I am going to attach the emails that explain what is going on. It is too hard for me to put all of it in words on this page.

I will tell you this. In June 2007, after being told that our credit is not good enough to purchase the home we are in now, we signed a lease opt to buy. We moved in on July 4, 2007.

Nowhere in our contract does it state "no pets".

I don't see any attachment. But the short answer is no, the landlord may not change the terms of the lease without your assent.

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Originally Posted by rdiazfam6

I am going to attach the emails that explain what is going on. It is too hard for me to put all of it in words on this page.

I will tell you this. In June 2007, after being told that our credit is not good enough to purchase the home we are in now, we signed a lease opt to buy. We moved in on July 4, 2007.

Nowhere in our contract does it state "no pets".

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In your last email you stated that there was a new lease being prepared that had in it about no animals. If you signed the new lease you technically would have to get rid of the animals. If you are on a lease with Mr. Willoughby and the other lease ended, he can enforce the terms of the new lease.

You need to get legal help in getting back any escrow monies due to you. Generally in a land/lease/purchase agreement the up front monies stay with the landlord or property owner. You may get lucky and get some money back from this deal. You need to get out your original paperwork that you signed regarding the escrowed money and read the terms over a few times and see exactly what does it say in the situation of your defaulting on this agreement to purchase the house. You are technically defaulting in not keeping your end of the agreement so please read you contract very carefully. I am sure that there is language in that contract that addresses this type of instance.

So, if the original contract did not state "no dogs" how are we defaulting? Is it because we won't get rid of our dogs? If so, why wasn't this in the original contract? How is it that he can allow us to live here for 2 years with our dogs and then change it, knowing that we won't get rid of the dogs?

I have read the attachments. They really don't clarify the issue.

If you had a lease with an option to purchase, and subsequently decided not to exercise the option, you still have a lease. If in fact the lease does not prohibit dogs, and you are otherwise not in violation of the leaase, I don't believe the landlord can unilaterally alter the lease so as to prohibit dogs.

Of course the lease may have language that, for example, prohibits interference with the quiet enjoyment by other tenants, prohibits illegal conditions (and the local animal control ordinance can be interpreted in such a way that barking dogs is a violation), you could be arguably in vioation of the lease for those reasons. I don't know that to be the case, but it is concievable.