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What a crock of shit -- advice?


Gamedog
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This is related to a rental agreement my roommate and I made last night.

For about a month or so, he and I had been talking to a landlord about renting his house. The house needed some electrical/carpentry/plumbing work done on it, and so we made a deal with him that we'd do the work for him in exchange of first and last's rent. We write up an agreement, sign it, and start the work.
He had a main pipe in his house that had a crack in it -- roots were growing through and clogging it up. We sent a camera in, found the leak, and "jetted" the line to remove all of the roots. We didn't need to go out to the main in the middle of the road, but we decided to be nice because he was being cool. This procedure costs a couple hundred dollars alone, and we spent a few hours doing that.
Edit: We had additional plans to dig up the front yard and replace the section of cracked pipe. Due to the weather, we didn't have time to do this but we had the date set up. The landlord was paranoid about us not doing it ASAP, and having to wait until the ground wasn't sopping wet.
We talk to the landlord a bit about the house, and he's said that he found a cabinet maker/placer online and hired him to put cabinets in. He gave the man money up front and the guy took off with the cash, never to be seen again. He was starting to get a bit weird and was obviously concerned about being ripped off. We figured that because we'd already done the work on the front line, that it would be a show of trust between us that we weren't going to get ripped off. Little did we know, it wasn't him who was going to get ripped off.

We sign another contract and ask him where the second (our) copy is. He says he "didn't have time" to print a second one, and that "I'll get it to you on Saturday" (the day we move in). He asked for cheques in advance, and was quickly denied. We told him we'd give him cheques on the day we moved in.

We go inside and do more work in the kitchen and the basement. The garborator comes out and new sink pipes go in to replace the horrible hack job the last contractor did. We go into the basement and replace his electrical wiring, re-do his hot water pipes, and re-do the pipes to his laundry tubs. More work was to be done (such as replacing the hot water tank, which was old and leaking), but that's all the time we had on hand.

We finish.

He calls us up today and says he'd like to back out of the contract, and that we're not renting the house from him. We call him up and have him recorded on the phone admitting that he made a contract which we all signed, in agreement that the work done ahead of time would be payment for first and last's rent. He says he'd really just like the F&L rent "to feel secure", and we call him out for breach of contract.
We call up a lawyer and the tenant/landlord board, both of which tell us to go leave him letters asking him to either go through with the deal (move in on Nov 1) or pay the cash amount that we spent on work -- $2,500.

He won't give us his home address, and instead tries giving us the address to the house he was trying to rent out. We eventually find his correct address and drop the letter off while he's not home.

 

He hasn't called us back, and in the meantime we've been looking at other houses.
Has anyone else had to deal with something like this? What kind of outcome can we expect? /:

 

 

Edited by Gamedog
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He is in breach of contract.

Do you have proof of the work you did on the place? Receipts for all the equipment purchased and materials required? If so, perfect.

Before and after photos, photos of us actually working on the house, photos of him in the house with us, phone calls that were recorded, and receipts/bills for all supplies and services. We also have a witness friend who assisted us in the camera/pipe spraying.

Go to the courthouse, file in small claims court for breach of contract. Follow the directions on the filing forms given to you carefully. Have someone unrelated to the case (they have to sign paperwork of their own) serve notice of filing to the defendant via registered mail or home delivery, or have the Sheriff's office serve the notice.

Defendant doesn't show and is found in default. You win. Defendant shows, fails in defense (in most small claims cases, lawyers are not allowed, so it's you vs them.) You win.  Defendant shows, and for whatever reason the judge sides with him. You lose and pay court costs.

3 is incredibly highly unlikely. 1 and 2 are better shots.

We've asked him to go through with the contract or pay up and he's refusing to talk, so I really think that it's going to end up in court. We have him admitting on the phone what we agreed upon and that we signed a contract, so I think that this is a shut case already.

Let's say the Defendant loses, is ordered to pay, and doesn't pay.

