My friend and I found a listing for 2 rooms up for rent in Ithaca NY. One being bigger was for 500$, the other being very small was 250$. After meeting the current tenant who is renting the entire apartment himself he agreed to enter a verbal lease with us, with consideration of a 500$ security deposit from my friend for the bigger room and nothing from me because my room is more like a closet. Upon meeting him we had no idea he had just returned from 4 tours in Iraq, and was a straight up killer.To Quote him. Posting pictures of people he had killed over there on our walls, and covering the apartment with maps, and newspaper clipping really creeped us out, but we decided to stay until we move out effective Jan 1st.

My question is regarding a violent knock on my door at 3am, after I got up to go to the bathroom, the military roommate kicked down our doors screaming for us to get out of his apartment, kicking holes in the walls, and through his door. His orders were for us to be out of the apartment by morning, because of an episode he was having with his schoolwork and his stress from finals. He also stated he would not be returning my friends security deposit.

Do we have to leave because there is no lease>?
Can he just keep my friends deposit like that>?
What do we do?

Ummmmm... Good luck!!

He posts pictures of people he has killed on his wall, he kicked your door down and he is under stress; if I were you, I would leave - now.

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Originally Posted by Pavlova

He posts pictures of people he has killed on his wall, he kicked your door down and he is under stress; if I were you, I would leave - now.

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Good advice - you beat me to it!

I would leave. Sue him later for the security deposit and any other monies you lose. For that matter, he may very well sue you for leaving without notice and then you can hash that out.

I'd get out before he has another spell and you are injured. Sometimes the "legal" advice is less important than saving your own skin.

(Did you call the Police and report this following the kicking holes in the wall incident?)

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Originally Posted by KARIEMELIA

ummmmm... Good luck!!!

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Kariemelia, you're on a legal thread - please limit your postings to legal advice based on experience or education. That's how this particular board operates.

We didn't call the police, But I will,, if he starts up anything I feel may become violent again. It is up to him if he chooses to become violent and break more laws, or assault. I'm a firefighter and am in good standing in my community. I just need to know if we have the right to 30 days to move, it is the holidays, and this is going to make them very stressful for the both of us. It just snowed 8 inches and moving would not be easy at this point, and quite costly. Do I contact the landlord? Or give this guy notice we will be out in 30 days and file a small claims suit for the 500$ security?

Ben

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Originally Posted by bschnur1

We didn't call the police, But I will,,, if he starts up anything I feel may become violent again. It is up to him if he chooses to become violent and break more laws, or assault. I'm a firefighter and am in good standing in my community. I just need to know if we have the right to 30 days to move, it is the holidays, and this is going to make them very stressful for the both of us. it just snowed 8 inches and moving would not be easy at this point, and quite costly. Do i contact the landlord? Or give this guy notice we will be out in 30 days and file a small claims suit for the 500$ security?

Ben

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Okay - I misunderstood this: "My friend and I found a listing for 2 rooms up for rent in Ithaca NY. One being bigger was for 500$, the other being very small was 250$. After meeting the current tenant who is renting the entire apartment himself he agreed to enter a verbal lease with us" to mean you were subletting from the Vet, not renting from a landlord.

The verbal agreement goes both ways - it's month to month so you have to give a "clean" one month notice (not 30 days). For example, the lst of December has passed so you would have to give notice before January 1st to move on February 1st. You must give notice in the same manner in which you pay your rent UNLESS you feel threatened, in which case you could break the lease on those grounds. Of course, there's no way of knowing if the landlord would pursue you or not.

If you notify the landlord in writing that his Vet tenant is busy destroying the property and threatening other tenants, he may get rid of the Vet and then you are still there.

Have you spoken to the landlord (or his/her agent) at all, explaining what's going on? If that were MY property I'd like to know and sure would give him his marching orders very quickly. Hopefully your landlord feels the same.

And, yes, if you don't get your security back you would have to sue.

Well after you called the police and he was arrested for the attack, what happened? You did call the police right?

Legally he can not just evict you, but then he can illegally throw all of your stuff out the door and then you have to sue him.