Hi all, I’m not a lawyer and was looking for an opinion on this situation I ran into with my Texas apartment management.

Background:

When I moved apartments, I contacted the power company to switch my service to a new address starting on the beginning of my new lease. This must have been botched, because I kept receiving confusing bills labelled as my new place but being read at my old place (its was very confusing, but this isn’t what I’m worried about)

Because it took me a few months to realize something wasn’t right, I corrected this issue and had it immediately switched to my name, at my new apartment. Now here is where the issue is:

In the next two months, I received 2 power bills from the complex, each with a $50 service charge added to it. (I have gotten the energy company to compensate me for one of them). I wanted your opinion on the legality of these fees in the wording of the contract:

Here is the exact wording:

“7. UTILITIES. We’ll pay for the following items, if checked: (cable TV was the only one checked
You’ll pay for all other utilities, related deposits, and any charges or fees, on such utilities (other than cable or Internet) to be cut off or switched for any reason-including disconnection for not paying your bills-until the Lease Contract term or renewal period ends. If a utility is submetered or prorated by an allocation formula, we will attach an addendum to this Lease Contract in compliance with state agency rules. If a utility is individually metered, it must be connected in your name and you must notify the utility provider of your move-out date so the meter can be timely read. If you delay getting it turned on in your name by lease commencement or cause it to be transferred back into our name before you surrender or abandon the apartment, you’ll be liable for a $50.00 charge (not to exceed $50), plus the actual or estimated cost of the utilities used while the utility should have been connected in your name. If you are in an area open to competition and your apartment is individually metered, you may choose or change your retail electric provider at any time. If you qualify, your provider will be the same as ours, unless you choose a different provider. If you choose or change your provider, you must give us written notice. You must pay all applicable provider fees, including any fees to change service back into our name after you move out.”

This line in red is what I am curious about. As I read it, since the transfer was late, I am liable for A $50 charge plus the electricity charges incurred. The management claims that I am liable for a $50 fee FOR EACH bill that was sent.

Who is right in the interpretation of the lease?

Hello,

I am located in London and have a problem with somone in New York. Please let me explain the situation:

I sold a bag over the internet to a person in New York. After he received the item, he transfered the a mount(130$) to me via paypal. At that point I was new to Paypal and didn’t know that I have to accept payments in order to transfer the money to my account. So the money stayed at Paypal until it was transfered back to him.

After I realized that mistake I called him several times and asked him friendly to transfer the outstanding amount again. In every phonecall he claimed he will do it as soon as possible, but nothing happened so far. I’m afraid I won’t get my money.

What are my options? Could I retain some kind of debt collection service in New York? I do have the persons adress, phone number and account details. Any helpfull comment would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

meskmesk

Hello.

I am a student at a private university in Washington, DC, and I use the internet service provided by the school. I was wondering what the university’s powers are regarding what sites/services I access through their Internet connection.

I haven’t done anything to get in trouble yet, and I don’t really plan to, but I was curious and haven’t managed to find a good answer anywhere.

I am suing my telephone company in small claims court, in 2 days.

I recorded my telephone conversation with the two phone company representatives who pitched my current plan to me and quoted the rate which I ultimately agreed to. I was initially billed at the agreed upon rate. Subsequent bills removed the $15 monthly discount that I was promised. The company initially would not respond to my written queries (via e-mail) about the price increase. One rep called me and (very abusively) claimed that I had agreed to the higher rate and was never charged less. (Unfortunately, he hung up before I could record him).

After filing suit, one of the two reps I spoke with initially (in the recorded conversation) wrote me a letter, claiming that the rate she quoted was an error — and that I had been notified of this earlier. I never received any such notification and don’t know how to prove it. Futhermore, I don’t think I should have to pay for their errors. The call in which I agreed to the rates followed months of not being able to get a straight answer about the cost of the particular bundle I was seeking (POTS landline + fiber Internet access). I had quite a bit of discussion about the rates with the two women who called me. They insisted on selling me a digital voice line, rather than the copper one. I balked at the initial quote, then utlimately agreed to the discounted rate when they discovered that I qualified for it. This company has been repeatedly fined in jurisdictions all over the country for engaging in just this sort of bait and switch tactic.

The phone company lawyers have been trying to negotiate a settlement with me out of court — all of them which require me to simply pay the higher rate. I couldn’t decipher their latest postion, so I turned it down. They seemed to be trying to get me to agree with language that would make the contract fall under the Statute of Frauds, or not fall under it. Sorry to be so vague, but their prose was so contorted that I really couldn’t tell what they were trying to do. And I honestly don’t know whether the statute of frauds applies or does not apply in this case.

Here are a few facts that I believe may be relevant:

The company first offered me a contract for a fixed period of 2 years (in the recorded telephone conversation). I turned it down, saying that I plan to move in a couple of months. I didn’t know then and don’t yet know if I will keep the same phone company after I move. So, our verbal contact is for an indefinate period, but could be completed in less than a year. I can cancel it at any time without penalty. My phone bills contain long, complicated, legal language, in a very small typeface — but no signatures. I have never signed any agreement with this company. When I pay my bills, I note that I am disputing their figures right on the check (in red ink). I pay promptly and in full, so they can’t shut off my phone (which they have tried to do, in spite of this).

I would appreciate any advice – especially a citation of case law that makes any relevant point. My position is that the phone company knew or should have known its own rates. I relied on their word and feel that they should be held accountable for it.

