Diasfora

General Category => Chaos => Topic started by: 8ullfrog on December 18, 2013, 04:19:05 AM

Title: Lease question.
Post by: 8ullfrog on December 18, 2013, 04:19:05 AM
One thing I don't really get. We signed a six month lease starting January, but that does not prevent the owner from selling the place out from under us, with a months notice/pay.

That still seems fairly unbalanced in favor of the owner. I would think that a lease should prevent an owner from selling under the time period of the lease.

Granted, at that point, six months and a day, the Owner should be within rights to say "hit the bricks."

Then again, legality and propriety are two very different things.
Title: Re: Lease question.
Post by: brickbatz on December 18, 2013, 08:27:28 AM
Reckon it's take it or leave it when you sign a lease he wrote. Renting in Florida is heavily in favor of the landlord.
Title: Re: Lease question.
Post by: megamarkd on December 18, 2013, 07:44:49 PM
Here they also need to give 4 weeks notice if they have sold the place, or any reason they want to end the lease early, and same goes for the renters.  Which is fair enough, it's enough time to find a new place if you are being evicted, or for a landlord to sort new tenants.  It's inconvenient for you, but it's sufficient.

If you are renting, it really does pay to know your rights.  Some landlords will try to golly you over at every corner, so you need to know how to do the same to them.

Unfit for living is one of easiest to get, stuff as simple as windows that don't close properly (or anything that creates a good draft though the house).  Things that are a threat to your good health like that, even if it's only a small thing.  Here if we can show that a property is unfit for living, we can demand anything we want pretty much, but I usually say I'm not paying any rent until the situation remedied.  That puts a fire under their butt and boy do they jump high.
Title: Re: Lease question.
Post by: 8ullfrog on December 19, 2013, 01:29:52 AM
We rented out our house once, horrible bless'ed idea.

madam pulled the electrical wiring from the florescent tubes in the garage to pull that unfit for living poo. She also chipped the sliding glass door in the master bedroom (Which we had JUST replaced prior to her move in)

She also got it into her bless'ed squirrel brain that my mom didn't actually own the house and repeatedly harassed my grandparents to sell her the house, to the point that my grandfather had a stroke.

She was evicted for the damage she caused, we did a photo walk through before she moved in which she signed off on.

Trying to sue her was impossible, as she had several different identities.

We never really recovered from that, and eventually had to sell the house at a major loss. Now we rent.


I just think if you sign a contract it should be binding. Six months should mean six months, not "As long as we feel like it." If I decided to skip out, I'd be liable, but if the owner does it, he isn't? That's fucky. Darth Vader deal making.

Title: Re: Lease question.
Post by: 6pairsofshoes on December 19, 2013, 07:51:20 PM
The rental laws are general for the state, but there are also municipal codes.   You should go to a tenants' rights organization and figure out what protections you have.  Here, the landlord can sell the place, but any extant contract with tenants survives the property transfer as it's considered an active contract that serves as a sort of lien against the property.  So the new owner has to honor the lease until it expires.  Sometimes they may want to do something with the property like condo convert.  Here, they often will pay you to leave and then they also have to pay relocation costs to a comparable place.

http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/ (http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/)

http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/catenant.pdf (http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/catenant.pdf)  See page 47. It says just what I suspected.  Your lease survives the sale.  You sign a 6 month lease, you get to stay for 6 months, even if the place is sold one month after you sign it.  Your landlord also has to make sure that your security deposit is reported to the new owner and you are guaranteed the refund, minus the damages, etc. at the termination of your lease.