A friend is being sued
i have a question my friend moved out of her house april 09 her lease was til dec 09 the tenants she shared with stayed past dec 09 when the lease was up she notified the landlord she left in april 09 before she even left the rent was paid on time til dec as she made sure they paid rent till dec 09 and since that was the end of the lease date and then stopped checking in because her lease was up the other tenants stayed there and stopped paying rent she just got a letter in the mail the landlord is suing her for over $8,000 she is going to contact a lawyer this week but i was wondering if any one knew if she is liable for this amount?
shoebie 
It depends what is he sueing for. damage to the property? Missed rent? any amount is correct if they can prove there is damages
Just Asking Well perhaps Jon Stone will comment as he is a lawyer but it sounds like she put her portion of the rent in til the end of the lease.
Did she give it to her room mates and they kept it?
My understanding is that when you sign a lease you are responsible for the entire amount. Ideally everyone chips in but if someone is short on money one month SOMEONE has to make up the shortage as they entire rent is due per your lease.
How much was the total rent?
How much was her portion?
Who's names were on the lease?
Was there a co-signer?
Firefly Did she have her name removed from the lease? When the lease renewed in December 09, she should have definitely been off since it was a renewal and I'm not sure, but wouldn't she have had to sign again? Does she have checks to prove she paid rent until the lease expired and does she have proof that she told the landlord she was moving out in April 09? Doesn't sound like a good situation.
Bessie her name and the roommates where on the lease all rent was paid on time til the end of her lease the other roomate stayed past dec 09 which is when the lease ended and never paid rent for jan feb march there are no damages to the property and the x room mate is still living there. She has left a message for the landlord and the x room mate shes is mostly confused because the x room mate was 4 days late paying dec rent when the lease was still in her name and she got an email stating rent has not been paid etc and the landlord has not contacted her about 3 months missed rent until today when she recieved court papers
jon stone she is looking for a lawyer if she has to go to court i will tell her to contact you can you email me your info
just a guess if she was the only one listed on the lease and she was sub renting it(shareing the expence) and she did not make them move out at or by the end of the lease then she is responcable for the fee . after the end of the lease . and i hope she noted in writeing and recived in writeing that she was leaveing
CagedAnimal first sentence of my last post............. her name and the roommates where on the lease
Rebecka I'm lost! If the lease ended in December 09, and we're only in March 10, isn't that only 3 months? How does she owe $8,000?
first did she notify the landlord in writing via certified mailed with signature required that she was vacated the apartment and to have her name removed from the lease as of December 09? It sounds like her name wasn't removed, she may have thought it was but her former roommates might have "screwed" her over. I would call a lawyer
Mommyof2 When you do not sign a new lease and do not leave you are considered a hold over tenant and your lease automatically becomes a month to month lease. This means either party ( landlord or tenant) can end the lease with notice. Sounds like to me that your friend is indeed responsible for her portion of the rent unless her name was removed from the lease.
Why don't you just wait, until she contacts a Lawyer, instead of asking us, who are not Lawyers. All you will get from here is more questions and unofficial advice lol ( except J. Stone). Plus she can give the Lawyer the whole story. Good luck to her
Clyde Potts Rebecka 90% of the time i am posting via blackberry and no i am not going to take extra time to hit 2 keys to make a period for you if you dont like it dont read my posts :)
mommyof2 no thats the prob she never removed her name but assumed when the lease was over her name would be removed and since the landlord stopped notifying her of delinquencies i can see why she would not im waiting til jon stone sees this so i can refer her to a fellow poster but i think she might seek someone out before them ill tell her to Google him though
Most people here are correct.. .if her name was on the lease she is responsible for any monies due up to that lease date. When the lease was nearing termination she should have received a letter from the landlord indicating his/her intention to either extend the lease or allow it to expire or a order to vacate if the landlord was not going to extend the lease. If the tenants did not vacate on 12/31 they are then squatters, NJ law says that at that point a month to month verbal lease is in effect until the squatters vacate the apartment. I have run into this many times as a landlord and have also sued for the rent due, I was awarded those funds every time. Your friend here is legally at fault but it sounds like her "friends" have really screwed her. The rent has to be paid, it amazes me how many times tenants just do not pay rent...but are out to dinner that weekend.. I see it ALL the time. I once asked a tenant why many do not value the roof over their head and she told me that the state makes it easy, people can stay in for a year with no rent so they do.. I wish her good luck, she should contact her friends and find out what the heck they are doing..
Landlord What I don't understand is this.. If the lease went through Dec 09 and was fully paid on time through the end of the lease, even if a new lease was created and did have the friend's name on it, but she did not sign the lease, then she should not be liable. She did notify the landlord at the end of the lease that she is no longer living there.
I am wondering if the lease had a provision that it automatically converted to a month to month lease at the end of the year until a new lease was signed. In addition, being sued for over $8,000 for rent payments for the past 2 months seems very high. I am guessing there is damage to the house that is included in this.