You file in court notice of failure to pay, have the court find him in contempt. The judge will then have the choice of either ordering jail time for the defendant for failure to comply with court orders in a timely manner, or the judge can order punitive damages on top of what was ordered to be repaid. In case of the latter, if the defendant does not pay those, then you file again and the judge will most likely throw the defendant in jail for contempt. Some judges go the jail route immediately. The ultimate end-route of failure to pay is going to result in you having to file a lien on the house for the current total owed (original and court-ordered stuff combined, plus all your filing fees, and any other legal-related expenses you had to pay). A court will grant you this once you reach $5,000 (this is usually the cut-off for small-claims, where larger properties, like a house, may get a lien placed on them, check your jurisdictional laws regarding small claims limits.) 

I really don't want the guy to end up in jail because he's got a wife and three kids, but $2,500 is a lot of money to just run away with. My roommate has already brought up the idea of filing a lien on the house, but I wasn't sure of what that even meant.

You will then become the legal owner of that amount of that property until the Defendant can pay you back, either via money or by compensating you rent at a REDUCED rate from original contract, until the current lien is satisfied and brought into a zero balance. If he cannot show proof of good faith effort to make this happen within a reasonable amount of time, that property will permanently default to you, or the judge might even go ahead and give you the entirety of the property.

I'm a bit confused here, what do you mean by "that amount of that property" -- do you mean the amount (max $5,000 like you said) in rent costs? So, say.. 5-6 months rent?

That's the long-haul scenario and possibility. Odds are this guy will probably wise the fuck up once the court gets up his ass, and you'll be either sitting pretty with your money back or you'll be sitting in that house.

Do not let property owners fuck you over like that. They think they're smarter than you, prove them wrong.

I think (and hope) that this dude will get scared and just go through with the contract as agreed. The only issue from then on out is that he'll be on our ass about this and that, thinking of excuses to evict us. I know that it's difficult to evict a tenant, but it's just unnecessary stress.

However, I'd choose that over continuing my house search any day.

 

We're really fucking pissed that this dude thinks he can walk all over people like that. For someone who pissed and moaned about being ripped off by his cabinet guy, he sure doesn't seem to have a clean slate going into this already

 

Thank you for the advice!!! You sure know a lot about this stuff

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The downside to this is while you go after this dipstick, you're still out a place to live. I imagine he's counting on that as being too time consuming for you, leading you to drop the matter to focus on getting new digs. Although I didn't see anything in your OP that said you had a hard deadline to be out of current situation/into a new one. Hopefully that's the case and he's seriously misjudged potential distractions.

I'm all for go for the legal action anyway, shit like this deserves to have repercussions. I don't have anything to add on the attorney front, @6tails gave sound advice that covered pretty much everything.

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The downside to this is while you go after this dipstick, you're still out a place to live. I imagine he's counting on that as being too time consuming for you, leading you to drop the matter to focus on getting new digs. Although I didn't see anything in your OP that said you had a hard deadline to be out of current situation/into a new one. Hopefully that's the case and he's seriously misjudged potential distractions.

I'm all for go for the legal action anyway, shit like this deserves to have repercussions. I don't have anything to add on the attorney front, @6tails gave sound advice that covered pretty much everything.

I absolutely believe that's what he's betting on. We went and looked at another house today. We have an appointment to look at one tomorrow afternoon as well as tomorrow night, so there are three prospective houses on the table.

My roommate and I did a little digging today and found out that his lawyer is actually his wife. I asked if this might be considered "conflict of interest", because she was directly involved with the negotiations. The funniest thing is, her email reads like an ignorant bully trying to flex on us and defend her husband, but she doesn't know that we know that she's his lawyer. He called her up for every tiny little change or suggestion while we were working on the house, so she knows EVERYTHING that we did on that house.

We got him recorded on the phone agreeing that the work inside was in combination with the outside work (weather permitting), and also caught him saying that he'd pay the bill (which he was NOT happy with).

