getting sued

[T77911S]

oh yea. this should be fun. this should be on judge judy.

my wife has a scrapbooks store. we still had a year left on our space, but we wanted to move to a better/cheaper location. the agreement(verbal) was we had to have someone take over our lease. we did. but, it was someone in the same complex that wanted a bigger space. so there was no break in time for our space. we moved out in like nov, and he moved in in dec.
now the fun. the landlord had mentioned that he wanted us to take over the rent on the other space for the year we had left on our contract or until that space was rented. we made a point to never agree to this, we just kept moving along avoiding it. once the new tenant signed the lease for our old space, we had no more contact with the landlord.
then a few months ago he sends an email to us wanting the back rent on the tenants space the remainder of HIS lease (which we found out that space was only empty a month or 2 at the most) plus money for the electric, which was included in the rent, but he wanted more because he said the electric bill was hi. then he said we owed for sept, which we have a canceled check for and get this, a $3k late fee! for what! we never got a bill to be late for! he siad he would waive the late fee if we paid all the other stuff in 10 days. there were some other things in there but little stuff. i think the bill was for aroun 8-10k.

we have not been served yet and from what i understand this will go before a magistrate.
i am not worried about it, ok maybe 5%. i think a judge is going to laugh him right out of court with the claims he is making. as far as i am concerned, all contracts were broken the minute the new tenant signed for my space. i had lawyer send him a letter in response to his email. i really thought that would be the last of him.

to be continued.....same bat time, same bat channel


this must be the decade for lawyers for me, and its still early. not good.

[biosurfer1]

"the agreement(verbal)"

There is one of your biggest problems...get everything in writing

[pbs911]

Any agreement for an act that will not be completed within 1 year must be in writing otherwise it is parole evidence. Agreements must be in writing that relate to real property must be in writing to be enforceable.

If you have a lease I would bet the magistrate enforces the terms as written unless the landlord agrees to the oral modification of the terms.

Do you have the right to sublease under your written agreement with the landlord?

If you are sued you can always bring in the subleasee as a third party (but then again you most likely have to have a writing.)

Good luck.

[T77911S]

here are his claims.
he had to have the floors refinished.(they are wood). that cost $700. he kept our deposit of $1500 which more than covered the floor.

unpaid electric bill of $800
there was nothing in the contract about paying him for the electric, even though it is in his name.
the problem is there are 2 units, ours and another one, on one electric bill, so he paid it and it was "included" in the rent. at the end of the year, if he wanted more money he would send us a bill, although we never got to see actual receipts of what he paid. again. that 800 could come out of the deposit we never got back.

losses due to 15 months left on our rent.
we moved out in nov. new tenant moved in dec. no loss of money to him.

late fees of around $3k.
no itemized bill or breakdown of where these "late" fees come from. we never received any bill from him other than him wanting money, including the late fee.


we ran into the lady that worked at the place next to us. when their lease was up, they moved out. he kept their deposit and demanded more money for "other" things. i think he has a suit against them. this is just the basics and of course, there may be more to what we were told, but it seems like this is the norm with him.


this will go before a regular court, not a magistrate due to his claim of almost $10k.
the ex judge next door said it could take well over a year to go to court.

[HHI944]

Was the business incorporated in any way? In many states, if so, you will be forced to hire an attorney. He may be as well. The fact that he's suing another former tenant is irrelevant here, but the judge will be aware and human minds are open to bias....
Did the new tenant sign a lease with him or you? If with him, it should, by default, supersede your lease.

[Zeke]

The best action is a counter suit. In order to have a valid counter suit requires extensive knowledge of your state's real estate law and what he may have done in violation. You have time on your side.

In CA we have so many 30 day notices and whatnot that it makes your head spin. I read the real estate newspaper columns regularly and the only entity that is beyond reproach that I can see is owner "associations." The association boards that is.

Another abuse somewhat high on the list is the keeping of deposits. But here, the wording better be spot on or it won't fly. People who take pics when moving in and having a final walk through when moving out generally get their deposits back unless there is damage beyond normal use. Simply charging a "cleaning" cost when things are clean won't cut it.

Unfortunately, this is a civil matter in most cases.

[RWebb]

did your wife by any chance form a corp. of some type for the biz and the lease?

you will need to find out if a commercial lease means the tenant has to pay elec. according to your state's law

[Bill Douglas]

He may be bluffing.

[Moses]

Originally Posted by T77911S

as far as i am concerned, all contracts were broken the minute the new tenant signed for my space.

Except the "new" tenant is the landlords "old" tenant. He's still short a tenant and you broke the lease.

The "piling on" with the late fees and other charges are because you pissed him off. People will do that when you walk away from a commitment.

You walked out on a lease. Just have to do the math and write the check.

[RWebb]

not clear if she broke the lease

[T77911S]

does not matter where the tenant came from. we were told we needed to find someone to take over our space. we did. besides, the other guys lease was up in 3 months and he was leaving for a bigger space. the landlord told my wife she would have to sign ANOTHER lease for the remainder of OUR time for the lower rent of the other space. why not make the other guy find a tenant for HIS space instead of us taking it over?
he is just a sleaze ball.

late fees were there so he could "waive them" if we paid. pure intimidation


i dont think he will go thru with it. there is too big a chance HE could lose and this would cost him more money in the end. what he does not know is i AM willing to go to court to the end.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by T77911S

.......i dont think he will go thru with it. there is too big a chance HE could lose and this would cost him more money in the end. what he does not know is i AM willing to go to court to the end.

