Problems with Landlady

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v1et r1ce

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So me and a few friends are renting an apartment this year just outside campus. Everything was going good till a couple weeks ago when she got mad at us for not paying our for our first five months due at the beginning of the month. Our reason for this was because my friends are all international students and don't come back till mid September (our school starts late). We talked to the agent or whatever about this and she said it would be okay. Of course, she didn't remember and we were forced to pay a penalty fee. It's probably our fault for not getting it in writing or something, but whatever. We paid, and that has passed.

Now a couple of my friends are already living in the apartment, and one of them told me that the landlady found out that there would be 5 people living in our apartment (5 rooms, duh). The thing is, at first, only 3 of us signed the lease/contract/whatever. While someone was showing us the house, we told the person that there would be 2 more of us to fill up the apartment, and he said it would be okay (there was actually 4 of us there that day). While we signed the lease/contract, we told the agent or whatever the same thing and she said it would be okay. But now, the landlady is saying that if she knew it would be 5 people, she would have charged us more to rent it.

My question is...considering the circumstances, is she allowed to raise the rent on us for that reason after we signed everything? I'm not sure who's right or wrong here to be honest. I don't have the contract on me, and I told my friend to read it and call me back ASAP (which will probably be tomorrow...).

Also, any suggestions as to how I should approach this? I'm going to the agent on Friday (landlady told us to talk to them).
 
I assume that if you didn't sign for 5 people on the contract then she would be allowed to..

I am no renting expert / lawyer though, probably best to wait for someone more experienced to post before making any big decisions.
 
Wait...is that land lady related to that one slumlord who gave shit to one cag on here, but in the end justice was served?
 
not to be overly pessimistic, but you sound rather hosed. since you never got anything in writing they can say they don't recall saying anything like what you described and do as they please.

sorry champ, leasing sucks. trust me, i know.
 
It pleases me to see it only took two replies to get to "stick it in her pooper." but let's go for first reply next time.
 
Maybe I dont understand the legality of this all here but it seems like the agent showing you the place wouldnt have final say over whats ok and what isnt. It seems to me like the agent is just wanting to get you to sign so they get a commision or whatever and wouldnt have final say on anything. Agent would just be the middleman making the deal and doing the contract stuff. I highly doubt the agent would relay all your details to the landlady since after you signed their job is done and money in their pocket.

And having more people be permenant residents there means more people responsible for things like utilities, damage and so on. If only 3 of you are on the contract but 5 living there I would have done the same thing myself really because the 3 who signed are the only ones liable for anything.

Course again, I dont know all the details and just going by what little I know of these things.

First rule of anything that involves a contract is get it all in writing though.

But I must admit. 5 guys living in a apartment and renting from a angry woman? Sounds like classic porn material if I ever heard it.
 
[quote name='v1et r1ce']My question is...considering the circumstances, is she allowed to raise the rent on us for that reason after we signed everything? I'm not sure who's right or wrong here to be honest. I don't have the contract on me, and I told my friend to read it and call me back ASAP (which will probably be tomorrow...).

Also, any suggestions as to how I should approach this? I'm going to the agent on Friday (landlady told us to talk to them).[/QUOTE]
She is definitely allowed to raise the rent on you. You violated the contract by bringing in more tenants than you initially stated. Most rental contracts include a boilerplate clause about overnight guests.

In fact, increasing the number of tenants increase the risk that she is taking on. It's normal to charge more for more tenants.

You should negotiate directly with the landlady. Ask her for a new lease with all the stipulations in writing.
 
The lease contract is void. The landlady has been mislead. Create a new lease contract and pay the extra fees owed to the landlady.
 
I would imagine it depends on what the lease says about the amount of persons ilving in the house. If it says nothing then you're not breaking any rules and she can't charge more, but I find this highly unlikely. Any good contract is designed to protect the owners, not the renters, and rightfully so.

And what's the purpose of this agent? Can't you cut out the middle man and deal with the landlady directly?
 
Most leases will say what the maximum occupancy is. For example, I have a 2 bedroom apt, 2 of us signed for it, but the maximum occupancy is 4 people. Which is what I consider reasonable, because a good amount of people nowadays live 2 per room.

If there is no maximum occupancy, no rules on how long guests can stay, and there's no laws in the county about it, there's not much the landlady can do about it (she would have failed to properly write a contract.)
 
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