I think he and his wife are bullshitting and trying to imply that the work had to be done on the 1st -- nowhere in our contract did we write down a set date. In the email, his wife says that she says that he "doesn't believe we were doing enough work", despite us being there day after day working on this crap and snaking his drains. He contacted her for all of this, and she allowed him to go through with our deal.

 

Our recorded phone call has screwed him, I think.

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I don't really understand what you expect from this thread.  You already contacted a lawyer, who will have better advice than anyone else can here.  I mean, really, you threaten to sue till he caves, or he doesn't cave and you sue, or you cave and nothing happens.  That's the three possible endings here.

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There's more endings than that you unimaginative cluster of aphorisms.

OP could offer his love-cave to the landlord on a monthly basis in exchange for residency.

Or be too poor to pay for a lawyer so he kills the landlord in a fit of redneck rage.

i am not attracted to him so giving him my asshole wont work

besides, hes a total cuck to his wife. Hes probably a bottom

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Once my sister sold a car to some woman in her early twenties.

Whatever-her-name-was, after a month when she bought the car, poorly wrote an extra paragraph on the contract saying something. I don't know exactly what, but the just of it was: "If literally anything on the car breaks, the previous owner(My sister) has to pay for the damages."

So anyway, my sister did some shit to make the woman come to a court or something, but she didn't show up.

God knows if she'll come back-.-

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Once my sister sold a car to some woman in her early twenties.

Whatever-her-name-was, after a month when she bought the car, poorly wrote an extra paragraph on the contract saying something. I don't know exactly what, but the just of it was: "If literally anything on the car breaks, the previous owner(My sister) has to pay for the damages."

So anyway, my sister did some shit to make the woman come to a court or something, but she didn't show up.

God knows if she'll come back-.-

She could ahve got fucked if you persisted after she failed to appear

 

Now, I have more questions

We're going to attempt to contact the ex-tenant and see if this landlord has a history of doing this. We also realized that he (and his wife) are the only people with his last name within miles of this city, so it's pretty much guaranteed that his lawyer is his wife

that being said, she was involved with making the contract from the beginning, which would mean that she breached her own contract -- could she lose her license for this?

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It is happening and will continue to happen. 

Right now he is winning. Every day he wastes you time and does not pay you is a win for him.

He's not really "winning" right now because we're both getting lawyers involved. He doesn't know we're going with a lawyer, so I'm sure he assumes we're just gonna drop it. Lol

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He's not really "winning" right now because we're both getting lawyers involved. He doesn't know we're going with a lawyer, so I'm sure he assumes we're just gonna drop it. Lol

You're right, it's a tie, a draw... Except for the part where he got $2500 worth out of you while you have nothing to show for it and still need to shell out money for alternate living arrangements in the interim.

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His lawyer is a womans rights lawyer lmfao

Prepare to lose your license bitch

He violated the laws that landlords musf abide by -- its illegal to demand post dated cheques and to refuse housing to someone cause they wont give you some

He did both

Ill write updated post later from laptop

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His lawyer is a womans rights lawyer lmfao

Prepare to lose your license bitch

He violated the laws that landlords musf abide by -- its illegal to demand post dated cheques and to refuse housing to someone cause they wont give you some

He did both

Ill write updated post later from laptop

Dude. This will just waste your time and money. They will never pay up. That's it. 

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That's because whenever you call him he makes money off you. 

Your lawyer will tell you anything to get you to keep paying him.

So your genius advice is:

My lawyer (who has a very good track record) is a liar who is trying to snag money from me

All of my evidence will not win my case for me

My recordings of my landlord admitting that he agreed to the contract, signed the contract, and saying that he'd pay our bill won't win the case for me

 

I might as well just lay down and forget it ever happened

 

Okay thanks for genius advice

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So your genius advice is:

My lawyer (who has a very good track record) is a liar who is trying to snag money from me

All of my evidence will not win my case for me

My recordings of my landlord admitting that he agreed to the contract, signed the contract, and saying that he'd pay our bill won't win the case for me

 

I might as well just lay down and forget it ever happened

 

Okay thanks for genius advice

Yeah, because you'll pay more than you'll ever get back. 

