Summoned to small claimes by landlord!!

[CollegeChickNY]

dear message board--it would be great if someone could respond!!!

Last semester my boyfriend and I decided we would move off campus and pay our rent with the refund check that we would recieve from our college--through our loans. We found a place that seemed to be "ok"---renting our own room and then sharing common rooms with the others in the house so we moved in. We signed a lease agreement for the semester and paid upfront and in FULL. (We both had our own lease). We decided at the end of the semester that we would rent the rooms week-to-week because we would stay at school to work. We agreed on a week-toweek rent with our landlord and asked him if we could leave our stuff there over a two week period so we could go home for christmas. He was going to charge us for storage but then decided not to since my bf always shoveled and did things without charge. When we got back the second week in January we found out from our financial office of our college that our refund checks would be smaller than estimated. We then realized we could not afford to re-new our lease agreement there and had to find some place cheaper. (Which to me wasnt a bad idea I was the only female now left in the house and had many uncomfortable encounters with barely clothed men and the bathroom)...We found a place on the 12th of January and looked at it on the 15th and decided to take it on the 16th. We were suppose to renew our lease on the 18th. We moved out on the 16th and our landlord was very angry making the process almost unbareable (screaming calling names, slamming doors, even called my mom names and harrassed my bf at his work place). Now the problem--my bf so far is being summoned to court bc our ex landlord claimes he owes him over 1700.00 bc of damages (we have pictures there were no damages) bc of cleaning due to insufficient notice of moving...and storage for those two weeks we agreed he wouldnt charge us for...and for the rent of jan 18th to may 20th. The strange thing is I havent gotten sued in small claimes yet...probably will get my letter in the next week. My question is ...

IS THIS FAIR? We never formally agreed to anything with that lease---like price (which now we see he so happened to raise). He asked us in passing if we were coming back---he said "yeah" bc we thought he mean to school---we werent dropping out so we said "yeah". Can he sue for this?? He also never gave us our security back.
Isn't there something anywhere that gives someone in an oral agreement a way out before the action is suppose to take place?? I mean things happen in life---like a smaller check from college!!!
Plz respond!! Thanks--Scared College Student in NY

[ChrisG]

the first thing is to check what you have in writing with the LL. did you sign something concerning the week-to-week tenancy, or was that just a verbal agreement? what it should come down to is, if you don't have anything in writing that covers the time when you left, the LL can't do anything past keeping your deposit. does he have any proof about the supposed damage to the place? he certainly can't cite having to clean the apartment as grounds for taking you to court.

if you had a signed lease covering this period, you are supposed to abide by it, but it sounds like you have nothing written so it would be very difficult for the LL to prove you did something wrong.

[CollegeChickNY]

The week-to-week was a verbal agreement.
BUT...he did make us sign this paper that he typed up really fast before left and it states as follows---

on this date january 16th I have terminated my tentancy at (the address)at 12:00am January 17th. that I have been dwelling in from august 18th-Jan.16th.
~We asked him what it was for and why he was making us sign to move out and he said to show that you arent living here anymore...so we signed it.

This is the only thing that we have in writing for that period other than that everything was an oral agreement---does this have a chance to go through in court???!!!

New information~~~I havent recieved a summones to court for him to sue me for the amount since I did move out with my bf I figure he would sue me for my part of the rent too---My bf told me that he past the apartment the other day and my old room had plants in the window and he thinks that someone has rented it and thats why he isnt sueing me---but only sueing my bf bc he hasnt found anyone to rent out that room too for this semester---is this fair??? is it our problem he hasnt found someone?? he even made my bf put up flyers to help him look for a new tenant bc he said it was OUR responsibility!!~~~this is so stressfull and getting in the way of my college work!! GRR!!

Thanks for your reply though---it has made me feel a little better

[ChrisG]

okay, so he made you sign a paper saying you no longer lived there after jan 17th, but he's trying to get rent for the period of jan 18-may 20? why would he have you sign something that will only help prove you don't live there or have any agreement with him? i definitely don't think the LL thought things through. he doesnt' have any written evidence, so proving that you broke a lease is impossible. verbal agreements don't get far in court because they cannot be proven. it was up to your LL to provide adequate means of ensuring both parties lived up to the agreement. if he wanted the risk of verbal agreements, one would assume he knows the consequences.

and without a written lease, the tenant is certainly under no responsibility to help the LL find new tenants. that's silly.

if this thing actually goes to court, i can't see how it wouldn't get thrown out immediately.