Landlord didn't sign lease; is now suing

[SuperCat]

What is the name of your state? South Carolina

I got into a lease/purchase thing last year whereby I leased a mobile home for 7 months while I tried to qualify for financing. The purchase offer was written that the deal was contingent on me finding suitable financing. There was the purchase offer/agreement which everybody signed and then a lease covering the 7 months that only I signed. The seller/landlord didn't sign it at the time because he "wanted to get someone to look this thing over for him". It was a standard form lease I had downloaded off the internet.

Well he never did sign the thing and I asked him on two seperate occasions for a signed copy back and he never did produce it.

I could not qualify for financing (I have a bankruptcy that was 2 years old at that time) and every lender I talked to wanted at least 25% down (the place being a mobile home didn't help) and I couldn't come up with that. I delivered written notice to the seller/landlord 40 days prior to the expiration of the lease (September 30) that I could not qualify for financing and would have to move out at the end of the lease term.

The guy became enraged. Badgered me at work to the point where my boss got really irritated with him and the situation. Then on September 30 when I went over to do my final clean-up after the move out he had already locked me out and changed the alarm code. My rent was paid THRU September 30 therefore he locked me out early. I always paid him on time and with good funds.

Now 7 months later he is suing me in summary court for "damages" to his property using the unsigned lease as an "exhibit". The copy he filed with the court is still unsigned on his part. It was like he wasn't going to sign the thing if it could be used against him but yet he wants to use it against me.

Can he use this as grounds to sue me if he never signed it?

 

[longneck]

based on your own post, he's not using the lease as "grounds", he's using it as evidence. concentrate on the damages he said you caused and the award he's looking for.

 

[SuperCat]

Oops, "evidence", sorry.But evidence of my intent to carry out a lease and not his? If he doesn't sign the thing and I keep asking for a signed copy and he won't produce, doesn't that say something about "dealing in good faith"?

He is claiming that I didn't make the place "habitable" and make proper repairs. The guy was a heavy smoker and the place absolutely reeked after 13 years of cigarette smoke. He said if that was a problem, then he would rip out the carpet and have the place painted. He ripped out all the carpet in this place and sold it to someone else. He had a painter come in and paint the walls and ceilings and he did not use a drop cloths and the linoleum that was left down in the kitchen and bathrooms was paint-splattered. The painter also took down all the mini-blinds and threw them in a heap out in the laundry room and most of them were so old and brittle that they shattered. The painter just left them there in a pile with no hardware. This was the painter contracted by the landlord.

So essentially when I moved in on March 1, I had a mobile home with no carpet, 13-year-old linoleum that was covered in paint spatters and cabinets that were caked with yellow nicotine. This was all noted on a move-in walk thru that we both initialed.

Over the course of the 7 months I lived there, I replaced most of the carpet and pad (the 2 back bedrooms were not done), retiled (ceramic tile) the kitchen, hung new mini-blinds, sanded and re-painted the kitchen cabinets, built over 400 foot of chain link fence to enclose the back yard and put out over $500 in new landscape plants. The house was always as clean as possible (given that some of the floors were still plywood) and the yard looked like a showplace (I am not exaggerating), I really took care of the place because I thought I could make it mine. The seller/landlord stopped off almost every weekend and told me how hard I was working and how good everything looked. I took the cabinet doors outside to paint them and he told me how great a difference it made.

He is suing me now saying that the carpet job was not complete and the cabinets and ceramic tile job are "amatuerish" (I had the tile job professionally done thru Home Depot), and the house was not "habitable". The seller/landlord would not do a walk-thru with me at the end of the lease, he even locked me out a day early so I couldn't do a final clean (I have proof that he hooked the alarm back up on the 29th, I was to be out by midnight on the 30th). I had a friend that went back with me to help clean on the 30th and we both stood outside as the alarms went off. I tried calling him and he wouldn't answer and/or return my calls that day.

Now he wants to use the lease he wouldn't sign as "evidence". Am I a nut for thinking that I was the only one who acted in good faith here?

I think he got ticked off because I couldn't go thru with the purchase and I initially wrote into the purchase agreement that the deal was contingent on me being able to find financing and when I couldn't he got livid. He couldn't get me on "breach of contract" because of the contingency clause and so he has decided to try to do it on "property damages".