All the guy has to do is close the company that owns the property and he'll never have to pay you a cent. 

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Given the situation, I doubt there's a company/LLC behind the rental. Therefore, there is likely no corporation to close down.

If there were, it takes naught but a simple filed motion or oral request to the judge to halt or reverse the corporation's dissolution while the current court proceedings are in session, as the property in question belongs to said entity and all disputes must be settled before a company can just dissolve like that.

And even then, dissolving the corporation would mean the property legally reverts to the owner (in this case the landlord) by default, and as the landlord is still the target of the suit, the property is still in jeopardy.

 

 

Nobody here gets it. Obviously none on you have ever seen this in real life before. 

There is what is supposed to happen and what really happens. 

97% of civil cases never make it to court. 

I encourage the OP to keep this thread updated as things happen. 

He will waste his time. His lawyer will make money. He will get nothing in the end but a large legal bill. 

These people will never pay a cent. 

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It doesn't hurt that I'm also well-versed in tenant/landlord cases, having fought multiple ones on my own in court without legal representation in Tennessee and California.

If I knew which state you are in, I could probably find more relevant things to bring up to your attorney.

One of them I imagine holding water in court being "Theft by deception."

I'm in Ontario. Here's a page I've been referring as well as your advice in this thread: http://www.ontariotenants.ca/law/tpa02.phtml

 

"Theft by deception" is something we will definitely bring up with the lawyer! Thank you!

 

The most important take away from this thread is that Clayton is an easy mark for scams.

I'm also an easy lay it seems because you won't get off my fucking cock. Seriously, go find a hobby or something. I've made it clear time and time again that your presence is not wanted by me.

Edited by Gamedog
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I'm glad I could help, you're welcome in advance.

ignoreashley.JPG

Hey man thanks but ignoring a user doesn't help stop them from slandering you across the site. In order to report and combat slander, you have to be able to see their posts, as insufferable as they are.

 

One's normal response to something they dislike is not to belittle themselves, but okay. O.o

Please do not slut-shame in my thread by implying that being sexually free and liberated is a negative trait,

 

thank you.

Edited by Gamedog
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I've done this multiple times. Even had a landlord try to frame me for crimes against his property.

97% of claims never make it to civil court because the landlord is usually in the wrong and on advice of a lawyer settles the fuck out, or in some cases, it gets before a commissioner or magistrate, and they look at the case, look at whom ever's acting as plaintiff, and goes "Do you really want to try this without a lawyer present?" and the plaintiff drops.

When it does make it into a court, they will pay. One way or another, payment and/or punishment is rendered. Jail time, being barred from owning and leasing out a property, property lien grants, punitive damages, etc. All it takes is pushing forward when you know you're right.

Just like I'm pushing right now for a person's probation to not expire until they've paid off their court-ordered restitution to me for hitting me while driving drunk, causing injury, and fleeing the scene. I'll know whether or not that motion is granted next week. He has so far not paid a single dime out of roughly $8K in ordered restitution. He hasn't made any good faith effort, so I'm pretty sure (and my attorney is sure as well) that motion will be granted.

See. You have not got paid any money either. 

Lots of hot air here. Nobody with an actual cheque from a deadbeat. 

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I'm in Ontario. Here's a page I've been referring as well as your advice in this thread: http://www.ontariotenants.ca/law/tpa02.phtml

So, has anyone else read the line "This law was repealed on January 31, 2007 and is no longer in use" at the top of this page?  It's at the top.  It's in red.  It even has this image right in the page after the red text.

newspaper-articles.gif

Why are you referring to repealed law?  The Ontario Tenant Protection Act has been replaced with the Residential Tenancies Act almost a decade ago.  Look, I'm no *suspender snap* big city lawyer, but if you are going to go around proclaiming impending legal victory and plans for the disbarment of a lawyer you should probably start by reading laws that are actually in effect.

