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Help! In over my head I think...!
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JuliaJolie
Posts: 79 Forumite
Hi, I'm not sure if anybody knows anything about US law, or how closely ours and theirs intersect, but I've been having a bit of a problem with an "almost-landlord" out in the US.
I'm sorry this is so long, but here goes:
In September I went out to Boston to take a short uni course for a few months. I wanted to sort out temporary housing as I didn't want to spend months in an expensive hotel again, so I looked on craigslist and found an apartment I liked - $1350 a month, and the ad said fully-furnished. I called up the landlord and asked for a 3-month lease - he said he would have to do it for 4 months as I'd be moving in in the middle of September and moving out in the middle of December, so that would be 4 months' rent and he wouldn't pro-rate.
I thought that was a bit unfair, but agreed. He then decided to up the rent to $1800 a month, saying that the advertised $1350 was for a 12-month lease (even though it didn't say that anywhere on the ad, and all other ads said a year lease was required).
I grudgingly agreed to all this over the phone, as he explained that if I were to rent from September to December he wouldn't be able to find anybody to rent from mid-December onwards. I didn't understand how this was my fault that he wouldn't be able to find a tenant because the housing market wasn't busy, but again, I just agreed to send the security deposit to him via Paypal, as it was safer and I was still in the UK at this point. I did mention that the rental market was bust in MA right now and that I'd seen the ad online for the past 5 months, but this made no difference to him.
After phoning him up to confirm receipt of payment, he then told me that the bed and a small dresser were in the basement and that I would have to bring them up myself. I asked why, he said the apt was fully-furnished, he replied with yes it is, and that "all you have to bring are some plates".
I get there and the apartment is just a converted loft, with a kitchen, a box of a bedroom and a hallway for a living room - there is virtually no privacy whatsoever. There is no bed or dresser in the bedroom, no two tvs as promised, no couch, no internet connection, no phone, no gas or electric (as the previous tenants hadn't paid their bills) and no cutlery, no microwave, no toaster etc...if I had brought "just plates", this obviously wouldn't have been sufficient. There were a couple of cabinets there that were broken and reeked, and the place was absolutely filthy. The lights were also broken on the stairway, which was dangerous.
When I called him up to ask when furniture would be brought up I was told to my face that "this isn't the Marriott" and that I should bring it up myself. I should probably add that I am fairly tall but weigh less than 8st, and I have a long-term chronic injury in my elbow, knee and ankle, and cannot lift anything, yet this landlord is three times the size and height of me. He offers to find help that I could pay for, but I refuse to pay the first and last month's rent until he honours the ad. His wife (who's a medical doctor going to law school, so I'm sure she does all of the work), agrees to pro-rate the first month's rent and have people bring up the furniture, and gets me to sign a lease based on this agreement, and the landlord ends up going downstairs to the basement with my boyfriend to get things. BF tells me later on that everything downstairs reeked of mould, that the dresser was stained and covered with mould, and that the "two tvs" were broken, one of which was actually split in half.
A couple of days later, still no furniture, but they barge into my bf's apartment and start yelling at him for the 1st and last rent (he's not staying there, and his name's not on the lease). His wife asks what we want, and I give her a printout of the original ad, saying I want it fully furnished as promised - especially if I'm paying £900 a month for a one-bedroom (the highest I've ever SEEN for an apartment in that area). She has no idea he wrote that ad, and when we go into the other room and they leave, I hear them come back into the apartment and grab something (turns out it was the ad, but I'd made copies).
After bringing up a bed with a nice cover on it that was actually stained, and having my BF explain that the furniture he gets comes out of the trash (as he knows the labourers that work for him - they're the landlord's tenants, and they worked for free, so thank god I didn't pay him to find people!), I agree to break the lease and get my security deposit back. They take off $100 for Paypal fees and charge me $60 per day for the five days that my luggage was there (no bed or hot water, so I couldn't sleep or shower there), and got a cheque for $1400. She gives it to me the day I have class all day, then it's the weekend and the banks are shut. The nearest branch of their bank is not within walking distance, so I head out there on a Monday only to realise I'd lost the cheque. :wall: I knew I'd had it the day before, as I'd seen it in my wallet.
I was too scared to call up the landlord as the last time I phoned him up I was being a wuss and he actually made me cry lol (about the bed), so my BF called up and politely explained the situation, that we just had the cheque yesterday and that we'd lost it, and that we can wait for another cheque but to please please cancel that one, so that nobody else tries to cash it. He says he will tell his wife when he can as her phone's been stolen and get back to us.
Days go by, and we call again. He explains his wife has lost her phone and that she's at a medical conference, but we catch him out and say we thought it was stolen. He says "yeah, yeah sorry" and that he would get his wife to "check on the status of that" (that was all he would say to us). He keeps this on for a good month and a half.
Eventually I call him up from my new phone; he has no idea who I am as it's been weeks, but when asked I politely explain who I am and he immediately hangs the phone up on me.
Needless to say I am furious at this point, knowing he was lying the whole time, and left a message saying I was going to call the police. They advised me to go to small claims court, which I am next month.
