I apologize for the length of this post, but this issue is complicated and I want to make sure that everything is covered to get the best advice possible.
A friend of mine, Amy, just recently moved out of a house where two friends were letting her stay. The two friends themselves don't own the house; they are renting it. When Amy moved in, the three of them discussed having Amy pay them to help out with the rent since she was going to be staying there for a while. At the time, Amy was unemployed but looking for a job; they told her not to worry about paying them anything until she got a job and could afford to make the payments. Between that time up until now, a period of about 2 months, her friends changed their minds about how much Amy would pay them three times; first, they said she would pay $200 for the room they gave her, then they changed their minds and said she could just pay 100 for the bills and not worry about the room. The last change that was made, they said she should pay $300, claiming that they originally had decided upon combining the first two amounts, even though that was not what they had originally decided upon.
Personal complications arose between Amy and her friends, and Amy decided to move out. When she started talking to them about moving out, she still hadn't been able to pay them anything because her job wasn't giving her enough hours to provide her with enough money to pay what she and her friends had agreed upon. They got angry and started claiming that she had to pay them 5 months worth of rent, even though Amy had only been living there for just under two months. Amy is fully intending to pay them for the time she was there, but they are threatening to take her to court if she doesn't pay what they say she owes them, even though they are claiming that she has been there much longer than she has and though they kept changing the amount of money she was supposed to pay them. She has witnesses and proof in the form of dated letters that show that she wasn't there as long as they claim she was. What she is confused about is what amount she should be paying them since they continually changed how much they wanted from her during the course of her stay with them. I know from reading some of the other topics here that verbal agreements are still binding, but what about with a case like this? There was never any defined agreement since they kept changing the terms while Amy was there.
Amy moved in with another friend temporarily after things got nasty with her friends, but most of her belongings were still at their house. At first, they were being fully understanding about her bringing someone with her to move her belongings out, but then they suddenly told her that she wasn't allowed to bring anybody into the house, that she was only allowed to remove things from her room, even though she had other belongings in the house and couldn't get her full-size mattress up from her room in basement without help from someone. They changed the locks on the house and told her she could only retrieve her belongings when both of them were there, and gave her a very short period of time to execute this plan. When she couldn't, they informed her that they had pull all of her belongings outside on the front porch, including her computer - it rained while they were out there. When she did come to pick her things up, she noticed that several items were missing, including clothing, videos, computer programs and some other belongings of her own. They are refusing to let her into the house to retrieve the missing belongings.
Also, I don't know if this should be taken into consideration or not, but since she's moved out, the two friends have been sending her emails with threatening and disparaging remarks because she hasn't been able to pay rent yet. What, if anything, should she do about that?
Again, I apologize for the length of this. I just wanted to make sure I can get the most accurate advice possible for the situation so I can help Amy figure out what to do about all this.
A friend of mine, Amy, just recently moved out of a house where two friends were letting her stay. The two friends themselves don't own the house; they are renting it. When Amy moved in, the three of them discussed having Amy pay them to help out with the rent since she was going to be staying there for a while. At the time, Amy was unemployed but looking for a job; they told her not to worry about paying them anything until she got a job and could afford to make the payments. Between that time up until now, a period of about 2 months, her friends changed their minds about how much Amy would pay them three times; first, they said she would pay $200 for the room they gave her, then they changed their minds and said she could just pay 100 for the bills and not worry about the room. The last change that was made, they said she should pay $300, claiming that they originally had decided upon combining the first two amounts, even though that was not what they had originally decided upon.
Personal complications arose between Amy and her friends, and Amy decided to move out. When she started talking to them about moving out, she still hadn't been able to pay them anything because her job wasn't giving her enough hours to provide her with enough money to pay what she and her friends had agreed upon. They got angry and started claiming that she had to pay them 5 months worth of rent, even though Amy had only been living there for just under two months. Amy is fully intending to pay them for the time she was there, but they are threatening to take her to court if she doesn't pay what they say she owes them, even though they are claiming that she has been there much longer than she has and though they kept changing the amount of money she was supposed to pay them. She has witnesses and proof in the form of dated letters that show that she wasn't there as long as they claim she was. What she is confused about is what amount she should be paying them since they continually changed how much they wanted from her during the course of her stay with them. I know from reading some of the other topics here that verbal agreements are still binding, but what about with a case like this? There was never any defined agreement since they kept changing the terms while Amy was there.
Amy moved in with another friend temporarily after things got nasty with her friends, but most of her belongings were still at their house. At first, they were being fully understanding about her bringing someone with her to move her belongings out, but then they suddenly told her that she wasn't allowed to bring anybody into the house, that she was only allowed to remove things from her room, even though she had other belongings in the house and couldn't get her full-size mattress up from her room in basement without help from someone. They changed the locks on the house and told her she could only retrieve her belongings when both of them were there, and gave her a very short period of time to execute this plan. When she couldn't, they informed her that they had pull all of her belongings outside on the front porch, including her computer - it rained while they were out there. When she did come to pick her things up, she noticed that several items were missing, including clothing, videos, computer programs and some other belongings of her own. They are refusing to let her into the house to retrieve the missing belongings.
Also, I don't know if this should be taken into consideration or not, but since she's moved out, the two friends have been sending her emails with threatening and disparaging remarks because she hasn't been able to pay rent yet. What, if anything, should she do about that?
Again, I apologize for the length of this. I just wanted to make sure I can get the most accurate advice possible for the situation so I can help Amy figure out what to do about all this.
The more detailed a post, the more chance the discussion will be more productive and useful!