Edited by AshleyAshes
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So, has anyone else read the line "This law was repealed on January 31, 2007 and is no longer in use" at the top of this page?  It's at the top.  It's in red.  It even has this image right in the page after the red text.

newspaper-articles.gif

Why are you referring to repealed law?  The Ontario Tenant Protection Act has been replaced with the Residential Tenancies Act almost a decade ago.  Look, I'm no *suspender snap* big city lawyer, but if you are going to go around proclaiming impending legal victory and plans for the disbarment of a lawyer you should probably start by reading laws that are actually in effect.

Here you go: http://www.sjto.gov.on.ca/ltb/faqs/

Website is down but that's the other one we had bookmarked

Now are you done? Don't you have something to do, like work or build model cars or something? Stop posting on my threads, stop posting to me, stop talking to me, stop replying to me.

Your years-on obsession with me is unsettling and I consider it harassment. Do you understand that word? Do I need to speak legalese? Get out, you're not wanted and neither is your condescending advice.

 

Bye :)

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So you can't even back up your claims, huh?
And I mean geez, you didn't even mention that LJ Snark Group post that was about you and had everyone groaning about you.  I mean, I really DID do that one.  But you just come up with some make believe about Weasyl?

tumblr_nx5201cRYE1rb4wfpo1_400.gif

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I mean I know interacting with Ashley is really unpleasant so it's easy to see why he's reacting so disproportionately.

Either way I have peered into the void and forseen this thread's dark future.

Hop to it mods, destiny awaits.

No. This thread belongs to me now. Pray to you degenerate mods. No one is gonna help you.

So you can't even back up your claims, huh?
And I mean geez, you didn't even mention that LJ Snark Group post that was about you and had everyone groaning about you.  I mean, I really DID do that one.  But you just come up with some make believe about Weasyl?

You are going about this all wrong. Let me teach you the moves that will win any man's heart. First you find out where he lives. Yeah? Then you key his car. It's pretty simple. When he comes out to fuck you up/yell at you... shit yourself and make cooing noises.  

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I mean I know interacting with Ashley is really unpleasant so it's easy to see why he's reacting so disproportionately.

Either way I have peered into the void and forseen this thread's dark future.

Hop to it mods, destiny awaits.

Well, really, what else could happen at this point?  If he goes through this with the Landlord Tenant Board it's, ehn, 3-6 months till it gets anywhere.  Obviously a lot longer if he goes through civil court.  The thread's main purpose of him pleading for suggestions on what to do, despite having already spoken to a lawyer.  Which is kinda odd, why was he then trying to cite the basic tenant laws as 'things to bring up with the lawyer', like, that's literally the most basic part of this conflict.  If you need to SUGGEST that to the lawyer, what kind of shit-balls lawyer did you hire?  So the thread has run it's course due to good old fashioned bureaucracy.

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Three things:

Clayton, it has been pointed out that the ignore feature exists for a reason and use it instead of continuously perpetuating derailment and further riling said user(s) up.

Ashley, just leave Clayton alone please. 

And get back on topic. There's no reason to turn this into a shit-posting thread. Want to shit post? Go to the black hole. Any further posts involving derailment will receive an infraction/warning.

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Three things:

Clayton, it has been pointed out that the ignore feature exists for a reason and use it instead of continuously perpetuating derailment and further riling said user(s) up.

Ashley, just leave Clayton alone please. 

And get back on topic. There's no reason to turn this into a shit-posting thread. Want to shit post? Go to the black hole. Any further posts involving derailment will receive an infraction/warning.

Thank you.

 

Time for me to sleep, will update tomorrow. talking to lawyer in morning. bye friends

Here is a picture for my departure:
tumblr_mz79rsolSO1qjnhqgo1_540.jpg

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