I wanted to change my lease from one year to six months. My landlord told me I couldn't do it because I already signed the lease. Well yesterday I saw that the landlord wrote down that my lease ends July 31, 2005 instead of July 31, 2006. Am I still bound to this contract even though he is off by a year? Please give me any reasonable advice!
Does it contain a termination clause, specifically indicating what amount you would pay to terminate the lease early?
The landlord told me verbally that it would be 743.00 to terminate the lease. But the lease contract itself does not state that specific amount.
If a termination clause is not in the contract, he may or may not later let you out for that amount. There may, however, be some limitation in state law that applies. Perhaps you might want to suggest that you and he correct and initial the lease to match the original intended agreement, both with respect to the ending date, and with respect to the termination fee that he represented verbally. That is actually the high road, to bring to the attention of the other party when first noticed, and correct, what should be viewed as two unintended mistakes. At this point, having just signed it, the issue of moving out is only hypothetical. If he says no, at least you have a clue whether you can trust him to honor his verbally stated termination fee, and he gets to sit with a contract that he knows has a flaw and might be breakable short of a year. He still can't kick you out for a year, since then you could argue it is a 1 year lease.
