Lawyers, please step in (long), someone in need

lRageATMl

Senior member
Jun 19, 2002
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about a month ago me and a couple friends began to look for a place to live (our current place is subsidized by our campus hence you have to be fulltime student, fall and spring, and a couple of us graduated from school and a couple of us still have a semester left so we can;t live in our current place and have to move out by the end of this month).

we were starting to go crazy looking for a place, this past weekend, we found a place in Rockville (I'm from Maryland). We went to this place 3 differnet times. Our relator was century 21, the owners relator was a private relator. The three times we went to the apartment the owner was there. We talked to him about several of things and made verbal contracts (shook my hand, both of my friends, and various other friends who came with us on the three trips, along with both of one of my friends parents, co-signers) saying that we had nothing to worry about becasue the place was ours.

so yesterday we were finalizing the lease, his relator was present, everyone who as on the lease was present, and the security deposit (one months rent) and the first month rent was given to the owners relator. we worked out the kinks in the lease so everyone would be happy and we signed the lease. Since the owner works, he said he would sign the lease that night.

at this point I went ahead and bought a bed and a few other things necessary to live in this place so I wouldn't have to sleep on the floor. yesterday, one of my friends went back to the apartment to make some measurements becasue he was going to buy some furniture for his room. he went into the apartment and there was other people looking at it. The owner again was there and said not worry about it becasue the place was ours.

Then around 9pm we call the owners relator to see if the lease was signed, and the relator firts didnt' answer his phone until about 9:45 (3rd call). Centruy 21 talked to him, he said he wouldn't sign the lease now becasue we were making too many demands (BS). He said he wanted to wait until today or tommorow to see if he can sell the place first. So now we're stuck in limbo not knowing if we have a place and we have to move out of our current place on week from today.

my question is, is a verbal contract binding in this case? It wasn't on one occasion that he made this agreement, he made this agreement on 3 seperate occasions with many different people (in our group).

Just to add one more thing, one of my roomates is from new york and won't have anywhere to go but to new york if we don't find a place, another friend, his parents live in Japan so moving home isn't a real option espically since he still has a semester left in school here in college park.

Anyone know? Can we get anything out of this or is it a pointless thing to do? I'm pretty sure it won't be a problem to get our security deposit back and first months rent. but we want more, not money, but we want to know if we can get the courts to bsaically make him give us the apartment for rent due to the verbal contract.

sorry this was kind of long...

-:|
 

RKS

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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***I AM NOT A LAWYER, THIS SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED LEGITIMATE LEGAL ADVISE***

Maybe you had a legal agreement to agree as witnessed by the oral committments but it seems that the owner revoked the offer by showing the apartment to other people and even telling you that he had decided to try to sell it first.
If you had made significant changes to the apartment you may be due that amount of consideration. At the most, if you decided to go to court, you may get the difference in rent between this apartment and a comparable one. You should consult an attorney in your state, however.

***I AM NOT A LAWYER, THIS SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED LEGITIMATE LEGAL ADVISE***

 

cavingjan

Golden Member
Nov 15, 1999
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I'm also not a lawyer but do work in the area and I know how whacked that county is. I would simply suggest looking for a new place. To go through the courts (whether its possible or not) would take a lot longer than the month that you have. Correction: the week that you have left.
Another quick question: is this a year lease or a 6 month lease? It appears to me that what you really need is a six month lease. You could ask the guy about that even if someone is buying the house. The first cople months would be renting from him and then the last month or so would be renting from the new owners.