Unreasonable/crazy landlord question -- I accepted a job in a new city, and he's being VERY difficult.

August 2, 2008 3:45 PM

Here's my situation: I live in Washington, DC. I notified my landlord about a month ago that I was offered a job in another city, and would want to either assign my lease to someone new, or sublet. This is allowed with his consent. I have one roommate who wants to stay in the 2 bedroom condo we live in. We presented a prospective tenant to the landlord with a rental application, and now the landlord is accusing us of all sorts of things...

This May, we signed a new lease with the landlord. We haggled over the size of the rent increase, but finally came to an agreement.

One of the things we gave up at the end of the first lease was the parking space in the basement. There were some building security issues early on, so someone spray painted some stuff across several parking spaces including ours. When the landlord got the space back, we heard no complaints for several months (and he even started advertising the space for someone else to rent).

In July, I was offered and accepted a great job in a different city. I had no expectation that this job would ever materialize. I had been in talks about the job for over two years, and it was always a dream situation that might never work out. Of course, I wasn't going to put my life on hold in DC and not sign a new lease because of something that may never materialize.

Now that I'm leaving, and have found someone to replace me, our landlord has suddenly decided to blame us for the spray paint in the parking space, charging that we either vandalized it ourselves or failed to report it when we noticed it.

The landlord had the parking space for months, and said nothing about it to us since we handed it over, despite numerous opportunities / meetings. We honestly thought the spray paint had been in the space for as long as we had been there. In any case, I understand that under DC law, he had 45 days to make a claim against us (and use our security deposit) and he did not do that.

Also, there is this ridiculous blog that some people in the building authored that aired all the building's dirty laundry. Someone (perhaps the bloggers) spread rumors that we were behind the blog, but neither my roommate nor I were. An investigation was done, and it determined that the blog was run by a group of condo owners who were using it to push their own agenda. Of course, our landlord still used those rumors against us, and now that we've told him about the investigation, he's asking us what we've done to anger people so much that they would falsely accuse us. Talk about blaming the victim!

I'd appreciate any advice anyone has. The ideal situation is for the landlord to agree to accept the new tenant and have my current roommate stay behind.

Failing that, I'd like to have the lease broken and get our security deposit back.

I think the landlord wants us out and wants to put the condo back on the rental market for a lot more money. But of course he's not admitting that.

Should we get a lawyer? Should we break the lease? Has the landlord's outrageous behavior/accusations broken the lease?

What should we do?

(I know, what an awful, awful place this must be to live in.)

posted by BobbyVan to home & garden (10 comments total)

What exactly does the landlord want? I'm not seeing that in your post.
posted by amtho at 3:53 PM on August 2, 2008

I honestly have no idea -- that's part of the point of my question.

I think he may be trying to "build a case" against us / justify his decision to reject any future tenant, kick us out and keep our security deposit.

His behavior is so bizarre and inconsistent that it's impossible to divine his intentions.
posted by BobbyVan at 4:02 PM on August 2, 2008

I'm not trying to be unhelpful, but I don't think anyone here will really be able to help you until you figure out what exactly your landlord is trying to do. From your post, it doesn't sound like he has either accepted our out-and-out rejected your proposed offer of a new tenant. It seems bizarre to me that you don't know exactly what he's trying to do either.

Just talk to him or submit something in writing outlining your exact proposal, and keep hounding him on it until he gives you an answer one way or another. If he tries to change the subject, make it clear you're not there to talk about whatever horrible things you might or might not have done, you just want a straight answer about the roommate situation. That's really all the advice I can give in the current state this question is in.
posted by joshrholloway at 4:36 PM on August 2, 2008

I'm afraid that might be right.

This might not have been a question that was fully baked for AskMeFi. It's just a distressing situation and I'm trying to make sense of it.

Our landlord is traveling now, and taking his sweet time (as in it's already been a week since the last proposal) to get back to us.

In the meantime, we've seen all of these wild accusations fly our way...

Thanks for your help.
posted by BobbyVan at 4:50 PM on August 2, 2008

For what it's worth, you can suggest that the other tenants blamed you for the blog because you were the most unlikely to do it, in an attempt to take the spotlight as far away from the real people as possible.
posted by rhizome at 8:19 PM on August 2, 2008

Just call his bluff. He's apparently trying to confuse the issue for reasons of his own, but you don't have to play along. Send him a letter outlining the proposed tenant and your rights under the lease and insist that he perform or you will contact a housing attorney.
posted by dhartung at 11:23 PM on August 2, 2008

So the landlord can't legally charge you for anything re: the parking space. You could tell him, if he has evidence of who *was* responsible for vandalism in the building parking lot, he should take that evidence to law enforcement.

It seems like whatever annoying stuff he is doing is completely irrelevant to the issue in question: how to get a new tenant accepted on the lease.

**What does the lease specifically say about a tenant subletting?**
**Does it say he has to consent?**

That's the issue. Whatever else he is making a stink about, I say ignore it. Ignore it completely. Ignore the questions "what did you do to be accused of ___." I mean if he asks that, just look at him and wait. Say nothing for a bit.. and then say something getting back to the real issue: the sublet. That blog is double-extra-irrelevant, I mean, it's freedom of speech - who cares what it says, this is America.

If the lease says he has to consent, you may be stuck. If it does not say that, and in fact says that you are permitted to sublet, who cares if he's an ass, focus on finding your new tenant.
posted by citron at 12:22 AM on August 3, 2008

Also read DC tenant law re: breaking your lease, and read what your lease says about breaking your lease. Seriously, pay no attention to his mind games and "using stuff against you." The law does not care about that. But if he is trying to "build a case" to do something, please, know the law and know what your lease says, and document each thing he says to you - don't get emotionally upset about it, just document what he said and the date, and if there is a specific issue, document what information is relevant. For instance, the parking space - he is making a stink on this and that day, about the space, refer to clause A in the lease, in which he has 45 days to make a claim; note that he did not make a claim.

Anyway if there are rules in the lease about how to get a subletter, follow them to the letter and document everything to show that you did that, within the time frame required, and if you need to send him documents send by certified mail, the kind that requires he sign for it.
posted by citron at 12:31 AM on August 3, 2008

Thanks for the replies.

The lease does state that the landlord must consent to an assignment or sublease, but doesn't he have to be reasonable? I mean, if we picked someone with a checkered past or bad credit, that would be one thing. But we found a guy who is an employed professional and who makes 40x the monthly rent!

With all the false accusations and BS flying around, it's starting to become clear to me that the LL is acting in bad faith. Is that enough to get out of the lease?
posted by BobbyVan at 5:51 AM on August 3, 2008

I would suggest getting in touch with TENAC, the DC tenants' association. They'll probably have a better idea of what you should do next.

Good luck!
posted by orrnyereg at 9:46 AM on August 3, 2008