My biggest question regards what type of rights I have to pursue getting rent for all the months she signed a lease for, and how to go about doing that. My further questions regard a situation that will be described later in this post. I will be thorough regarding what happened.
The situation:
I subleased my basement apartment in a house to a woman and we signed an agreement. There was a verbal contract that the tenants living upstairs would have scheduled access to the laundry machines, and that utilities would be split 3 ways. The heater, water, and electricity hookups are also in the basement, and it was understood that if needed, repairs would take place with notice and permission from the subletter.
The subletter was incredibly difficult to contact (only had a skype phone, not always on or good signal) and missed the multiple notices that a repairman was coming to fix the heater, which had broken during the coldest week of the year. She was upset that she didn't receive prompt notice, and changed the locks soon thereafter without notifying the landlords or the tenants upstairs.
On multiple occasions the subletter has aggressively confronted the landlords (sweet, old, quiet couple who lives across the street) about issues that they responded to later in writing that they are not accountable for, according to the lease. (i.e. not being able to get in touch with subletter, road issues, etc).
and then one day, she was gone. Her stuff was completely removed from the basement and she wasn't there. She had moved out.
I then cashed her deposit check (only 1/3 of the actual rent) to give to the upstairs tenants for the utilities she had skipped out on.
She called me, telling me that I was stealing it from her, as there was no damage to the basement. The next morning, she stormed into the upstairs house part (not the part she rented), had a physical confrontation with the upstairs tenants, yelled, and stole a dehudmifier from downstairs that was not hers. She claimed she had legal rights to take furniture from the space that was still technically hers (as she had paid through Feb.) There was a verbal agreement that the dehumidifier would stay in the basement (it was mine, but the basement needed it.)
So my questions are: What are my rights, in relation to obtaining the money she skipped out on (utilities, and 2 months rent she signed a contract saying she'd pay)?
And what are her rights, in relation to breaking a sublease contract?
And what do I do about her stealing directly from me? I have a receipts for how much the dehumidifier costs me, would pressing charges be worth it or would all of the sublease issues keep me from effectively working through a larsony charge?
Thank you so much for your help. I'm really not sure how to proceed in this situation.
The situation:
I subleased my basement apartment in a house to a woman and we signed an agreement. There was a verbal contract that the tenants living upstairs would have scheduled access to the laundry machines, and that utilities would be split 3 ways. The heater, water, and electricity hookups are also in the basement, and it was understood that if needed, repairs would take place with notice and permission from the subletter.
The subletter was incredibly difficult to contact (only had a skype phone, not always on or good signal) and missed the multiple notices that a repairman was coming to fix the heater, which had broken during the coldest week of the year. She was upset that she didn't receive prompt notice, and changed the locks soon thereafter without notifying the landlords or the tenants upstairs.
On multiple occasions the subletter has aggressively confronted the landlords (sweet, old, quiet couple who lives across the street) about issues that they responded to later in writing that they are not accountable for, according to the lease. (i.e. not being able to get in touch with subletter, road issues, etc).
and then one day, she was gone. Her stuff was completely removed from the basement and she wasn't there. She had moved out.
I then cashed her deposit check (only 1/3 of the actual rent) to give to the upstairs tenants for the utilities she had skipped out on.
She called me, telling me that I was stealing it from her, as there was no damage to the basement. The next morning, she stormed into the upstairs house part (not the part she rented), had a physical confrontation with the upstairs tenants, yelled, and stole a dehudmifier from downstairs that was not hers. She claimed she had legal rights to take furniture from the space that was still technically hers (as she had paid through Feb.) There was a verbal agreement that the dehumidifier would stay in the basement (it was mine, but the basement needed it.)
So my questions are: What are my rights, in relation to obtaining the money she skipped out on (utilities, and 2 months rent she signed a contract saying she'd pay)?
And what are her rights, in relation to breaking a sublease contract?
And what do I do about her stealing directly from me? I have a receipts for how much the dehumidifier costs me, would pressing charges be worth it or would all of the sublease issues keep me from effectively working through a larsony charge?
Thank you so much for your help. I'm really not sure how to proceed in this situation.
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