The issue is I never got a copy of the lease, I just have Paypal receipts, emails, and the original advertisement. Do I really have a leg to stand on? I ended up going through a real estate agent to get the apartment I ended up staying in for the time I was out there, and she guessed his name before I'd even said it.
She said she'd constantly turn him away as she refused to represent his properties, and referred to him as a slumlord (he'd put in new rugs in the apartment next door, and encouraged college-age students to bring in dogs so they would mess it up and he'd keep their security deposit). Apparently he's had restraining orders taken on him by his sister and he's been charged with embezzling money and property from his own mother. His wife went to Harvard medical school and now law school - am I in way over my head? The realtor advised I sue and ask for triple damages, but I'm petrified that I'm going to waste even more money heading back there and get absolutely nothing back.
BF summed this up nicely - "when you called up he thought, 'doctor's daughter, calling up all the way from England, going to university = jackpot!!'"...
I'm sorry this is so long, but here goes:
In September I went out to Boston to take a short uni course for a few months. I wanted to sort out temporary housing as I didn't want to spend months in an expensive hotel again, so I looked on craigslist and found an apartment I liked - $1350 a month, and the ad said fully-furnished. I called up the landlord and asked for a 3-month lease - he said he would have to do it for 4 months as I'd be moving in in the middle of September and moving out in the middle of December, so that would be 4 months' rent and he wouldn't pro-rate.
I thought that was a bit unfair, but agreed. He then decided to up the rent to $1800 a month, saying that the advertised $1350 was for a 12-month lease (even though it didn't say that anywhere on the ad, and all other ads said a year lease was required).
I grudgingly agreed to all this over the phone, as he explained that if I were to rent from September to December he wouldn't be able to find anybody to rent from mid-December onwards. I didn't understand how this was my fault that he wouldn't be able to find a tenant because the housing market wasn't busy, but again, I just agreed to send the security deposit to him via Paypal, as it was safer and I was still in the UK at this point. I did mention that the rental market was bust in MA right now and that I'd seen the ad online for the past 5 months, but this made no difference to him.
After phoning him up to confirm receipt of payment, he then told me that the bed and a small dresser were in the basement and that I would have to bring them up myself. I asked why, he said the apt was fully-furnished, he replied with yes it is, and that "all you have to bring are some plates".
I get there and the apartment is just a converted loft, with a kitchen, a box of a bedroom and a hallway for a living room - there is virtually no privacy whatsoever. There is no bed or dresser in the bedroom, no two tvs as promised, no couch, no internet connection, no phone, no gas or electric (as the previous tenants hadn't paid their bills) and no cutlery, no microwave, no toaster etc...if I had brought "just plates", this obviously wouldn't have been sufficient. There were a couple of cabinets there that were broken and reeked, and the place was absolutely filthy. The lights were also broken on the stairway, which was dangerous.
When I called him up to ask when furniture would be brought up I was told to my face that "this isn't the Marriott" and that I should bring it up myself. I should probably add that I am fairly tall but weigh less than 8st, and I have a long-term chronic injury in my elbow, knee and ankle, and cannot lift anything, yet this landlord is three times the size and height of me. He offers to find help that I could pay for, but I refuse to pay the first and last month's rent until he honours the ad. His wife (who's a medical doctor going to law school, so I'm sure she does all of the work), agrees to pro-rate the first month's rent and have people bring up the furniture, and gets me to sign a lease based on this agreement, and the landlord ends up going downstairs to the basement with my boyfriend to get things. BF tells me later on that everything downstairs reeked of mould, that the dresser was stained and covered with mould, and that the "two tvs" were broken, one of which was actually split in half.
A couple of days later, still no furniture, but they barge into my bf's apartment and start yelling at him for the 1st and last rent (he's not staying there, and his name's not on the lease). His wife asks what we want, and I give her a printout of the original ad, saying I want it fully furnished as promised - especially if I'm paying £900 a month for a one-bedroom (the highest I've ever SEEN for an apartment in that area). She has no idea he wrote that ad, and when we go into the other room and they leave, I hear them come back into the apartment and grab something (turns out it was the ad, but I'd made copies).
After bringing up a bed with a nice cover on it that was actually stained, and having my BF explain that the furniture he gets comes out of the trash (as he knows the labourers that work for him - they're the landlord's tenants, and they worked for free, so thank god I didn't pay him to find people!), I agree to break the lease and get my security deposit back. They take off $100 for Paypal fees and charge me $60 per day for the five days that my luggage was there (no bed or hot water, so I couldn't sleep or shower there), and got a cheque for $1400. She gives it to me the day I have class all day, then it's the weekend and the banks are shut. The nearest branch of their bank is not within walking distance, so I head out there on a Monday only to realise I'd lost the cheque. :wall: I knew I'd had it the day before, as I'd seen it in my wallet.
