State Specific Question About: VIRGINIA (VA)

I offered a very low rent to someone by email. There is no lease signed. But I regreted it because he brought up his gf who may visit him for more than 14 days in a year. He told me he will find a lawyer becaue he is staying with friends and he told him he will move out soon. What should I do? I am new and this is the first time and am already in trouble of a suit.

Is this some screwey morality issue to you?

Do you intend to charge more for a second person if they are there? who pays the utilities?

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In general: Any LL who rents to a single person... especially a younger single person... MUST expect that they will have a social and sex life.

I'd rather that be conducted with one person (over far more than 14 nights in a year) that I know about than with a succession of strangers who won't interfere with the arbitrary 14 night limit.

Sorry. I am in a panic. Here is the story. I am tired of showing the only rental and stressed out. The TH has 1200 sq ft and 3 BR 2.5 BA, asking for $900 a month. This person is willing to rent a room for $570 with a cat and refuses to have a roomate. I said yes in email he can have the place and told him to meet to sign a lease. He then told me about his gf. To tell the truth, I had more calls for $900 afterwards and regreted that I offered him the rental for $570. So I told him that I can not rent to him. He is now telling me he will secure a legal advice if we can not be in agreement.

I have his application, there is no application fee or deposite (he crossed it out); this is all before I offered him. There is no lease. I did say "When is good time to sit down for the lease? Either after work or I have Th morning available."

He says " I do not want to do this, but if we cannot come to an agreement I will secure legal advice. I believe that you agreed, in writing, to lease the unit per the terms of the rental application. I informed my friends that I would be moving out yesterday (the first of September as per the rental agreement). They are demanding rent payment from me for the month of September now that I have not moved out. You can see the predicament you have placed me in and as I said I will pursue all legal avenues for a fair resolution. Please get back to me ASAP. Like I said I do not want to do this, I believe that in the end we can come to an agreement as you seem to be a fair and reasonable person. If I do not sign a lease with you soon I will have to move to a hotel or pay rent to my friends. In this case you may be liable for these payments as you have an obligation to rent me your unit as of yesterday.

Again, please get back to me ASAP, this is causing me incredible undue stress. I had called my parents and told them I would be renting a place and they planned on coming this afternoon to help me move. Now I have to call them and have them not come until we can sort this out. If I can sign a lease tonight I need to know so I can have them still come to help me move. Please do the fair and right thing and meet with me this evening to sign a lease."

Thank you for helping me.

There is no deposit. There is no lease. He does not have the keys. He is not your tenant. YOu do not have to rent to him.

Hong, I think you are panicking because you think you have an oral contract. However, under Virginia law, a contract may not be enforceable if you do not meet all three of the criteria required.

1.Mutual consent – You both agree on what the contract covers - (you are renting a TH and he wants a room).

2.Mutual consideration – Something of value must be exchange (deposit), he did not pay it.

3.Offer and acceptance – Contract is accepted without a counter offer (he added girlfriend).

Like everyone else said, you need to do this the right way. If you are going to continue renting, you have a lot to learn, and hopefully through other peoples mistakes, otherwise hire someone who knows what they are doing. Read the VA laws.

www.business.com/directory/law/state_law/virginia/practice_areas/commercial_law/contract_law/

Good Luck and don’t let him pressure you into anything, I think he knows you are new.

Didn't I warn you a few months ago about letting tenants know your new. They smell new LL and feed off their fears. You must reak of newness.

The lawyer threat is nothing to worry about. You will get used to it. I can't tell you how many times that threat was used against me when I was new. Leading to my theory that new LL can be smelled by tenants. I haven't had that threat in a few years now.

I think Theresa (TX) summed it up nicely.

There is a lot of bad information on this thread.

In my opinion, there could be an oral contract, with a written memoranudum signed by Hong, which might satisfy the statute of frauds (the legal doctrine that says that various contracts must be in writing to be enforcable -- nothing to do with fraud).

However, there is most likely only an agreement to agree. If your email to the tenant specifically said "let's get together to sign the lease" and you never had shown the lease to the tenant, I think this is a strong argument. After all, what are the terms of the "contract" between the parties, if the lease has never been reviewed and agreed to? All sorts of provisions that we put in our leases, these two have probably never discussed.

