this case an apartment). When you moved into the "temporary apartment" if you didn't resign another lease changing the agreement to that apartment, you are not bound to that apartment.

So, as long as you have told them IN WRITING that you wish to VOID the lease contract for their failure to deliver consideration, you are free of the lease and they OWE you the security deposit back. Send them a certified letter VOIDING your lease, not breaking or cancelling your lease, and demand your security deposit back immediately and in full. You will still owe rent for the amount of time you stayed in the "temp" place.

If they fail to give you back the money go to small claims court and you will win.

Good luck.
 
Thanks so much. If you don't mind me asking, where did you get your information? The property manager is very firm in not giving us our money back or letting us out of the lease (some song and dance about having to having to break the rules for everyone if they break them for us), so if I can show him some legal documentation that will give us that much more ammunition... because I'm pretty sure we'll need it.
 
I was an attorney, was also in real estate for 15 years, and have been negotiating contracts and dealing with contract law for 20 years. That's pretty basic contract law you don't have to prove it to him. He never completed his contractual obligation. Just follow my advice and you will be fine. Certified letter VOIDING the contract, Demand the Security Deposit back, give him 10 business days, move, then file a small claims court suit.

He is firm because he knows you guys are young and don't know he's wrong. If he told me something like that I'd laugh and he would drop the "firmness." Just state it like you know it's true and go with it. When you get to court, if it goes that far, you will find out that I'm right. I'm not guessing on this one. If you told me all the details it's right. Good luck it will work out.
 
Update: After reviewing the lease, we noted that it does denote the temp apartment in the first paragraph (personally, I don't know how I could have missed that). There is also no mention of us being transferred to the other apartment at any time, which, to anyone aside from us, the leasing agent, and the property manager, would look like we signed up to stay in the temp apartment for the entire lease.

I recently found a paper, not signed by my boyfriend or I, that states the conditions that must be met in order for the security deposit to be returned. There are nine bullets listed on this paper: 8 of them are all about cleaning, and the last one, which is set a little bit away from the rest, says "the lease must be fulfilled in all its terms." However, underneath that, there's a sentence that says, "these eight (8) conditions must be met to receive your security deposit upon leave." Shouldn't that say nine? I thought all legal documents had to be proofread before being shown to a tenant in case there were discrepancies (I may be paranoid, but a friend suggested they may have changed the document on us).

On top of this, we found out this morning that the leasing agent we dealt with through this whole ordeal "no longer works for the company" as of 4 days ago.

I understand this drastically changes things for us, and we have no idea if we have a snowball's chance in Hell of getting out of this place without them coming after us for the remaining months' lease.
 
Well you have some good news and some bad news. You probably can't get your deposit back. They likely didn't change your lease just to stick it to you, they probably took a boilerplate lease and added a clause to it on advise of counsel (or counsel did it and didn't notice the 8 that you noticed). They have to move you to the apartment that you want to go to, though not having that spelled out in the lease is not good for your case. If you can maintain contact with the leasing agent that left, they would probably back you up.

The good news is that they won't come after you for the entire lease. They are required to mitigate their damages if you leave and so they can only recover either the "liquidated damages" specified in the lease or a couple months worth of rent that the Judge will order.

If they admit to the story that you told originally you would still win, but I wouldn't bet on that.

Moral of the story: Get every part of your agreement in writing or it doesn't exist.

Good luck.
 
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