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I really need some legal advice concerning an apartment I was going to move into, and I'll try to keep this brief and to the point. I'd appreciate it if you guys can help me out. The name of the leasing office has been changed to "Properties."
What happened in a nutshell I signed a lease last week with Properties for an year-long lease starting August 17 on a remodeled 1bdrm apartment, after I sent in the $100 application fee and the $250 holding deposit checks.
Yesterday afternoon, I called the resident manager (the guy who is actually in charge of the property) to ask about utilities and Comcast. Imagine how surprised I was when he said, "The unit's been taken off the market. I won't allow three people to live there, and there's still construction being done. You can't live there anymore." I immediately called Properties to ask what the fuck was going on, and coincidentally enough, even after contacting three people working there, I could not get a hold of anyone except the maintenance/emergency issue guy. He said he'd try to contact Properties as well and get back to me as soon as possible.
Today, I called the guy again. Me: Hi, this is David. I was wondering if you were able to get a hold of Properties. Him: Hi, David. You should try calling the office. Me: I did. I left a message and tried calling them, but I still haven't received a call back. Him: Oh shit. Let me try to reach them again. I'll give you a call back.
Half an hour later, I still didn't get a call back. I called his number again, and surprise surprise, he didn't pick up. I promptly left another message and told him to call me back as soon as possible.
So the current situation: I told my friend to cancel his $250 and $100 application/holding deposit checks, and my dad just canceled the $1595 September rent and $2300 apartment deposit. If I had waited a day later before calling the resident manager, the leasing office could easily have ran off with the entire $4200. The lady who is in charge of almost all of the apartments (and who showed us the apartment and gave us the lease) is showing another apartment later today. I'm going to go with my friend and confront her and ask her what the fuck she thinks she's doing. My dad apparently got through the leasing office (since they don't know his cell phone but knew mine), and the lady basically said, "We're not in charge of the apartment anymore. You're going to have to talk to the Resident Manager." Ironically enough, the resident manager said the same thing and told me he wasn't involved at all.
My question: What should I do? Is there anything I can do or file against the leasing office? Technically, the lease wasn't even legit to begin with, seeing as they asked us to sign the lease first and then email it to them to process. The only proof I have are a couple of emails. Canceling the checks themselves cost nearly $200, and they might have already deposited the $250-350 application fee. This is an extremely serious issue, so I appreciate if you only respond if you're going to help in some way.
I am already planning on confronting her in person with my friend tonight and asking her for her leasing office's real estate license number as well as her full name and her own license number.
[edit] She just cashed in our check for the $250 holding deposit, which she wasn't supposed to cash and which was supposed to go to the first month's rent. The only thing she's allowed to legitimately cash was our $100 application fee, and my friend just had that canceled.
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i think you should...
1. issue a complaint with the state's real estate overseer people (department of housing and urban development).
2. if you want, since it doesn't look like too much money was lost, take it to a small claims court that deals with up to ~3000 dollars i think. i don't think you need a lawyer for this
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On August 08 2007 11:33 geometryb wrote: i think you should...
1. issue a complaint with the state's real estate overseer people (department of housing and urban development).
2. if you want, since it doesn't look like too much money was lost, take it to a small claims court that deals with up to ~3000 dollars i think. i don't think you need a lawyer for this
I'm going to file a complaint as soon as I get her real estate license number later today. What about suing for emotional distress? They weren't even going to notify me that I couldn't live there. Isn't that also fraud?
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Sounds like you'd be in small claims court. I doubt you'd get money for emotional distress though
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Try the local Better Business Bureau.
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Emotional distress requires a lawyer, lots of time & money. Like everyone is saying, small claims, HUD, and a bit of hope. You might even get money back for the check cancellation costs. In addition, this sounds like it's fraudulent activity, so even the police might be able to do something about it, unless the deposits are marked as non-refundable no matter what the circumstances in the leasing agreement (that would suck).
Make sure you check out complexes online before you rent. Lemons like that usually get marked.
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On August 08 2007 12:31 EarthServant wrote: Emotional distress requires a lawyer, lots of time & money. Like everyone is saying, small claims, HUD, and a bit of hope. You might even get money back for the check cancellation costs. In addition, this sounds like it's fraudulent activity, so even the police might be able to do something about it, unless the deposits are marked as non-refundable no matter what the circumstances in the leasing agreement (that would suck).
Make sure you check out complexes online before you rent. Lemons like that usually get marked.