Looking at Theresa's post (not meaning to pick on you, Theresa, but your post at least tried to address the law):

"1.Mutual consent – You both agree on what the contract covers - (you are renting a TH and he wants a room)." I don't know where this "he wants a room" came from. They both agreed that T would rent the townhouse for $570 per month. This is PROBABLY recited in the email from Hong.

"2.Mutual consideration – Something of value must be exchange (deposit), he did not pay it." No, No, No. In an executory bilateral contract, each party's promise is the consideration. Hong promised to rent the townhouse to the T, and Tenant promised to rent the townhouse from the LL. No money (or other tangible property) needs to be paid. Mutual promises are enought.

"3.Offer and acceptance – Contract is accepted without a counter offer (he added girlfriend)." It is very unlikely that Hong stated in the parties' negotiations "you are not allowed overnight guests." PROBABLY T has not added the girlfriend as a variance of the terms of the contract offer (that is, as a counter-offer). T simply disclosed that he had a gf who would be visiting.

Hong, I think from this you can see how important the nuances are. You need to meet with a local real estate attorney to discuss in detail the facts.

As I said above, it is most likely that you did not enter into a contract, but simply an agreement to agree. You might want to get the most onerous lease you can put together and present it to the T on a "take it or leave it" basis. If he wants to change even one word of the proposed leqase, you say "No." But if he accepts the lease as you propose it, you are stuck.

Consult with a local real estate attorney.

I can't imagine an attorney that would take the kid's case.

He wants to rent a room w/cat but will NOT allow roomates. Then he says his gal will be there sometimes (roomate). He changed his deal.

Mike - I don't mind be corrected if/when I am wrong, and I won't knowingly give out incorrect information. Even though I agree with what you said, I didn't see the fraud aspect in it until you posted, I was focused more on contract or no contract. Thanks for that slant and the corrections.

Hong posted twice here. In his second post he wrote, "This person is willing to rent a room for $570 with a cat and refuses to have a roomate". That is where the room vs. TH came in.

[Hong] "I said yes in email he can have the place and told him to meet to sign a lease. He then told me about his gf". To me he is changing the verbal contract - you would need to read both of Hong's posts.

That aside I think we all agree Hong needs help, the sooner the better.

Theresa

He is bluffing you.

Is he really going pay an expensive lawyer to sue you over this? What damages can he possibly claim? He has given you no money.

Mike is correct.

Please tell me you did not agree to rent a room to a guy (with a cat -are you kidding?) from whom you have not received a WRITTEN application with a signature allowing you to check credit and screen him?

If you did, don't ever do that again! You don't even know this guy. He could be an ax murderer or a molester if you didn't screen him.

Further, he is threatening you. You don't rent to people who threaten you. You also don't rent to people that you have not screened, and your agreement to get together to go over the Lease INCLUDED the written application you will need, right?

That's what I'd tell him anyway. You cannot rent to him because 1) you have not collected the application and the application fee that he CROSSED OUT on his own volition, and 2) you do not rent to individuals who threaten you prior to even taking residency.

His argument that he is depending on you to let him move out because he told his friends (legal term is "reliance")is irrelevant. He has suffered no damage, which is an integral part of the reliance argument, as I recall. He is not sitting in front of your rental with a signed Lease Agreement and a truck full of furniture.

Hong's second post is confusing. Although he is looking to rent a 3 bedroom townhouse, he said that "This person is willing to rent a room for $570 with a cat and refuses to have a roomate."

From that, I inferred that teh guy really is renting the whole townhouse. Otherwise, shared quarters means having a roommate.

"I said yes in email he can have the place and told him to meet to sign a lease. He then told me about his gf."

Hong said that AFTER the applicant refused to pay a deposit -- by scratching this provision off on the rental application -- and AFTER Hong knew about the cat, Hong accepted him in an email.

So the cat is not grounds to deny this guy.

Agreement (aka, meeting of the minds)? MAYBE. MAYBE NOT. VEry likely, there was no present intent to form a contract, just an agreement to form a contract. AFter all, Hong said "Let's set up a meeting to sign the lease." So Hong clearly announced that the verbal agreement as confirmed by his email was NOT the actual agreement, that the parties still needed to sit down and enter into a written lease agreement.

And Nancy, if Tenant burned bridges in reliance on Hong's email saying "your offer is accepted," that might consitute detrimental reliance for equitable estoppel purposes. For example, if Tenant told his friend Tenant was moving out, and the friend lined up a new roommate to replace Tenant and is now forcing Tenant to move out. But this is not an estoppel case (for which reliance is an element). It is a question as to whether there is in fact a contract under these circumstances.

