A friend and I were looking into moving into an apartment on June 1,2008. We were communicating with the landlord about certain problems that needed to be fixed before we moved in. A lease was never signed but we verbally agreed to the terms. The landlord was supposed to put up drywall in the master bedroom(which just had gutted stud walls), and coat the hardwood floor that the carpeting had just been torn up from. The landlord pushed us into giving him first,last, and security deposit weeks before June 1st even rolled around.
He agreed to let us start moving in on May 30th. When we showed up at the apartment to start moving things in, the apartment was still filled with his property, the walls had not been put up, and the floor had not been finished. Not having a signed agreement between us and knowing that he did not come through on his verbal part of the agreement, we backed out of the agreement and wanted our money back.
He refused to give us any of our money back and so we took him to small claims court trying to get the $1800 we paid him. The landlord advised the judge that because we backed out he wasnt able to rent the apartment for another month and a half, and so the judge decided that first month would go to the landlord, but he would have 30 days to pay us the remaining last month and security deposit ( $1200). 30 days have gone by and we haven't seen any money.
We also found out that the landlord had the apartment re-rented on June 10th(10 days after our original agreement) - based on word from the gas company, electric company, and current tenants.
We are trying to get a lien on his property but we have to file with an enforcement officer, and a bunch of other fees related to getting the money back some other way.
Is it possible to appeal this decision based on the fact that the landlord lied about not being able to get a tenant and try to get the other $600 and the money back for all of the fees spent just trying to get the money from him?
He agreed to let us start moving in on May 30th. When we showed up at the apartment to start moving things in, the apartment was still filled with his property, the walls had not been put up, and the floor had not been finished. Not having a signed agreement between us and knowing that he did not come through on his verbal part of the agreement, we backed out of the agreement and wanted our money back.
He refused to give us any of our money back and so we took him to small claims court trying to get the $1800 we paid him. The landlord advised the judge that because we backed out he wasnt able to rent the apartment for another month and a half, and so the judge decided that first month would go to the landlord, but he would have 30 days to pay us the remaining last month and security deposit ( $1200). 30 days have gone by and we haven't seen any money.
We also found out that the landlord had the apartment re-rented on June 10th(10 days after our original agreement) - based on word from the gas company, electric company, and current tenants.
We are trying to get a lien on his property but we have to file with an enforcement officer, and a bunch of other fees related to getting the money back some other way.
Is it possible to appeal this decision based on the fact that the landlord lied about not being able to get a tenant and try to get the other $600 and the money back for all of the fees spent just trying to get the money from him?
