In The Matter Of The Lease * With An Option To: Fill & Download for Free

I once rented a nice little hobby farm of 10 acres from a couple of brothers that owned a waste disposal company. Unknown to us at the time we signed the two year lease, they had been negotiating with a media company to buy the place and put a 300′ radio antenna on the back five acres. They thought the deal fell through so they rented to us.About three months into our lease, we were suddenly informed by the new owner they had bought the property, and our rent would be increased 75%, we’d lose access to all but the land surrounding the house, and could no longer use the barn, or large metal building I used for parking and as a shop. I explained to them we had a two year lease, with an option to do a contract-for-deed at the end of the first year if we decided we liked the property. The lease included all the land, and all buildings. The new owner said we had no such lease and were just paying month to month. I was told, point blank by the new owner that I was lying. He said the title ensurer had found we had no claim to the property in any way.I asked the previous owners to provide a copy of the lease and was told it was “lost” in a mysterious office fire that happened to occur just after the business was to be audited. We had some file boxes stored in the basement that were ruined when it flooded and I thought our copy had been in one of them and thrown away. We were screwed, but decided to go to court anyway because our deposit check had indicated it was for “24 month lease” at the address in the memo field. I thought that might help. Meanwhile, the new owners had already started building the antenna behind the house, and torn down an awesome 110 year-old barn to make room for the guide wires.We retained an attorney and shortly after, received an eviction notice. Our attorney said we had little in our favor but I was hoping the new owners would at least offer to pay for our move since we had proof we’d paid a deposit. We got a hearing set, but the new owners changed the date at the last minute. I wasn’t holding out on being able to stay, and had started packing some items. As I was emptying the kitchen “junk” drawer, I found our copy of the lease at the bottom of the drawer. It was the drawer closest to the breakfast nook, where we had sat with the previous owner and signed the lease. Apparently, it got stuck face down in the drawer and I never thought of it again!Long story short, it turns out the title ensurer lied about checking with us to see if we had any claim as renters. The previous owners lied to the new owner about us having a lease, and lied to us about selling the property, and the new owner lied to us about not having to honor any lease! The judge awarded us moving expenses, and attorney fees, plus the remaining amount of the rent we would have been charged for the rest of the year. They had 30 days to pay, and they didn’t. We took them back to court, got the same judge and he was furious! He then gave them 72 hours to pay us, plus our court costs and attorney fees, plus the amount of rent for the second year of the lease! The check arrived by FedEx in 69 hours, pushing it close to their deadline.After we moved, I got a bill in the mail for $4,525 for “property repairs, mowing and garbage removal” with a note saying we had “72 hours to pay or we’d be taken to court.” The previous owners had included garbage pick-up in the rent and a riding mower for lawn care. They took both back the day after they sold the property, so I let the grass grow, and dumped our garbage in an enclosed metal silo in the back… for four months while they took us to court! The farmhouse was 110 years old and didn’t suffer from our abuse, I assure you. I wrote back and my attorney hand delivered it at no charge, just to see the look on the new owner’s face! In it I said I’d contact the judge and ask his opinion on the matter. I never heard back from them again.Moral of the story is, always, always keep your paperwork!

