And now I have hives.
In April of 2011 my X / landlord handed me some papers at my son’s baseball game and sneered in my face “You’ve been served!” I took the papers and rolled my eyes, thinking, “he watches too much tv.”
The papers he handed we was a Notice To Quit. My boyfriend had moved to Maine and was staying with me. The landlord was aware of this and demanded we pay more money. So we did. We didn’t know the rules. We didn’t know he couldn’t do that. We just wanted to make things go as smoothly as possible. We were still at the point of not really knowing what we were dealing with. After 3 months of a severe rent increase, the landlord has decided now to make the boyfriend move out or we’d be evicted.
In turn, boyfriend and I got married. We also stopped paying increased rent, and paid only what the lease said I had to pay.
In September of 2011 we saw a lawyer about taking X back to court to modify our visitation. At that time we asked about the Notice to Quit and how to get our of our lease. The lawyer looked at the Notice and said “Just move.” Upon doing further research about this here is what we found.
The Notice to Quit Form is the beginning of the eviction process, and it communicates the intention to initiate eviction proceedings if a tenant does not comply with an order and remains on the premises beyond the specified date.
Since we did not comply with his request to kick boyfriend / husband out, he is going to evict us. We assumed that at any time he’d get a stick up his ass and actually follow through…though we knew he liked our money…so maybe not.
We talked about moving. D didn’t want to leave his school. We looked for places in our small town. We applied for home loans and were denied. X missed loan payments on a joint loan I can’t get off of. My credit is in the toilet. We saved (and begged) enough money to be able to move to a rental. If only there were rentals in our town!
D went to a concert at the new big school in the same city where A goes to school. He was amazed at the brand new school, the friendly staff and teachers. The 3 soccer fields and track and multiple playgrounds. He came home and said “If we moved and that was my new school, I think that would be pretty awesome.”
So, now with D on board, we started looking in the city where A goes to school. 20 minutes closer to work, to schools, to everything. For months we searched and finally, we have found an amazing place. We are moving closer to A’s school. We are moving to someplace much bigger. We are moving to give D a better school opportunity. We are moving to sever the remaining tie between me and the X (besides the children). Now, we had to tell landlord / X. A told me he thought dad would be happy we were leaving, some one else had wanted to rent it.
I emailed and let him know, and also sent a formal letter in the mail with our final rent check. He replied to the email saying that he ‘Does not accept our surrender of the lease’. Of course. I mentioned to A a few days later that his dad wasn’t happy about us moving. I never said that we weren’t moving. A took it to mean that dad wasn’t letting us move. So, A asked him why he wasn’t letting us move. X had a lovely convo with A all about how he would NEVER say such a thing and how AWFUL I am to have tried to make him look bad to his kids.
So, I got this email from X:
LOL and is it any wonder that you can’t be trusted to act in the best interests of the children when you go and do crap like you just did – telling them that I am the reason you can’t move. I am documenting the conversation. Who in their right mind would think they can just get out of a lease because they want to – every person who has ever had a lease for an apartment or house know that is not ok when the landlord has relied on your word in the agreement. You want out of the lease you come back with a reasonable offer that is going to cover my expenses for breaking the lease until I can get someone in there, but you telling them what you did is despicable.
So I replied:
I didn’t realize you were open to negotiation. How about if we pay all of March rent, and are vacated by March 4th?
And then he did too:
Seriously, that is what you call a reasonable offer? I will accept 2,550 and you vacate by March 31st. That is knocking off two months of rent from the lease. Any damage to the property that is discovered after you vacate will be your responsibility and I will hold you accountable in a separate proceeding. I will need to know ASAP.
He’s crazy. I should have just left it alone…but I didn’t.
We don’t have $2550. We have $890. You can have a months rent (march) with no tenants. We also just put another 100 gallons of oil in the tank today.
That is the best that we can do at this time.
Did I mention he’s crazy?
A months rent is not even close to enough and you know it. You are legally responsible for much more – and should this go to court I will remind you that you will be responsible for additional court costs as well as attorney fees. I am sure you have people you can get money from if you really wanted to, as you have done in the past. My offer is MORE than reasonable all things considered.
Crunching numbers….We owe 32040.00 in total on the lease for the 36 months. In total we have paid all but 2300. He wants me to give him 2500? Uh, no. And silly me thinks reason might work…
Considering all the rents paid to you thus far, we don’t even still owe you 2550.00 after march’s rent is paid.
Considering that I have fulfilled 32 months of a 36 month lease so that you were able to go to law school without needing to be a proper land lord, i would like to think that you would be more willing to negotiate. You are misinformed as to our financial situation. We do not have access to, nor know anyone who has access to that kind of money.
He didn’t want reason. He wants my money.
I have heard nothing more from you regarding a compromise in terms of the lease. Does that mean you prefer to go the alternate route? I strongly encourage you to work on a compromise with this so as to avoid any potential hardship this might cause.
His idea of compromise is to give him what he wants.
As I previously stated, whether you believe it or not, I do not have access to, or know anyone who has access to 2550.00
Now he’s just being a bully. Again.
I don’t know what to tell you. You have offered nothing in the way of any offer that is close to viable. You must know that I will prevail in court, albeit a little later down the road, but at that point it will end up costing you considerably more. In my humble opinion this is a very poor decision on your part given the fact that I am willing to almost cut in half what you would have paid. That is fine, and your choice, but don’t you dare even hint to the children that it is me who is to blame for any of what results from your decision. You let me know if you have anything reasonable to suggest or add to what has already been discussed.
Cut in half? What? 3 months of rent is 2670.00. Half of that would be 1335.00. not 2500. He’s as bad at math as he is at legal matters. I’m worn down and should have stopped this conversation before I ever started it
Raising kids is really expensive. Trying to give them a place to live, food to eat, all the things they need is not an easy task. I am sorry we can’t give you the remaining balance of the lease, but we just dont have the means to do so considering all the other expenses.
I wouldn’t tell the kids you aren’t letting us move, as we are moving.
However, in the event we are taken to court and the kids have to go without because you feel you are entitled to more money than we have, I believe they would have a right to know.
Id rather not argue with you about this. I am doing the best that I can. If you have alternate ideas, please let me know.
But he HAS to have the last word.
Your passive aggressive tactics at manipulation do not work on me anymore. You did tell the kids exactly that, that I was the reason you weren’t moving, which is the only reason I was talking to you about this. But as I suspected you lied to them then just to suit your own purposes because you never really intended to do anything other than move.
Now you seem to think my talking to you is in some form a sign of weakness, that I am not serious about what my next steps are going to be in regards to this, that there is some mitigating emotional factor based on those children that is going to convince me otherwise – you are seriously mistaken.
You are planning on telling them whatever you come up with anyway, so feel free if you think it is in their best interests and try to explain to them the results after a court decides.
I am entitled to the money you agreed to pay when you voluntarily and knowingly signed the lease. I was willing to work out a compromise. I have made a good faith effort at trying to reach that solution with you and that is more than enough.
Then he got our letter and our final rent check.
Letter received. Surrender of lease is not accepted. Alternative ideas – Keep your word, stop taking me back to court; It is only going to hurt the kids in the end.
Dealing with him is exhausting. Its been an exhausting week. We are trying to pack an entire house. We are trying to coordinate mail, cable, internet, in addition to all our normal kid schedules of dentist appts and drivers ed, and dinners….And now, I have hives. Awesome, I know.
Looking Forward 