All Leases are not Equal. Some are not Legally Correct.
Posted By Cliff Tuttle | January 6, 2011
No. 557
I recently reviewed a residential lease which is distributed by a printer for a fee. Some of the language in it is unclear and could be read as contradictory. Some is redundant, causing confusion over which part should apply. Some of it is just poorly written. However, the thing that struck me the most was a statement that the lease is not enforceable if the proprietary rights of the author of the document have been violated.
In other words, if you use this agreement and don’t pay for it, you can’t enforce it.
Nice try. But this ploy to ensure payment doesn’t work. The drafter of the form has no interest in the contract between the landlord and tenant. He has no right to intervene in that relationship and declare the contract between them void.
So, does that mean you should use the agreement and not pay for it? Absolutely not.
If you have a copy of this document, put it through the shredder.
CLT
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One Response to “All Leases are not Equal. Some are not Legally Correct.”
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March 7th, 2012 @ 5:07 pm
I am a renter, and I believe that these leases we sign today are totally off of the wall. I have rented most of my life, the best rental leases I had were, none, that is right,the landlord trusted me, and I trusted him or her, and he kept the apt in good repair, and I took good care of the apt, and there were no problems. Unfortunately there are too many landlords that get you to sign your life away in these leases, and in the state of Pa, you cannot get the landlords to honor these leases, I have been over and over this, and most of the time the landlords are quite monied, and I, a disabled person, on SSDI, cannot afford to fight them, therefore, I end up moving, moving , and moving, which I will be doing again as soon as I can find an apt. I will also need very serious trauma counseling because of what I have been through in this apt I now reside in. And I cannot get an attorney in Pittsburgh to help make my case, which is the usual for western pa, this state is a disgrace, I am hoping someday that I can go to another state, at least one that is not so corrupt.