 

[longneck]

why did you do all those repais and improvements?

 

[SuperCat]

I did all the improvements because the place wasn't habitable when I moved into it, I had to stay somewhere else until I could at least get it minimal. I didn't think I would have any problem getting it bought (financed) and so I continued to work on it toward that end.

Thanks for helping me and asking.

 

[longneck]

ok, here is what i got from your posts:

you got the mobile home with no carpeting, damaged linoleum and damaged cabinets. you partially carpted the home, had the linoleum replaced by a professions, and fixed the damaged cabinets. you also made other improvements.

now the LL is suing you for damages because you didn't carpet the entire place and he doesn't like the quality of the installation of the tile or the cabinet refinishing. (did i miss anything on the damages? don't infer or speculate here, just address what he is suing for.)

based on these facts, all you need to do is prove the following four things:
1) the home was uncarpeted when you moved in
2) the time job is a quality installation (have it inspected by a tile contractor other than the guy who installed it)
3) the cabinets were damaged when you moved in, and the improvements you made were of quality craftsmanship
3) you were under no obligation to do any of this (i.e., nothing in your lease or other WRITTEN agreements; if there were any verbal agreements, deny them)

the problem you may run in to is if the LL decides he simply doesn't like your improvements, the judge may decide he is entitled to bring the mobile home back to the same condition as when you rented it. in this case, that will probably be difficult to do, so provided the improvements you made were of sufficient quality, then that probably won't happen.

at this point, opinions from E and south and jetx and seniorjudge would be good.

 

[SuperCat]

That about covers it and I have kept all receipts for everything. There is also an addendum to this unsigned leased was a walk-thru checklist that everybody initialed on the day of move-in. It notes that the cabinets are nicotine-stained and yellow and need replacement or repainting, the floor has no carpeting, the linoleum is "dirty" and paint spattered, the mini-blinds are to be "thrown away" as the painter left no hardware to rehang with them and they are broken. All this is on the "walk-thru" checklist at the inititation of the lease. The wording of "tenant to make repairs as able" are by all of these notations. There wasn't any "degree of professionalism" dictated as to what level these repairs were to be done.

Then as I stated before the guy wouldn't do a walk-thru checklist with me and locked me out a day early so I couldn't do a final clean-up. Then seven months later, here he comes with his lawsuit based on a lease he would never sign and "damages" that the carpet was only partially done and the tile job was "amatuerish". I guess if a judge wanted to return the mobile home back to its move-in condition, that would be an interesting twist. The place was definitely better off and in much better shape than the day I moved in.

 

[ENASNI]

hmm

What I think is this is beyond real estate at this point and on to contracts. There are some great minds in that forum. I would re-post over there and post the properties of this thread on your new thread as a reference.

They may be able to help you. I am not saying someone like Seniorjudge or JETX might not venture over here, but the others that know contracts usually stay over there agoraphophbic or something...

Good luck!
If you need help in how to cut and paste just the properties of the thread, PM me and I will walk you thru it, but I am at work and you might have a delay... and pssst (don't tell my boss.. I NEED this job... okay... shhhh )

 

[longneck]

ok, sounds like you have a very good chance of winning against this guy. some points to keep you headed in the right direction:

There wasn't any "degree of professionalism" dictated as to what level these repairs were to be done.

doesn't matter. if you make repairs, you have an implied responsibility to do them well.

Then as I stated before the guy wouldn't do a walk-thru checklist with me and locked me out a day early so I couldn't do a final clean-up.

in this case, it doesn't matter. he's not claiming damages that a walk-through would have rectified.

Then seven months later, here he comes with his lawsuit based on a lease he would never sign and "damages" that the carpet was only partially done and the tile job was "amatuerish". I guess if a judge wanted to return the mobile home back to its move-in condition, that would be an interesting twist. The place was definitely better off and in much better shape than the day I moved in.

yes, this is all unfair. but, you need to stop looking at it from this angle. you only need to address each of the damages he says you caused. the inequity of the whole situation his little to nothing to do with the damages so forget about making that argument in court. just concentrate on poking holes in each of his damages claims.