Illinois

I went to Atty today. He cannot promise me anything. My only defense is that I did not know it was an original.

So like you Grace, he asked me the name of the company the lease was signed with. I told him I did not have that information. My son doesn't have that information.

He asked, "well how was your son to make the rent payments." My response is, "I do not know how that was to be handled." The Atty found my statement to be untrue, but I swear I had no idea.

I called my son when I left the Atty's office and I asked him the same questions. He said, "he was not told who to make the checks payable to and that they were to call Tiffany on her cell phone when they had the rent money and that she would pick it up."

I know this sounds bad or untrue Gracie, so the only thing I can gather is that this company, who ever they are, seem to be Predators. They come into this college town and they rope in these young people to do their business with.

Would I have signed a lease under these conditions? NO! Would you have signed one under these conditions? Probably not, because we are more mature, experienced. These kids don't have a clue and that is what Predators thrive on.

I don't even have proof that this woman Tiffany is authorized to rent this property. This is a true nightmare.

You know, something similiar happened to me. My late husband and I, a handful of years ago, answered an ad to rent a house with the possibility of later buying it ( not a lease purchase, just a lease with keeping in mind that if we liked the home, perhaps one day we could buy it). The ad we answered was in the newspaper. The owners mom was a school teacher at the school I taught at many years ago, although I did not know her personally, I knew OF her. She met us, we signed a lease, she took several thousand in rent and deposits from us and we moved in. Lovely home, perfect.

Until a knock came to the door and a woman in a dark suit informed me the house had been sold at the courthouse steps and the owners name was such and such ( we will say jones). I told her No, I didn't know a Mr. Jones--I knew Mr. Smith. It was his house--his mom took our money since he was out of state and his mom signed the lease on his behalf.

This story became so crazy I actually called a local news station and they came TO the property and interviewed us on a "buyer beware" segment. It seems as though the AD in the paper by Mr. Smith came to be because Mr. SMITH was a TENANT, a renter and HE rented from Mr. Jones. Mr Jones declared bankrupcy, moved out of state, and informed Mr. Smith the house was being sold at the courthouse steps on such and such a date, please move out by then. Mr. Smith moved out all right--and ran the ad to 'rent' the home to us. We never thought to check and see if this guy was the owner--he had the KEYS. So, his MOM (who also didn't know he didnt own the house---she was acting illegally on his behalf without knowing it) took our money, and we moved in RIGHT before the sale at the courthouse steps.

Even stranger, after the news story aired, I went to the police and a detective there was assigned to investigate. He was WONDERFUL. He was tracking down Mr. Smith out of state---and a few days later my phone rang. It was the news anchor at the TV station and he said, "Grace, I want you to know that Detective *** was murdered last night with his own service revolver". I thought OMG--Mr smith KILLED this man?? But he did not. Unfortunately, the detectives murder had nothing to do with me or Mr. Smith, but lord have mercy, was I scared.

I said all of that to say, life has a way of teaching us hard lessons. I never got my money back and after the detective was killed, my case was never reassigned.

I found it interesting your attorney apparently took the tone people accuse me of having in a lot of postings----it comes across as accusatory---but it isn't meant to be. Clients walk into attorneys offices and lie and mispresent themselves and truth about their case ( not saying you did!) and attorneys have to ask hard pointed questions to ferret out the chaff from the wheat. And, often times, what they are doing is EXACTLY what a prosecutor will do.

Keep me posted---this is very interesting. Hang in there.

Grace, Thank you for sharing. I am still in shock and unable to sleep. It helps to share and to have others share with me. Thanks again.
Respectfully VE

OMG, I am sorry to hear of how you were scammed. I am not sure what brought me to the idea that she may not be authorized to rent the home. But, I think it is the fact that she was so uncooperative/stubborn about allowing us a copy of the contract.

I just don't get it, when I finally saw the contract it was signed so why not just give us a copy? That way we would know how to proceed. We would know what agreements were made and what the rules were on sub-leasing.

For the life of me I cannot understand why she wants to keep from us from knowing who we are doing business with. The lease was not on letter or business head paper. I swear I did not see the name of a company or person, other than the boys signatures on that lease. The signatures were the only names I saw on that peice of paper. I just know that something is not right here, I just don't know what or why. So I guess that is what brought the authorization question to mind.

Now that I see that actually does happen, after reading your post, I really do wonder if this is the case.

What would happen to this case against me if that does turn out to be the case?

Admin, Can you please move this thread to the correct forum. I am sorry I did not realize that you had a forum set up on the subject of Home Rental Agreements, until just right this moment.

Grace I may have just answered my question about the reason we were not given a copy of the Lease.

I was just reading through some ordinances of our town, Normal Illinois.

There were four names on the lease. It looks to me that there is a limit on the number of unrelated people that can occupy/ lease home. If I am understanding this correctly only two unrelated people are allowed to rent here.

If you have time will you please go to this link, it is safe I have been there several times tonight.

College Town Life :: Occupancy Limits

After you get to this site, please scroll down to Normal Illinois. Am I understanding this? Are only two people unrelated allowed to occupy a rental home?

If I am correct the lady that had me arrested may be in for a little problem of her own, huh?

Is this lady violating the Law?

If so then this would leave her open to some legal problems, huh? I don't know would she be responsible or would the owner of the Property be libel?

This sounds like a pretty good reason not to issue copies of the lease. Maybe I am on to something, will wait to see if you or someone else responses.TIA
Maybe I am way off base here, but if I am understanding this correctly I may have solved alot of my own questions. This may give my son a lucky break. I don't know that it will help my problem much.

Grace, please check your PM box.

TY

Thanks, I read it and replied.

One thing I wanted to add here since people are reading this thread, too, is that her renting the apartment to more than two people doesn't mean she is guilty of a crime. Civilly she is responsible, but rental agreements and the breach of the same are civil.

Check your PM...

Yes, but preachig this contract from the very start, may discredit her words in the eyes of a Jury, Huh? Her profession in Rental Management, shouldn't she be knowledgable on the laws and ordinances govering her job?

Afterall, she did not give the tenants a copy of the lease, even though, she told told them she would at the time they signed on the lease. Contract signers are entitled a copy of the contract. I also read where a tenant is entitled to have a name and address of the property owner and or the Rental agency. She denied them information as well.


I did not destroy or in anyway damage the document/contract, it was returned. I may be able to convince a jury that I realize my mistake, but my act was based on Good faith/good intention.

On the other hand I think the Jury can be convinced that she is operating as a predator.

The Jury may find me not guilty?

It is so unreal how predators get the upper hand on good people.

I have found another site, it contradicts the first link I provided. It says the house is located in an R3A zone, medium density multi-family

Apparently they allow four people to a dwelling. So I am back to the drawing board.

I just don't get it. Landlord/Tenant says that the Tenant is entitled to certain things.

1. A copy of the Contract

2. The name of the Management Company/Owner of the Property

3. Address of the Management/owner.

If you do not have any of these things, how can you get them if they refuse to give them to you.

Example, you have a first name of a person, no last name.

A cell phone number.

How in the World are you suppose to get any kind of help if you have no information? Do you just wait to be sued?

Recap, We were trying to break a lease. We sent someone to rent the property. We had not lived on the property.

What could we have done, prior to me being arrested for theft of a contract that she handed to me? Where do you go for help? An Attorney needs contact information. I did not see any letter head/footer on the contract identifying this person or their company. So I walked off with the contract intending to make copies. I wanted to have one for me and one for my Attorney. She nows says it was the original contract. it has been returned. Why would she being carrying around an Original Document? Why not just give us a copy. Why had me the Original to read, but not allow me a copy to take with me?