I’m suing my landlord for breach of contract for about 7k the rent differential for new 1 yr lease in downgraded living conditions not even similar. He told me on move in day he had to breach the contract and never let me move in, I’ve had the lease reviewed there’s no clause relieving him of his contractual responsibilities in the event of a breach he pays damages. My damages being the rent differential a lesser place. I would handle this in small claims court but the max is 3k my suit being for more then that I’ll need an attorney once I have my new lease in place.

So If I’m suing for 7k, would it be 7k plus attorney fees and they don’t take a chunk of my settlement? Or would that 7k include my attorneys fees and they get 1/3 like usual court awards? I know I’ve heard if I win my landlord would have to pay my attorney fees on top of my award or is it built in?
Just to understand my logic, I had a lease in place for a 2br 2bath luxury condo. 1500+ sq ft granite countertops in kitchen and bathroom. All of this for 600 a month Utilities included! This place could have been rented out easily for 1500+ a month. My landlords reasoning for going so cheap was he was moving out of state and didn’t want loose ends. On my move in day with no prior notice he says he has to void the lease because he never got approval from his mortgage company to make his primary residence a rental property. My signed lease was in place for 3 months before move in and he was aware of the situation before signing. He never told me any of this until move in day because he says he was optimistic he could get it resolved. Come move in day he says he couldn’t get it resolved and never made it aware me moving in was contingent on getting his mortgage companies approval to make his primary residence a rental property other then my move in day.
So basically, even to downgrade to a 1br it’s going to cost me about 850 plus utilities. That’s minimally 400 more a month then I would have been paying if the contract had never been breached. To find similar living conditions in my breached lease I would be looking in the 1500+ per month range. Him giving me such a deal and living expectation is coming back to bite him in the arse because I’m entitled to find similar living conditions, in this case similar living conditions cost well over 1,500 per month plus utilities.
Also he’s had my 1st month rent and security for 3 months still haven’t recived them back yet… so even though I didn’t move in… him signing the lease and taking my money, there’s no way for him to get off the hook.
Sure all leases can be broken, broken and you pay damages given it was after the 30 day clause. In my case notice being given on my move in day in an email lol not even through mail… he sends me an email on move in day with my stuff pretty much on his door step.
It wasn’t a scam, he’s a business man and was negligent on informing me on any of this or voiding the lease when time permitted.

He’s lawyered up because he knows he’s wrong and I know for a fact if I take this to small claims he’s brining his hi priced lawyer which he’s not even paying for. While I have the law on my side I feel his lawyers will be more prepared to throw out statutory/case law.
“Or the place was near foreclosure and he was looking for an easy few bucks to tide him over”

That is a possible outcome, but I think he has money. If a lawyer took this wouldn’t I just have to pay for the initial consult then everything after would be included in the award? Not sure why you think it would cost 7k alone in lawyers fees that seems inflated.
I was aware the house was in pre-foreclosure when signed but he assured me it was in the process of being removed because of some modification he was going threw. I told him since I’m in NJ I’m fine with this because I knew my lease was binding regardless of the circumstances in the event he did not give me 30 days notice. Foreclosure was a concern of mine but I called the county sheriffs office and confirmed the ownership was not changing. On my move in day I found out the foreclosure wasn’t the root of my worries, it was him getting approval from his mortgage company. I was not made aware that my move in situation was contingent on getting his mortgage companies approval until my move in day… as I understand that’s my landlords only defense and he has no way to prove that nor written or verbally was that expressed.
My logic for staying with the lease was I knew my lease was binding regardless of the circumstances. I’m in NJ and even if a foreclosure happens the lease is binding so I would still get to move in. So I was fine if foreclosure happened, but on my move in day I found out it had nothing to do with foreclosure but the contingency of him getitng approval to make his primary residence a rental property which never happened.
His logic for not letting me move in was, if he did and the mortgage company found out… he would have to evict me. Since I have a lease in place he couldn’t legally evict me without reason so he would default on his mortgage and lose the house. He admitted he was wrong but basically my interests were lower on the ladder of losing his house. All of this being told to me on move in day no prior notice.

Hello, I hope someone can help. My landlady phoned my husband and I back in July and told us to stop paying rent since she was no longer making payments. Over the next few months we discussed buying the house from her. Then in November she phoned and told us to start paying rent again,which we did immediately. We started applying for a loan and put an offer in a few weeks ago. She was on board with all of this. Then four days ago we found a form taped to our door to “Pay rent or Quit”. We immediately phoned her to ask what was up. She stated she needed to tell the bank why she could not make her payments and was basically using us to do it. She then told us to pay her $8000 or be evicted. We have not had a lease since last July. I explained to her that she told “us” not to pay rent. She then stated she had many debts to pay off and it was too bad for us. We already pay $2200 in rent plus her homeowners dues every month. I told her we had a verbally agreement which was also binding. Then this evening our doorbell rang and we were served eviction papers. Please does anyone know what we can do from here. Thanks so much!!
My written lease ended last July. I started paying the rent to the landlord,not the bank. I applied for a pre-approval loan at a different bank. I have written correspondence from the landlord telling us not to pay rent. Thanks to everyone who is helping me.

I Have been living in my apartment for over 18 years, landlord came and offered me money to move, I decline, went to court won my case the landlord is still trying to evict me, is this legal, I read that the owners can sue you 12 times a year, I don’t have money for an attorney, I went pro per, I can not keep paying filing fees, the owners are harrassing me to move, is this a legal ? not only myself but also my neighbor who also been living here for about 25 years, she also won her eviction case and now they are also taking here back to court.

I have lived her for 5 months now and I have always paid the rent on time. The month before last I noticed it was taking unusually long for the money to be drawn from my account like it usually is after I drop off the check. Next thing I know I have an eviction notice plastered on my door for not paying. I take it to the office immediately and tell them I don’t understand bc I specifically remember dropping this check off. I had been paid early in the month and remember thinking how great it was to pay the bill off early! So I show the manager I have a check missing from my book and that I have the money in my bank account. She has me rewrite a check and says she will “do her best to get the fine waved” um ok thanks.. Two months later I get another notice on my door saying I owe $60 for the late fee. I am not sure what to do about this now. I know I should not have to pay a fine bc the office lost my check but I cannot afford to lose my place over such a petty argument. The only form of proof I think I would have is my bank statement showing I did have the money in my account at the time. What is there that I can do to get this cleared up?