Ask Me Help Desk - Is my Lease Valid?

I signed a lease in a hurry and verbally agreed with the agent to 6 months. On my lease contract, under section 2 "Term of Lease" Lease to commence on ____ and terminate on___have nothing written in them. THey are blank. I have the executed signed copy of the lease with all this blank. Further down the contract in section 5 - rental payments, under category the dates for rental payment specify 07/08 until 1/09. (Six months.) The real estate manager is now claiming that I had verbally agreed to a year's lease and she is withholding my deposit of $4000.00 (Yikes) I have 6 e-mails with correspondence in which I state December to be the last month of my six month lease. She had responded every time to my emails, about showing the property or about what good tenants we were, BUT NEVER DOES SHE DISPUTE MY CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE SIX MONTH TERM. In fact, when we vacated early in November we asked if we could apply our deposit to our last month of December and she wrote us an e-mail (which we have) stating she needed the rent paid in December and she would send our deposit back to us after her walk-through. All of a sudden, after requesting our deposit back, she is claiming we had a year's lease. NO WHERE, ABSOLUTELY NO WHERE ON OUR CONTRACT IS A YEAR'S TERM LISTED OR DATES REFLECTING A YEAR'S TIME. The only dates are for rent payments 7/1/08 -1/1/09. Anybody know what I can do about this? Does she have a leg to stand on?

PLEASE HELP ME! I NEED MY DEPOSIT BACK!:confused:

Sounds like you need to take her to court with all the emails printed out and high lighted. I would take it that the places that state 7/1/08 to 1/1/09 would be in your favor especially since there is nothing stating otherwise.

You have an excellent case. File a lawsuit, print out all of the emails and bring them to court along with the lease.

In my opinion since the only statement about the term on the lease shows 1/09 ehat is all you need to win. With the e-mails, I don't see how you can lose.

Quote:

Originally Posted by casademarco

I signed a lease in a hurry and verbally agreed with the agent to 6 months. On my lease contract, under section 2 "Term of Lease" Lease to commence on ____ and terminate on___have nothing written in them. THey are blank. I have the executed signed copy of the lease with all this blank. Further down the contract in section 5 - rental payments, under category the dates for rental payment specify 07/08 until 1/09. (Six months.) The real estate manager is now claiming that I had verbally agreed to a year's lease and she is withholding my deposit of $4000.00 (Yikes) I have 6 e-mails with correspondence in which I state December to be the last month of my six month lease. She had responded every time to my emails, about showing the property or about what good tenants we were, BUT NEVER DOES SHE DISPUTE MY CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE SIX MONTH TERM. In fact, when we vacated early in November we asked if we could apply our deposit to our last month of December and she wrote us an e-mail (which we have) stating she needed the rent paid in December and she would send our deposit back to us after her walk-through. All of a sudden, after requesting our deposit back, she is claiming we had a year's lease. NO WHERE, ABSOLUTELY NO WHERE ON OUR CONTRACT IS A YEAR'S TERM LISTED OR DATES REFLECTING A YEAR'S TIME. The only dates are for rent payments 7/1/08 -1/1/09. Anybody know what I can do about this? Does she have a leg to stand on?

PLEASE HELP ME! I NEED MY DEPOSIT BACK!:confused:

Thank you. I read somewhere that if there are no dates under lease terms, it automatically defaults to a month to month agreement. It was an error on both our parts. Mine unintentionally, theirs I'm not sure. I guess I'm going to court. Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out!

Quote:

Originally Posted by casademarco

Thank you. I read somewhere that if there are no dates under lease terms, it automatically defaults to a month to month agreement. It was an error on both our parts. Mine unintentionally, theirs I'm not sure. I guess I'm going to court. Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out!

Normally, yes if there are NO dates, then it is considered month to month. But the point is moot. If it reverted to a month to month, then you gave notice that you were terminating at the end of the year, so they can't try to extend it. If they go by the dates on the lease (whihc I believe a court will do) then it's a 6 month lease. Either way you win.