If an apartment is trying to get money from me for pet rent when the lease doesn’t say I owe any, what do I do?
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If an apartment is trying to get money from me for pet rent when the lease doesn’t say I owe any, what do I do?
We moved out last monthand got a letter today stating we owe $834 for back pet rent and some month-to-month charge. However, we never got a notice of higher rates until our last 2 months there. Our lease expired and we continued to pay our normal monthly rent due to the lack of notice they gave us. We received a notice of higher rent several months later but I don’t remember the exact date. Do I need to take them to court or can I just ignore them?
Asked on April 26, 2012 under Real Estate Law, Minnesota
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
I suggest that you do not ignore the notices that your landlord is sending you about the rental that you occupy. Ignoring such notices can only cause more of a problem for you in the end.
If you received a notice of higher rent several months before your presumed written lease expired, I suspect from what you have written that the notice of higher rent may also have contained reference to rent for a pet as well. I suggest that you carefully read this notice in that most likely there is reference to rent increase and a pet rental once your lease expired.
If you are occupying the rental beyond the time period of your initial lease, there is a good chance from what you have written that you may actually owe the $834 back pet rent. However, if the written lease never mentioned this pet rent, then you would not owe it for the time period under the written lease you had with your former landlord.
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