He has a written lease, and the most you have is a verbal agreement. You broke the lease, don't count on winning.

No one wins in court, been there a few times, and very often the legal fees far exceed the damages. Negotiate it out, and get it all in writing.

[pbs911]

Originally Posted by T77911S

here are his claims.

losses due to 15 months left on our rent.
we moved out in nov. new tenant moved in dec. no loss of money to him.

the ex judge next door said it could take well over a year to go to court.

In most states, if not all, he has an obligation to mitigate his damages. He can't just let the property sit empty without trying to rent it out.

About a year is right, if you are lucky. SC has a $10,000 circuit / superior court? I thought most places would be no less than $15k.

Also, is there an attorney fee provision in your lease? That is what I would be worried about as those fees will drive the litigation forward.

[pbs911]

Originally Posted by T77911S

what he does not know is i AM willing to go to court to the end.

I've heard this before . . . famous last words./ The last thing you want in a lawsuit is for it to be driven on an emotional/principle level. Remember the rents and like are business deductions at the end of the year.

Just a thought, but you did send the landlord a 1099, right?

[T77911S]

update:

still have not gone to court. BUT, i got a letter from my lawyer on friday that he sent to the other lawyer. here is the gist:

your client has been using the cam money to pay personal cable bill and water and sewer.
also several thousand dollars of repairs to personal property.
"cam"-this is money the tennents pay for upkeep of the local area.

i am not sure if i understand this next part:
the ****** shops, inc is owned by or is in the name of -(landlords name and wife).
i think this means that the shops are not really incorporated. i am not sure. if not, then my lawyer has made a mistake on who owns the shops because the lawsuit has his name as micky when his real name is emanuel and that is the name of the owner of the shops.

there was also some info that was not complete on the leases that he asked for but i dont know what that really means.

i still want to see the actual bills for the electric that we paid for but never got to see. only bills from him.

gonna call him today.

[sthzhen]

oh yea. this should be fun. this should be on judge judy.

[Rusty914s]

OP, you don't get to play musical chairs and you don't get to decide who goes where and when they get to do it.

I'd look to settle this out of court. Judge will go by the contractual agreement, get this..the one on paper.

Read below, guy knows what he's talking about.

Originally Posted by pbs911

Any agreement for an act that will not be completed within 1 year must be in writing otherwise it is parole evidence. Agreements must be in writing that relate to real property must be in writing to be enforceable.

If you have a lease I would bet the magistrate enforces the terms as written unless the landlord agrees to the oral modification of the terms.

Do you have the right to sublease under your written agreement with the landlord?

If you are sued you can always bring in the subleasee as a third party (but then again you most likely have to have a writing.)

Good luck.

[T77911S]

here is our counter suit. this is what we will file unless the case is dropped. short version first:

1 village shops inc, does not own the shopping center. (lease and lawsuit filed in that name).
makes contract void. the shopping center is in micky's name.

2 use of common area money to fund personal bills and property not related to the shopping center.

we suspected this years ago. we knew he was struggling with $$ and we kind of jokingly said "i bet he is using village shops to fund his other failing properties".
he had another large shopping center that was mostly empty. the bank ended up taking it from him but what i just learned is they gave him the village shops. perhaps as payoff for the rest of the $$ for the other center.


legal jargan:
plantif has allocted cartain expenses tothe defendant through common area maint expenses that are not related to the shopping center known as "village shops", which includes among other, plantifs princial persaonal utility expenses, expenses for another commercial property unrelated to the shopping center, repairs for properties upon belief, not in shopping center.

the plaintif village shops inc, upon information and belief, does not now own, nor has it ever owned the shopping center or the leased premises which are the subject hereof.
inasmuch as plaintif has no authority, real or implied, to act as landlord, the lease is void on its face and therefore unenforceable.


this still the short version. its 12 pages long.
the guy is a sleaze ball crook. we tried to do things the right way by getting an agreement in WRITING" with him but he would not put it in writing. so we had to go thru with what was verbally agreed upon and hope he stuck with it, but he did not. he wanted more.
we still have the light bills that we paid directly to him that he will not show the actual receipts for. i am certain he has over charged us and the 2 other people he has done this too.
i said earlier, one lady already took him to court over light bills. it never got far enough that the actual bills came up. he told the judge 2 different stories in the first 10 minutes and he ruled for the lady.

also in the counter claim is the statement that we moved out at the end of nov and someone else moved in dec 1st so there was no $$ lost to the landlord. that was the verbal agreemant. we had to have someone else move in, and we did that. there are some here that have bashed me for not honoring the contract. that would be true if micky had said "no you cant move out", but he did not. he agreed to it as long as we had someone to take over the space.


i want this to go to court. he has been screwing people for many many years and it needs to end. he has put us thru the ringer for the past year and half+.


i dont know if this would turn into a civil lawsuit since there would/could be so many businesses that could file a claim.

[gacook]

Trying to be helpful; not an ass.


I hope what you have shared in the post above is NOT a cut/paste from the document you're submitting because it is rife with misspelling, bad grammar, poor punctuation, etc, etc.

If it's just a "synopsis" that you typed up for us quickly; all good. But if that's what you're planning on submitting to the courts, PLEASE proofread it much more thoroughly!