I was too scared to call up the landlord as the last time I phoned him up I was being a wuss and he actually made me cry lol (about the bed), so my BF called up and politely explained the situation, that we just had the cheque yesterday and that we'd lost it, and that we can wait for another cheque but to please please cancel that one, so that nobody else tries to cash it. He says he will tell his wife when he can as her phone's been stolen and get back to us.
Days go by, and we call again. He explains his wife has lost her phone and that she's at a medical conference, but we catch him out and say we thought it was stolen. He says "yeah, yeah sorry" and that he would get his wife to "check on the status of that" (that was all he would say to us). He keeps this on for a good month and a half.
Eventually I call him up from my new phone; he has no idea who I am as it's been weeks, but when asked I politely explain who I am and he immediately hangs the phone up on me.
Needless to say I am furious at this point, knowing he was lying the whole time, and left a message saying I was going to call the police. They advised me to go to small claims court, which I am next month.
The issue is I never got a copy of the lease, I just have Paypal receipts, emails, and the original advertisement. Do I really have a leg to stand on? I ended up going through a real estate agent to get the apartment I ended up staying in for the time I was out there, and she guessed his name before I'd even said it.
She said she'd constantly turn him away as she refused to represent his properties, and referred to him as a slumlord (he'd put in new rugs in the apartment next door, and encouraged college-age students to bring in dogs so they would mess it up and he'd keep their security deposit). Apparently he's had restraining orders taken on him by his sister and he's been charged with embezzling money and property from his own mother. His wife went to Harvard medical school and now law school - am I in way over my head? The realtor advised I sue and ask for triple damages, but I'm petrified that I'm going to waste even more money heading back there and get absolutely nothing back.
BF summed this up nicely - "when you called up he thought, 'doctor's daughter, calling up all the way from England, going to university = jackpot!!'"...
~ R.I.P Heath Ledger, George Carlin, Stan Winston ~ 0
Comments
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Tldr ?poppy100
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Yeah. tldr.
And: no apparent question ... although I will admit to skimping the last 2 volumes0 -
what does tldr mean please?July Win: Nokia 58000
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Can you not just take the money back through paypal as the item you were buying was not as described? Or if you paid by credit card you could get them to do it.0
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tldr = too long; didn't read.0
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i strongly suspect that it will take up a huge amount of your time and energy to pursue this - and harsh as this sounds - i recommend you just move on and write it off - and yes, i know it is a lot of money, but, trying to sue landlords in the UK can be hugely time consuming, let alone trying to do it in a foreign country.
Sadly, we all get shafted once or twice in this life - maybe this is the last time it will happen to you - and no, its not fair, and yes, the b*gger has got away with it - but what goes round comes around, and sooner or later he will get his come uppance.
Dont let this fester in your heart - it will only make you bitter and then he really will have screwed up your life
best wishes0 -
Are you back in the UK now? Might be worth speaking to the CAB and get their opinion, maybe some distance selling laws come into play since everything was initially agreed while you were over here? The emails you mentioned, are they the ones saying he's going to up the rent? Anything about the missing cheque in there? I havent got any experiance in this, but it has to be worth half an hour of your time to get everything together and go see a solicitor for a free 30 mins consultation, if just to hear someone say "legally, you havent got a leg to stand on!".0
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Are you back in the UK now? Might be worth speaking to the CAB and get their opinion, maybe some distance selling laws come into play since everything was initially agreed while you were over here? The emails you mentioned, are they the ones saying he's going to up the rent? Anything about the missing cheque in there? I havent got any experiance in this, but it has to be worth half an hour of your time to get everything together and go see a solicitor for a free 30 mins consultation, if just to hear someone say "legally, you havent got a leg to stand on!".
Hi iamstacie, thanks for your reply. I am back in the UK now, just got back before xmas. One email does say they are raising the rent due to "risk of vacancy" after I would have left. On another US-based forum someone advised me that the amount he upped it to is actually a mortgage payment. :mad: :mad:
Thank you for your advice; I think I will go to the CAB and find out what I can do, if anything. To all those others who posted "tldr", it's a shame that short attention spans can't appreciate a serious problem that someone is having. I apologised for the length but it IS a long story, I didn't want to leave out any details and get replies asking for them. Please take your useless comments elsewhere - I can't abbreviate everything to fit in with your "tldr" txtspk attit00d. :rolleyes: ~ R.I.P Heath Ledger, George Carlin, Stan Winston ~ 0 -
Sorry I cant offer any help but you are right there was no need to be rude about length of post. If you leave it short then you get people complaining that you didnt give all that facts?!:jMay 2013 new beginnings:j0
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Spend a little time and effort seeing if you can get this sorted. As someone mentioned, CAB looks like a good bet.
However, I suspect, you'll find you'll have to risk more money, time and stress trying to get this sorted.
It will probably be better to just accept the financial loss and move on. Otherwise the bitterness, anger and feeling of banging your head against a wall will eat you up.
It happens to most people at some point in their life.
He's ripped you off. You probably aren't the first and won't be the last. One day, he'll rip off some psycho who goes after him with a baseball bat.
But try CAB first. If you decide you can't pursue this, at least you'll have made an effort and will feel better for it.0
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