Landlord under-charging for rent

bruin

Near the end of each month my landlord mails an invoice stating how much we owe for rent, when it's due, potential penalties, etc. Standard stuff, usually. But this month there was an extra $100 tacked on for "New lease difference (last month+deposit)." I called asking what this was about, and he said it was to update those two payments we already made (last month and deposit) for our new lease which starts in September, since the rent will be going up $50/month. Thing is, in our new lease (which both copies do have signed copies of), our rent is supposed to increase by $125, not $50.

What do I do here? On one hand, I don't want to be like the kid in school that informs the teacher that he forgot to give the class homework, but on the other I don't want to get slammed with back-rent if my landlord realizes what's been going on in six months time.

Darkewolfe

IANAL IANAL IANAL IANAL

If I were you I would ask him to send you those terms in writing. Tell him you don't know where the lease is, and just want to have it in writing that the rent is going up $50 and as a result you owe him $100 to update those two things. Then you have a revision to the original contract with cheaper rent, right?

If you don't go with that plan, I'd wonder why you have to renegotiate the deposit and last month's rent when it's just an updated lease.

Dman

I don't really know what the laws are like where you are but I imagine if you've got a signed lease he'd be entitled to get back rent from you to make up the difference.

Edit: darkewolfe's idea seems ok

Wezoin

Honestly, I would ask him what its about. Maybe they dropped the rate, but if they did you'd want to get that in writing. Problem is this may end up with you being charged the extra, but its the only way to guarantee you aren't going to get hit with back-rent. The other option is to put the extra $75/month in a savings account for the year and if they try to charge you back rent then you have it ready to pay, but if they don't notice then you have a tidy sum of excess money to do with what you will.

localh77

Something just like this happened to me a couple years ago. The rent was supposed to go up $100, but the landlord never mentioned it so I just kept paying the same amount. When he finally noticed over a year later, he only asked for about half of the difference, which is probably what I would have offered, anyway.

So what I would do is what Wezoin said, and keep the extra $75 is a savings account that you won't touch in case he ever asks for it. I guess you could try to get the new contract in writing, but personally I wouldn't want to do anything to increase the chance of him going back and looking at the original contract.

Phisti

If your last month's rent has been cashed technically your landlord should be either

A) Giving you the interest on that sum, or
using that interest to cover over-time rent increases such that your last month's rent is effectively gaining in value.

I'd question him automatically increasing your last month's rent in line with a new lease if he isn't doing either of the above.

Thanatos

This will entirely depend on what state you're in.

In Washington, I don't think he gets to do that.

tsmvengy

Get him to send you a copy of the new lease that says what your rent is for the new period.

As for him increasing the deposit or your last month's rent, I find that weird. As long-term tenants you'd think he'd be giving you the benefit of the doubt on that $50.

defreak

The lease you signed says $125 increase, so it should be $125. Either the landlord made a mistake or the new increase is really $50. Notify the landlord right away and get it cleared up.

I know no one wants to be the kid in school that informs the teacher that he forgot to give the class homework, but it's the right thing to do.

VisionOfClarity

tsmvengy wrote: »

Get him to send you a copy of the new lease that says what your rent is for the new period.

As for him increasing the deposit or your last month's rent, I find that weird. As long-term tenants you'd think he'd be giving you the benefit of the doubt on that $50.

This is standard practice.

Blake T

Yeah just send him an email saying thanks for the notice and mention just to make things easy to track in terms of paper work would he please send a new lease agreement (or even a signed and dated letter letter would probably be enough) saying that the new rental amount will be XXX from the X/X/09 to the X/X/XX.

That way if he does finally realise his mistake you can whip this out and say that you have a new agreement.

Reverend_Chaos

I am relatively certain that he can't up your last month, and deposit based on a rent increase... Sounds shady to me

As far as the $50 vs $125 I would ask for something in writing (signed of course) for those ammounts based on the fact that the rent is going up that ammount. You now have a revision to you lease with a smaller increase.

I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that if you put something like "August 09 rent at such and such address paid in full" would protect you from a situation where they come back and say that you owe more money - you have something stating that it was payment in full, and they accepted payment as such....can't remember where I heard that though. I still write it on all my rent payments though.

Personally, I would not tell them I can't find the contract, because he isn't going to write up a new one, he'll just pull the one you just signed, and you will be paying the extra $125 which seems like a bit of a high increase to me.

VisionOfClarity

Yes they can. You sign a new lease effectively ending your old one. Rather then send you the old last month rent and have you send in the new (more expensive) one you simply send in the difference. The same thing goes for the deposit.

As for the paid in full thing, that's not how it works at all. People try this crap on debts all the time and it doesn't work. Snopes has a thing on it.

Demerdar

Just ride along with it for now, but don't be surprised if he asks for the back rent. But if you do end up moving out and he still hadn't noticed, well it looks like you just made away with some free money.

Figgy

It is perfectly normal to be charged the difference to bring your last month's rent in line with a new rent amount.

This is not shady. It is standard.

Also, $125 increase? That seems like a lot to begin with. Is this guy a new landlord? Maybe he put the original increase amount in the lease and then later realized he can only lawfully increase it by $50?