What happens if a landlord forges higher income on lease application to getyou in and then you default on your lease payments?
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What happens if a landlord forges higher income on lease application to getyou in and then you default on your lease payments?
In 10/06 my then fiance and myself were looking for apartments. We found one that was OKand put the application in. We were in a hurry to find a place to live, and we didn’t make enough. The landlord took our paystubs and our application and I clearly remember her changing a few numbers to get us qualified. We were young and stupid, and were in over our heads. A few months later I lost my job and we left. Now it shows up as an eviction on our record. Do I have a case to make it go away? Or and am I stuck for the next several years being denied?
Asked on December 9, 2010 under Real Estate Law, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
Unfortunately, you're stuck with it.
1) You say you saw numbers being "changed"--if you saw that and didn't act, you're complicit in what the landlord did. Once you allow the numbers to be changed (instead of it happening w/out your knowledge), you have responsibility for what is submitted.
2) Besides the above, you were able to pay for several months, and only stopped paying when you lost your job. That means (i) if the rent was "wrong" in any way, you'd had and missed your opppportunity to complain about it and seek to either make a change or rescind the arrangment entirely--you should have acted at the outset; (ii) being evicted was tied to the job loss, not the application, since you made the payments while you were employed.
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