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Can my landlord add random fees to my rent?
Anonymous7 views1 answers
My landlord came to my house on a Friday saying I needed to mow an overgrown part of my lawn (a utility way that I didn't think I needed to mow). He said the city had already fined him and gave him five days to get it done. This area is also actually on the neighbor's lot, but the landlord owns both and said we needed to do it, so whatever, I agreed. Come Tuesday morning, there is already some guy out there (with a push mower) mowing the area. Later that afternoon, my landlord comes by again saying I need to add $100 to my next rent payment for the mowing! Can he do this? Do I at least have a right to ask for, and ONLY pay, the cost for it from a receipt?? It hadn't even been the five days! We're no longer in a lease after 1 year, but it's been 2 1/2 years and never made 1 late payment.
This will depend on the terms of the Lease. If the Lease says that you are to maintain the grounds (and adequately describes it), then the Landlord can likely pass on to you any fine imposed on him that resulted from your failure to abide by the Lease. But if the Lease did not require you to maintain the area in question, you may prevail. But don't verbally agree to do something you're not willing to do unless, at the same time, you say something like, "I'll do it within a week." There is a "Statute of Frauds" which requires any agreement regarding real property to be in writing. But if you verbally agree to do something, it's implied that you'll do it within a reasonable period of time (like over the weekend if the grass is already so tall the landlord has been fined). A verbal agreement just opens a hornets nest of issues and can give the landlord rights he wouldn't otherwise have.