Have you ever been cheated on? Have you ever cheated?Yes, not only I, but our entire family! My parents, my siblngs and all their spouses, all of us were cheated.Whenever we think about that person our blood boils. But we became helpless in the hands of law.So this is how we have been cheated:In 1971-72 our father constructed a house in Visakhapatnam. Because our father did not like to take loan for anything, he and my mother lived a simple life and saved money for their (our) dream house.From drawing the plan to supervise the work of labourers, everything was done by my father himself! being a perfectionist, he did not compromise on any thing.He exhausted all his earned leave for constructing this house.My parents had many dreams of how they would live happily in their own house after my father’s retirement; how they will develop a small garden in small front yard and many more small dreams...The house was build in two portions, each with two bedroomsMy parents decided that until my father’s retirement they would rent both the portions and after my father’s retirement, only back portion would be rented and front portion would be occupied by my parents.Everything went on well until one fateful day my father had decided to give the front portion on a lease to “Kores India Ltd”.Though it was a lease to the company, all negotiations went on personal level.It was rented to a person Narayan Rao. The lease was for the purpose of ‘residence cum office’.As far as I remember he gave it on lease for one year in 1978-79.My father’s retirement month was August 1985. So my father decided to give it on lease until his retirement time.My father clearly told Narayan Rao that he had to vacate the house before his retirement. He agreed for that.So after one year, the lease was again renewed and extended for one more year.This had continued until (approximately) one year prior to my father’s retirement.In 1984, my father refused to extend the lease further as it would end 3-4 months after my father’s retirement.But Narayan Rao literally begged our father to extend the lease for one more year (lease period cannot be a fraction of a year) because his children’s education will get spoiled if they change the house in the middle of the academic year.He promised our father that he will vacate the house in April’1985, so that our parents would have sufficient time for doing any modifications to the house.My father agreed to that in good faith.In April-May 1985 our father came to Visakhapatnam to see that narayana Rao vacates the house.Then Narayana Rao said coolly that vacating the house is not in his hands. Since my father had agreement with “Kores India Ltd” he better take up the matter with the company itself.Until then he was the one who was paying the rent and he was the one who signed on the lease agreements on behalf of the company.My father contacted the company. They said that since my father has another house (back portion), legally he cannot force them to vacate the house. They said they were not going to vacate even after the lease period and my father should extend the lease with revised rent.By then we all came to know that Narayana Rao was aware of all these things previously.Because there was no other option, my father decided to go legally. So he filed a petition in the district court that the company should vacate the house.The court proceedings went on for nearly eight years. During these eight years period, they paid the rent at old rate, because new lease agreement was not made with revised rate. This was a huge financial loss for our parents.In between my mother was diagnosed with cancer. There were periodical chemotherapies. She breathed her last breath in January’89, dreaming until her last day that one day they will shift to the front portion and she would enjoy her dream house.Even in between all the mental agony, my father did not lose his mental strength.At the end eight or eight years, court gave its judgement.The court said “Since Mr. Sastry has filed the petition few months before the expiry of the last lease, his petition is void”(In other words it is not illegal if he does not extend the lease period and ask the tenants to vacate after lease expired, but since he filed the petition before expiry of the last lease it is void)My father had again filed a new petition.The court proceedings went on for many years.By 1998, my father became very tired of all these things. His health also started to deteriorate. His worry was that what would happen to the court case after him.So he decided to sell the house and distribute the money to all his children.But because there is a court case, nobody was ready to purchase the house.The house was in Dwarakanagar (in the fourth street towards right when going from diamond park towards Sankara Matham).It was in center of the city where the land rates in Visakhapatnam are highest.In 1998, the land value itself was around one crore(Ten million) rupees for that land. But because of the court case, our father had to sell the house (the land to be precise) at 25% the value.(The person who purchased had agreed to purchase it along with the court case)This is another huge financial loss!So all the hard earned money and all the efforts in constructing the house went into thrash with just one wrong step.Just for believing one person.....Our father breathed his last breath in 2003.After my retirement in 2010, whenever we went to Dwaraka Nagar we would go to that street and see that house.The house was completely dismantled. Tears would fill our eyes when we saw the house in that state.The scene of our father standing in the scorching heat and supervising the construction would appear before our eyes....The weak face (due to chemotherapy) of our mother would appear before our eyes...A couple years ago when we saw the site, there was a multi story building.So what life lesson one can learn from this whole episode?1. Don’t trust people blindly2. It is better not to give your house on lease to companies.3. It is still better to construct the house when you actually want to live in that house.Second part of the question: “Have you ever cheated?” NO I HAVE NEVER CHEATED ANYBODY.This was our house. Now it is all dismantled and new apartments are constructed there.

Assuming that you are all co-tenants, meaning you all signed a lease with the landlord, there's nothing you can do beyond persuading the fifth person to sign. When your landlord said she requires all five signatures, she really did mean require. You see, that last roommate has rights, and your landlord cannot terminate the lease without her consent – and she cannot release the rest of you and force her to bear the full financial burden, either.When you rent a home with roommates in this manner, you all become legally joined. It won’t matter who did it if the property is damaged, or who failed to pay their share of the rent; as far as the landlord is concerned, you’re all equally responsible. Where it gets slightly more complicated is that she can choose whether she wants to hold one, some, or all of you responsible when stuff like this happens. If you aren’t released from your lease, you’ll owe rent until it’s up whether you move out or not. You’ll all owe rent, but your landlord could sue you alone, the fifth roommate alone, or all of you together. If you move out without being formally released from the lease, and the remaining roommate gets herself evicted, you can be evicted along with her.Not only do you all have separate and shared liability, but you also both share rights and hold them individually. You all have the right to occupy the home for the duration of the lease, and you can surrender your rights together (though it’s up to the landlord if she’ll also release you from the responsibility) or separately. You can at any time give up your right to live there, but you cannot give up your roommate’s right in the same way. Even though the four of you want to leave, this isn’t a democracy, and that one roommate’s right to stay trumps your wish to leave. All of you signed a contract together, with five people sharing the responsibility and rents, and it would not be fair to rob the fifth roommate of her right to continue the arrangement. Even if your landlord could release the rest of you, she isn’t going to do it, because she knows that one roommate won’t be able to pay five times the rent she agreed to.When you break a lease, your landlord normally has a duty to mitigate damages, which just means that she has to try to fill the vacancy rather than just sit back and collect rent from you after you leave, but it’s not much practical use. The landlord doesn’t have to compromise on their criteria for tenants, and they don’t have to spend money or be unreasonably inconvenienced, but at least they have the option of replacing you if they want to. This isn’t an option for your landlord, because she cannot force strangers on your current roommate.Your landlord has no other choice. She needs to either release all of you from lease so she can rent it to someone else, or keep you all on it. I’m afraid this is something you’ll need to work out with your roommate.