I think Hong is really a Bar Exam Examiner, trying out a sample Bar Exam Question on us all. So complicated, and so many issues to explore!

Thank you all to rescue me.

Let me clarify:

I knew he has a cat, I did received his application and called references which are all good. What if I did say to rent him townhouse, and then changed my mind? I allowed no application fee. I sent him a blank lease for him to read, then he told me of gf. Then I said "no." There is no money paid and nothing on the lease.

Hong-- i've seen this kind of stress level before-- get out of this business or do your home work-- you got me stressed just reading your stressed out email.

The VA law I read on this site reads:

§ 55-248.8. Effect of unsigned or undelivered rental agreement.

If the landlord does not sign and deliver a written rental agreement signed and delivered to him by the tenant, acceptance of rent without reservation by the landlord gives the rental agreement the same effect as if it had been signed and delivered by the landlord. If the tenant does not sign and deliver a written rental agreement signed and delivered to him by the landlord, acceptance of possession or payment of rent without reservation gives the rental agreement the same effect as if it had been signed and delivered by the tenant. If a rental agreement, given effect by the operation of this section, provides for a term longer than one year, it is effective for only one year.

Can someone tell me what it means? Does it mean, in my case, I will lose the law suit if he sues me?

It means that if you accept rent then you are implying that you agree with the lease terms even if unsigned.

Likewise, if the tenant accepts possession and pays rent, they are implying that they agree with the lease terms even if unsigned.

The landlord provides the lease agreement and delivers it to the tenant to sign.

Nothing has been signed. And no rent has been accepted.

Breathe deeply, then take a hot and cold shower after going for a quick jog or run.

Listen to Wallace, she is very experienced and a professional PM. Where will we end up when we allow applicants to "cross out" parts of our leases?!?

I might try that next time with my bank! Or in escrow, when it comes to escrow fees.

Your applicant is nasty - avoid him like the plague. by messing up the one and only lease he just blew it.

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Move on, rent the place for $ 900 and ignore this nutter!!

This site is great. All of you are great jumping right in when I am having an emergency. I have learned from this that I need a PM. I just want to be cleared now from a potential law suit.

You should talk to an attorney in VA. But pending your legal expert's advice, here are some comments:

RR is right about the statue you quoted. Since he has not paid rent, it doesn't mean anything in your case.

You sent him an unsigned lease. He did not sign it and he has not paid you the money that the lease demands. So you do not have a lease agreement in effect.

RR asked you "Let's say you end up in court, and do lose. What exactly will you lose?" You said "I will pay his losses, legal fee, and may have to rent to him"

But RR's point was that he has no losses.

In the United States, almost every state has a rule (called the American Rule) that the loser does not pay the winner's attorneys fees (unless pursuant to a written contract which contains an attorneys fee provision or puruant to a special statute). You don't have a written contract with an attorneys' fee provision --the lease was never signed!

The worst thing is that you will have to rent to him. But if you run away from a possible fight and cave in, you will be renting to him out of cowardice. The worst thing is you will have to rent to him. O.K., so what is the big deal?

Calm down and tell him "Sorry, but I will not rent to you." Do you think he is going to spend money trying to sue you, or is he bluffing?

But seek legal advice first.

I am somewhat confused by your replies Hong but I would not even think twice about backing out of this "train wreck!!" First of all, I don't see how there is a "contract" verbal or written as there was never a lease or deposit collected and it will be your word against his. If he did not tell you about the girlfriend then that would be enough for me to tell the guy NO THANKS as he did not disclose this up front and in my opinion, that changes the original agreement. Also, what would he sue you for?? What is his loss? If he was stupid enough to give notice to his landlord without first securing a new lease....well that is his problem....my opinion.

An off the wall question. Does your Town House association require that they approve your Tenant? Might be a out of this mess you could use.

Personally I wouldn't bat an eye at telling this demanding "applicant". I won't be renting the town house to you or any part of it. Good bye.

Hong, we were all new at one time. You've made a few mistakes, but they are hopefully not financially damaging to you. To go along with the idea of consulting an RE attorney, check to see if there is a local LL association that can help you to find the right one - or tell you definitively if you need to do more than simply decline to sign a lease.