She may be held accountable for the monies owed because of a provision in the lease. I would suggest she review the lease to see what her potential liability is past Dec 09. She may have to sue the former roommates for this as well.
I see a trip to Judge Judy!
Coralie I have to agree with Coralie...sounds like she is going to end up suing the former roommates!
Coralie,
If there was a new lease signed in January and her name is not on it you are correct she is not responsible for any 2010 rent, however if there was no lease signed and the people did not vacate it is automatically under a month to month oral lease. I am assuming that the landlord would have inspected the apartment on 12/31 and if there were any damages all of the original lease signers would be responsible.
Go Rebecka! Shoebie, you're a college student, why don't you act like a diligent one? Are you really that lazy not to input punctuation marks on your blackberry? I think that's just an excuse as you obviously have no problem spending the time to get onto HL forum from BlackBerry. I stopped reading your story because it's too hard to follow the logic. You come on here looking for advice but the way you explain yourself it's like why bother?
Here's an obvious question coming from your first post: why did she wait until December 2009 to tell her landlord that she left in April 2009. Seems like a pretty stupid move to me as anything that happened to the apartment or her room from April to December she's liable for per rental agreement contract.
She really needs to look at the lease agreement and see what rules apply to going month to month. If the landlord was notified prior to the lease expiring that she was no longer living at the house and she would not be renewing the lease, than the landlord should not hold her liable. The other concern is maybe the former roommates forged her signature without her knowledge. She can file a motion with the court disputing the lawsuit saying she was not living there and her name was not to be on a lease after December 09 and state in the motion she paid her portion of the rent on time when she vacated in April. It is really sticky situtation.
computer sharp go ahead and attack me on here because i deleted you off Facebook and wont answer your texts !
the landlord has pulled the case from court and set up a payment arrangement with the current tenants. and she is putting in writing to be removed thanks all for the advice and experiences
Lori...since '73 People take posting and punctuation too seriously. This is not English class. We are on here to blog and have opinions on "life." Why does everything have to be perfect? You must have problems if you complain about a typo here and there or something missing in a sentence. I TYPE IN CAPS. I don't type in caps, yelling YELL... forgot a period or question mark.... blah blah WHO CARES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! People make mistakes and this FORUM is not for everyone to be correcting people on stupid s$it that is part of daily life. THE END!!!
Pepper Cat I just find it funny how he goes from being up my ass on every post and people thought we where dating to the point where he needs to put me down and be nasty now. Its funny how my spelling/grammar/punctuation did not bother him then but all the sudden i am un educated and lazy.
if you press and hold the space bar on the blackberry you get the period (punctuation)
BrownEyesGuy thanks BEG never knew that :) not that i will do that just to please HL posters but great to know thanks
LOL, shoebie... I was wondering what was up when he started berating you. I thought you guys were BFFs, haha. So, what was it that made you unfriend him... his Apple fanboyness?
ianimal Why don't you just wait, until she contacts a Lawyer, instead of asking us, who are not Lawyers. All you will get from here is more questions and unofficial advice lol ( except J. Stone). Plus she can give the Lawyer the whole story. Good luck to her
Clyde Potts
As I said "WAIT". It took less than 24 hours, after the first post, for the situation to take care of its self on its own. All you got out of posting this was: where the comma and period are on your keyboard, and that you might be that lazy not to input punctuation marks on your blackberry lmao
And WE learned that you are ignoring Compsharp
Which begs the question " Was it worth it?"
lol Clyde
ianimal i am surprised no one else picked up on that but whatever if he wants to throw a fit and try to bash me on a public forum because i deleted him off facebook and did not respond to text's thats his business im not 14 and dont feel i need to bash him on a forum
Hey, at least with shoebie we know this will blow over...meaning any disagreements on here. She didn't take it all to heart and say we were bullying her.
LOL@Ian...bff
PS..I really mean that, not being sarcastic. I always say, take the high road, and you did.
i like you shobie, you dont need no stinkin punctuation with me!
how's your workouts going?
BrotherDog Brother dog thank you for asking its going horrible actually i have not been to the gym at all i think i have gone three times since my back surgery in sept and did not do much i am going to see some new doctors in the coming weeks for testing etc its to the point that if i sit in one place for more then 15-20 mins i walk like an old hunchback i get this horrible limp and cant stand up straight :( i wish this pain would just go away so i could work out! But til then im just trying to watch what i eat even with all the evil girl scout cookies floating around my house lol
thanks lori n bessie
cbel lol that's not the reason I'm bashing you shoebie, I honestly could care less about your facebook/text. And to set the record straight, the reason you all think she and I were BFF was because I defended the fact that certain members of this forum was making her feel unwelcome to her first HL HH back in the summer and I still uphold my position regarding that. But that's all water under the bridge now.
