Verbal Lease/Fired Real Estate Agent

By jodie belliveau

We just moved out of a rental house on Dec 1st with verbal and e-mail verification from the landlord allowing us to do so. The original agent was fired in May and I have an email from her saying that the Lease was no longer valid and would be null and void in a court of law so I was under the impression I had no lease. I gave my notice because she had an appraiser come by and sent me another e-mail saying not to tell them I was renting so I felt she was obtaining a fradulent loan and I wanted no part of it. I gave me notice on Nov 3rd and she verbally told me that was fine. She gave us $1200 of our $2000 back on Nov 17th so that we could start moving stuff into our new house so that the landlord could get her stuff out of storage and into her house by Thanksgiving weekend. I told her I would not be out until Dec 1st( I had company coming for the holiday) but she could put her stuff in the house in a downstairs room so I could clean the house and finish moving after the holiday. The day after Thanksgiving we got up at 5am and started moving the big furniture and the rest of our belongings with our friends and family who came from NH to visit. We moved an hour away and were on our 3rd trip and the landlord called screaming at me that the house was a mess. I had not even cleaned yet and she made me cry. I told her I would not be out until the 1st and she agreed ( I have all of the emails she sent me throughout the whole process ) I told her that I had not cleaned yet and I would be coming back and spending all day on Sat(the next day) cleaning with my friend. She showed up on Sat with more of her stuff and i was cleaning. She told me she wanted her keys back and that I couldnt come back to clean anymore. She gave me 3hrs to clean a 4bedroom house. The house was not even that dirty because I am a stay at home mom and have OCD. I clean alot and cannot have any dishes in the sink or dirt anywhere I live.

She then told me she would keep $100 for the rug cleaning which I was in agreement and she would send the $700 to my new address. Well I got an email saying she was keeping $520 for duct cleaning(225), rug cleaning (125), housecleaning(100) and window cleaning (70) and only sending me $280. I am now taking her to court on 1-10-10 and since then she stop payment on the check she sent and told me she called the Clerk of Court and they told her that the lease was still good through February and so she was going to counter sue me for Decembers rent since she already had a renter for January. So now she says I owe her $680??? Yeah right!! I have the email saying "That sounds good" that we would be out by Dec 1st.

So my question is this: If I have an email saying that moving out on Dec 1st sounded good to her and that there was no lease after she fired her real estate agent in May, can she hold me to the original lease?

Also, can she hold my deposit for any of the above reasons?

Frustrated Renter!!

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