Could someone familiar with west law help me with search terms for this short scenario?
ByI’m a crim justice student so we get west law, I’m trying to narrow down case law and find more relevant cases without going threw 1,000.
I’m in NJ, I had a lease in place for 3 months with 1st month and security paid. Landlord breaches the lease on my move in day saying he never got approval from his mortgage company to make his primary residence a rental property (part of a loan modification). He says he didn’t tell me until move in day because he was optimistic he could get it resolved… he didn’t. He said he can’t let me move in because he could lose his house without the approval. He said he knows he’s liable for damages but him losing his house is higher on the ladder he was negligent to find out any of this until the very last minute.
I’m suing him for damages including temporary living, storage, and my lease differential for similar living conditions (I’m actually downgrading and it still costs more I had a good deal).
I plan on going to small claims court and I want to ensure I get the lease differential I know it’s iffy… It’s about 2,500. I need to be able to throw case law at the judge if she is a landlord based lawyer so she just doesn’t try and award temporary living as damage and storage. I want the lease differential.
My breached lease was for a 2br 2bath 1500+ sq ft luxury condo granite countertops the works all for 600 a month utilities included.
Landlord’s reason was he was moving out of state on business and just wanted someone to watch the place.
I can’t even find a 1 br for less then 850 plus utilities, that’s a huge differential I’ll be paying for the new 1yr lease due to the breached lease and I’m actually downgrading my living conditions.
The lease has no clause relieving him of his contractual responsibilities in the sense if he breaches without 30 days notice he’s responsible for damages.
I’m not going to sue for damages until all of my damages are established and I have a new 1 yr lease in place proving concrete damages due to the 1 yr breached lease giving me notice on move in day.
The landlord breached the lease on move in day and gave me back my security deposit 2 weeks later saying it must have got lost in the mail… he sent it certified 2 weeks later… as I understand he only had 5 days max to return it if he voids the contract.
What terms should I search to help me?
I really just want to ensure I get the lease differential that’s my most substantial damages.
I know some judges favor landlords, while I’m certain I’ll get the lesser damages… the judge may try and wrongfully dismiss my lease differential damage aspect in which case I would fire back with case law because that damage is close to 3k with new places I’m looking at.
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2 Comments
September 8th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
I’d start with: “landlord AND tenant AND lease OR lease agreement AND breach AND security deposit AND foreseeable damages OR consequential damages”. You’ll need to fine tune that depending on how many results you get back.
WestLaw also has a helpline that you can call and they’ll walk you through more relevant searches. Their number is on the website.
September 9th, 2010 at 6:11 am
Landlord tenant dispute breach of contract actual damages
That should get you started, then read some of the court decisions and reasoning, in the text you will find other terms that fit your case and use them to narrow your search, you can do search after search after search to continue to narrow it down until you find a case that hits all four corners hopefully.
It doesn’t sound like all that would be necessary however, if what your saying is the actual facts, you should be able to win with no problem just citing breach of contract and stating in clear plain english what your actual damages are which is what you will be limited to, whatever they are at the time of the suit, the judge cannot consider future damages unless you can state with proof what they will be and how much.
In small claims court, should you lose, you can always appeal to the next higher court and it’s judgment de novo, or in other words, a new trial with nothing from the first courts ruling considered, it’s as if it never happened, it could be a learning experience.