I've spoken about the need of using proper punctuation and grammar on other HL forum threads -- it's nothing new. I just think Shoebie's lack of this and abundance of run-on sentences is just a great example of this. But obviously I'm outnumbered here (surprise, surprise) on this topic as it seems improper use of (or lack of) grammar and punctuation is okay in today's environment . I must have missed that boat, among many others. Shoebie, thanks for bringing up something completely irrelevant and personal between you and me to everyone's attention on the forum. And you all are saying she's taking the high road? Give me a break.
btw CSharp, didn't you see emaxxman's recent post about the correct usage of "couldn't care less"? As has been stated on this forum umpteen million times by now, if you are going to criticize others for improper spelling, grammar or language usage it's best to make sure you are practicing what you preach. You know, the whole throwing stones/glass window thing. Just sayin'.
justintime I gripe about punctuation only because I want to be able to make sense of a post, with minimal effort on my part, LOL
Lori - that's all I was saying. People who try to post a story but fail to use any punctuation whatsoever are leaving it up to the readers to try and decipher the entire message like we're reading morse code.
Apparently I'm being made out to look like a fool on this forum so I guess I should probably take the hint. see ya folks!
CS, ONE PERSON said she was taking the high road, not "us all". Obviously, she didn't come anywhere near taking a high road. I'm not sure how one can consider accusing you of being petty just because you were rejected by her as morally superior, since her intent was likely to humiliate you, but... you asked for it, IMO.
Say what you will about how grammar is a pet peeve of yours; the fact is that friends simply do not call each other out with the hostility that you showed her and it was clear that there was some falling out between you two. You opened the proverbial door and she slammed it in your face.
justintime/emaxxman, "couldn't care less" is a double negative and thus grammatically incorrect in its own right (-;
And the Daytime Emmy nominees for Best Drama Series are
Day of Our Lives
All My Children
The Young & The Restless
One Life to Live
Hackettstown Life
PantlessIts a Pantless...... It is her username...... I thought I would throw some extra periods in there for her........
lol to this whole post!
When i was little (not that i am old now) i watched a cartoon called rocket power and the kids lived by the beach any one who wore shoes on the beach would be called a shoebie i hate sand on my feet so i usually keep whatever footwear i have on, on my feet while i am walking on the beach
PS - I am being extra careful not to use punctuation at this point :) its bad enough i have downloaded a special browser to use for this forum that has spell check just so i do not get ripped apart on here for spelling
MB shoebie - 1). Someone who wears sandals and socks at the same time.
That dude is such a shoebie! Wearing adidas sandals and socks at the same time? Lameeeee.
2.) South Jersey shore expression to describe the day-trippers from Philly and NYC that would ride the train "down the shore" for the day or weekend and bring everything in a shoebox, an inapproprate and unwanted tourist
3.) someone that ruins surfing for everyone by coming to the beach, trashing the shore, and taking up the waves.
"not" and "less" are both negative terms, as is "never". The double positive way of saying the same thing would be that if you cared at all, you would have to care more than you do right now.
Hm, interesting. I wouldn't have thought that "less" could be considered a negative in the grammatical sense. I googled and this seems to be a hot debate :) Who knew!
ksjhfisudfh8iwyer2n4klq2j34h.! ooops eihseikwherfiweyfw89a837342jhkwefhkwejrhkwjehrkwejrh.... HAHAH gerrrrrrrrr arggggg rofl
BLD i wear socks and my Adidas sandals all the time :) got in the habit of that after soccer in high school we had to walk down from the field to the school n cleats on rocks just did not feel swell lol either way i love them and i know its a huge fashion no no
LMAO @ Clyde for the Daytime Emmy nominations! And the winner is............. drum roll........
HACKETTSTOWN LIFE
Shoebie, sorry you are in terrible pain - I hope you find relief FAST with the new docs :)
Ryan, for the record, my "high road" remark was about not carrying on about who deleted who from FB and who are no longer BFF's, and on and on. However, I agree about using some puncuation marks or spaces in order to know where one thought ends and another begins. I also don't like being called out on minor punctuation or spellings, last I checked no one is perfect, but for everyone's sake, please use some . , and ?
Peppercat, I don't think people should take spelling and puncuation seriously and jump on every little mistake. However, don't you think if you want people to read something you write, you should at least take the time to make it readable.
Bessie and Ryan I agree. The lack of punctuation and grammar school spelling errors tells me that someone did not take much time thinking about their response. Why should I give it much thought or any thought if you don't?
Bessie, Ryan aka ComputerSharp resigned yesterday from HL, so he won't see your reply
I re-read this thread from the beginning I and have to apoligize to Computer Sharp, Shoebie didn't take the high road, she started sharing the personal issue between her and Computer Sharp, that was not the high road in my books. I think I missed a post somewhere. I was sooooooooo confused on this one. But then, I guess everyone's view of the high road is different. To me, if you start slinging the sh*t first, you have to expect a comeback. Then when you don't want to comment again, it's too late for the high road. I think most would think I'm pretty level headed on things, but I screwed up on this one. Sorry!
Wow...this thread was all over the place! I have to laugh at the awards comment! HL would win!
ok so i am in the wrong because Ryan attacked me on this thread for my punctuation which he has never had a problem with in the past ..........ok :)
LMAO, this thread lasted longer than it took to resolve the lease case, that was basis of the thread
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