I checked the complex out before, but I never saw anything was out of the ordinary. The lady just cashed the $250 holding deposit, which was supposed to go to our first month's rent. She's basically running off with my money now. (updated to first post at bottom)
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United States40776 Posts
Basically what they said. You could attempt for like 20,000,000 in emotional distress but it'd be a lot of hassle. Small claims court will sort it out for you in an afternoon if you turn up with all the relevant paperwork. If you want to make a little on the top claim you needed to stay in a motel when you suddenly found they'd fucked your rented place. But you'd need receipts for that really. You can only really recover actual expenses that are their fault without needing a lawyer.
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Call the police and report it to them. I'm sure they'll have advice on what your options are (more so than we might). In any case, this issue will might take more money and much more time to resolve.
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thedeadhaji
39472 Posts
david have you graduated from Cal already or are you still a student there? B/c if you have to start your studies soon, having this huge monkey on your back (ie if you take it to a higher court), it could easily affect your academics (and if you're in Cal you most likely take your courses seriously).
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On August 08 2007 15:29 thedeadhaji wrote: david have you graduated from Cal already or are you still a student there? B/c if you have to start your studies soon, having this huge monkey on your back (ie if you take it to a higher court), it could easily affect your academics (and if you're in Cal you most likely take your courses seriously).
I'm going into my 2nd year BioE. Class starts in two weeks (max 20.5 units), and I have a final next week for my summer class. I've been busting my ass this entire summer, especially since I did almost all of the work looking for apartments and calling people up. I've had a lot of bad luck this past month or so, and I already had a bunch of crap I had to deal with before this huge monkey got on my back. Thanks for the concern though, haji. I'll just have to do my best to get through all of this.
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Edit: I just talked to the lady from the leasing office. She said once again that she is no longer representing the apartment on behalf of the owner. Everything except for the $250 cashed deposit has been mailed to the owner, who I spoke to. According to the owner, there's a CA state rental law about only having two people in a 1bdrm apartment? When she cancels it, she'll notify Properties, who will hopefully give me back the $250 deposit. However, canceling the checks cost me $125, and I still don't have a place to live in two weeks.
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find her personal information
post it on everywhere, especially "anonymous"
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Funny, the same thing almost happened to me. Last year, i was trying to rent a 1bedroom apartment. The agent handling seems a bit suspicious. So i called the cosumer affairs(or was it tenant and rent office, can't remember) to get his credentials. It turns out his agency is insolvent. -_-
Anyway, i guess my case doesn't really apply to you because i live in another country. It surprises me that they even charge you an application fee.
Where i live, you only pay the bond and rent on the date that you will move in.
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On August 08 2007 19:41 davidgurt wrote: Edit: I just talked to the lady from the leasing office. She said once again that she is no longer representing the apartment on behalf of the owner. Everything except for the $250 cashed deposit has been mailed to the owner, who I spoke to. According to the owner, there's a CA state rental law about only having two people in a 1bdrm apartment? When she cancels it, she'll notify Properties, who will hopefully give me back the $250 deposit. However, canceling the checks cost me $125, and I still don't have a place to live in two weeks.
That's ridiculous. If she is no longer representing the apartment why did she process your application? Sounds to me they just try to con a new renter out of his money.
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On August 08 2007 20:55 haduken wrote:Show nested quote +On August 08 2007 19:41 davidgurt wrote: Edit: I just talked to the lady from the leasing office. She said once again that she is no longer representing the apartment on behalf of the owner. Everything except for the $250 cashed deposit has been mailed to the owner, who I spoke to. According to the owner, there's a CA state rental law about only having two people in a 1bdrm apartment? When she cancels it, she'll notify Properties, who will hopefully give me back the $250 deposit. However, canceling the checks cost me $125, and I still don't have a place to live in two weeks. That's ridiculous. If she is no longer representing the apartment why did she process your application? Sounds to me they just try to con a new renter out of his money.
They no longer represent the owner because the owner happened to fire them two days ago; thus she says I have to speak with the owner now, who won't let us live there because we have 3 people.
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Judge Judy, I hear she tapes her shows in California.
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On August 08 2007 20:07 nemY wrote: Dude, you already used this joke...you unoriginal bastard
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United States24342 Posts
Do your parents have any friends who are lawyers? Usually that's the first step when you need advice and you've been wronged, but not on a level that requires you hire a lawyer yourself. I'm kind of spoiled though since 50% of my neighbors are lawyers (and the other half are doctors).
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