I've been renting for 2 years, I went through the landlord's agent... signed the lease... but notice only now that I'm in dispute over the deposit that the landlord (he lives in China) nor the agent signed the lease.
They want the whole deposit, plus more... they were late in giving me any notification on damages over 21 days... and I can prove that they are acting in "bad faith" ( fraudulent claims of damage - I have video on move out etc... never mind them missing the deadline to before contacting me)
Owner moved back from China, and even had the cheek to move in as we did the walk through.. 2 days before I was supposed to move out. He didn't ask he just turned up with his family and suitcases..
I have emails... with the agent discussing the terms of the lease... faxed them over... and emailed me emailed back everything was fine and we could move in on the specified date.
We have sent certified letters to the owners and agent about the returning deposit... quoting civil code 1950.5 (tried to be fair and with our offer with the damage caused by us)... but now after realizing the lack of signature from either party we are scared... Our deposit is $4600 plus they want another $700 more... like I said we have strong evidence that we aren't responsible/making things up and they are acting in "bad faith". They have so far refused to negotiate on the $600 we offered... I don't want to go to court over this.. but might have too... but this no signature thing from them makes me wonder what rights I have...
Btw... today the agent got cocky and sent us via email our rental contract (only our sigs)... we emailed him back with proof of our conversation via email before we moved in that he made an addendum to take a certain responsibility off us... (unfortunately I don't have evidence that he received that and don't have any copy of our signatures on it) only that he admitted making a mistake on the contract at the time.. and he was changing it.. and we were sending it back (said in an email) we never received a copy of the contract signed.
I live in California, the agent may even hold the owners signatures on the original lease.. but not showing them to me (I never got the copy... the owners feel like he or I should pay for the yard (yeah they paid the agent for gardening)... also why the the cost it so high.
The owners told me last night via phone that they had to remove a tree and they have a irrigation problems... so I can't understand why they want me to pay for the cost of the grass looking unhealthy.. they have more trees than anyone on the block and we have been through a water shortage for the last 6 months... they've said if I don't pay they want the agent to.. anyone but them! The agent being gardener knows this) is doing anything to make us look bad and at fault... we paid $80 monthly to the owners for landscaping. (which is why we had the wording on the addendum changed... cos the contract said we were responsible for the maintenance of the yard.) we said we only want to pay for water!
Anyway... anyone know what rights I have with this lack of signature from the other party? I don't want to take it too court, but I might have to... everyone is pointing the finger at each other... we aren't getting anywhere. Does my lease to hold to the civil code 1950.5 ? Without any signature... their agent is throwing it around in emails right now like it holds up...
