validity of lease agreement
moved my daughter into an apartment in May, submitted requested application to landlord. apt already occupied by another tenant. Now, the other girl wants my daughter to move out, and the landlord states lease not valid because he never signed it. Have paid rent twice since May. what are my rights? Can he evict her, or does he have to honor the lease agreement?
Re: validity of lease agreement
The legalities aside, why would you wish your daughter to remain in a rental unit shared by another person who supposedly doesn’t want her there and where the landlord is disputing the validity of her lease?
Michael E. Hendrickson
Attorney & Counsellor at Law
211 North Union Street Suite 100
Alexandria, 22314
Re: validity of lease agreement
This is a close call. First, contracts do not have
to be in writing, they can be verbal. (However it
can be very hard to prove that the verbal contract
existed, practically, but it is still a good contract.)
It is also possible to accept a written or verbal
contract through ACTIONS instead of by signing. For example, if I offer you $100 to take a package to Richmond as an emergency (I’m near Fairfax),
and you — SAYING NOTHING — take the package out
of my hand, get in your car, and race down the
road, we have a contract. I would be obligated to
pay you and you would be obligated to deliver it
(not stop at King’s Dominion instead.)
In your case, if the landlord presents a lease,
your daughter signs it and returns it, and then
the landlord hands her the keys (or something
similar), this would be the same as agreeing, the
same as if the landlord’s signature was on the
contract. So far I would give a strong yes that
the landlord is bound by the lease.
However, real estate is a special case. While you
can have a verbal contract for most things, real
estate is an exception. Normally this involves
the SALE of real estate, not a lease, and this
rule barely applies at all to rentals. But
also residential leases are governed by the
Virginia Landlord Tenant Act, and I don’t know
right now what that Act says without doing some
legal research on this special, unusual question.
However, to satisfy the rule for a written
contract it is NOT necessary for the entire
contract to be in writing. Most lawyers and many
judges fail to appreciate this, and will tell you
the wrong thing. But Virginia precedents are
clear (if widely ignored). There must be written
EVIDENCE of the contract. The contract itself
need not be in writing. There must be written
documentation proving that there was a contract.
Often this requires the signature of the person
to be charged, but where the landlord has its own
lease on its own letterhead, this MIGHT be enough.
Here, the landlord prepared the lease, obviously,
and handed it to the tenant to be signed. The
landlord then TREATED the lease as being ACCEPTED
by in fact letting your daughter move in.
There is another exception to the exception.
When the owner of real estate unambiguosly ACTS as if there is a contract, whether there is a written contract or not, or any written evidence or not, then the verbal contract will be enforced.
Here, the landlord TREATED the lease as being in
force, through actions on both sides, which the
landlord knew about (allowing your daughter to
actually move in, indicating that the landlord
thought the lease was valid).
Therefore, I think that the lease is enforceable,
but it may require some legal wrangling to get there.
Jonathon Moseley
Office of Jonathon Moseley
1818 Library Street, Suite 500
Reston, VA 20190