At a moment of weakness, my future ex-wife after having an affair with our pastor convinced me to sign an internet divorce agreement and parenting plan which awarded her sole custody and child support. During the divorce hearing, Feb. 15, 2011, the Judge and the lawyers argued for four hours about the legitimacy of the internet agreement. The Judge ruled in favor of the agreement but then allowed her lawyer to amend it to include half of my retirement and a more complete parenting plan (which I apparently am to have no input to). Mediation was unfruitful prior to the divorce as she walked out. I filed a parenting plan before the divorce amending the one in the internet agreement. Then she countered with another parenting plan. The judge never got to those plans. Comparative parenting was never discussed only the legitimacy of the internet divorce agreement. The judge said I was a big boy and knew what I was doing when I signed it under duress, amended the internet divorce to include the retirement and complete parenting plan and hit the gavel on the bench and said I was divorced. I did not sign anything that day and was just informed two days ago that I am still not divorced because no court order exists and the amendment has not been filed with the court. I have been abiding by her wishes with the change back to the original custody paperwork of the visitation (internet agreement); however, she is not abiding by the principals of the parenting class we were required to attend. She monitors their phone calls and limits my contact to once daily (the plan says we can communicate during normal waking hours) and is constantly exposing my boys to the married pastor that ruined our marriage (he just filed for separation last week and the affair occurred in March 2010). The motion that my boys’ wished to speak to the judge was also denied by the judge. How should I proceed? My boys’ want to express themselves, the judge is tying my hands. I have a steady job and provide health insurance for all of my children. I have faults and accept those responsibilities (poor money management) and am receiving assistance with that. I am asking also if my children can file something to be heard and how I would go about this. The boys are eleven and ten. She is taking them away. Please help us, my boys need me.

I went over to a big dealership, Orange Coast Dodge & Jeep because I made an Inquiry over the internet and did the online credit check. I was pre-approved based on my low score and was told to go to the dealership. On March 5, 2011 I went to the dealership and It was explained to me by the salesman that they have experience dealing with bad credit and getting it approved. I was almost sure I would not be approved and did not expect to drive home in a new car that day. But they said they were able to approve me and let me drive off the lot if I showed that the car was added onto my insurance. I signed all of the neccessary contracts with the general manager and was told I would recieve a call in 2 days to go over the finance details. On March 16, I was contacted via mail that I was no longer approved and that I must immediately return the vehicle or face legal action against me for recovery fees, lawer and court fees, etc. Now I have this new car that I must return, take off of my insurance policy, and now I have no car for work which was the primary use of the car. This issue is going to cause me to miss out on work. It is something that could have easily been avoided if they wanted for me to be approved before taking delivery of the car.

Hi,

For some background, I purchased my home in the fall of 2008. At the time, the owner of the house next door was not living in the home. He was finishing up renovations and preparing to put the house on the market. After I moved in, he said he would be holding off on selling it until the market bounced back.

Shortly thereafter, a family moved into the home. Quickly, a woman named Susan had introduced herself and given me quite the background on her current situation. She had informed me that she did not have a job and wasn’t paying rent for the house – the government was. She let me know that she had lived in that house prior to the renovations, so the owner was aware of what the situation was and failed to mention it to me. The landlord also “sells” out the end of his driveway for other people to leave their trash for pick up from the town (costs everyone in town $275/year). The trash is left at the end of their driveway (sometimes mine) in open barrels – no trash bags. The trash cans tip over and I spend far too much time picking up their trash from my yard/driveway. Beyond all of that, the back yard surrounding their house is littered with garbage that is always blowing over to my yard. Countless cigarette butts are a minor nuisance. This is very frustrating. I have alerted the DPW here (in Pembroke, MA), but nothing has been done.

Susan and her 3 very young out-of-control grandchildren live in the small house. The mother of the children, Meghan, was not permitted to be with the children [alone] as she was a drug addict (heroin). Susan told me stories of how Meghan had been in and out of rehab and had gone as bad as to steal from her grandmother.

Meghan was never around, so I was not too concerned about my property or family (wife and 2 year old child). Susan is a nice lady – although she does hang with a seedy crowd that has gone so far as to openly urinate in their backyard (face fronting my backyard). Other than that, usage of Marijuana is rampant and I have had to ask them to take it inside on occasion as the fumes and smoke tend to put a heavy cloud in my outside living space. All of this is incredibly unacceptable but they have always been very cooperative and responded positively to my requests to “cut it out”.

Over the past several months, Meghan has been staying at the house with Susan and the children. Isnt this a violation of her free housing? Susan has complained about how out of control Meghan has been and that she disappears for days, returning “all messed up” on drugs. Over the past month, I have had my car ransacked (I left my doors unlocked), and money has been stolen. I did not report this to the police. Last week I was asked to come over to their house to fix their internet. While doing so, I witnessed Meghan very “high”, in front of the children. There was drug paraphernalia out in the open. While I was there, Susan informed me that the father of Meghan’s youngest child (also Susan’s ex boyfriend) was arrested and sentenced to 2 years in jail the previous week. Susan expressed concern that Meghan was out of control and that she would be “sending her away” the next day. She told me about how Meghan had spent the previous weekend in a motel smoking crack. Needless to say, Meghan was not sent away and is still living there.

Meghan is left alone with the children. On one day, with tons of snow outside, Meghan came to our house asking for an ice pack because her daughter “fell”. We were incredibly suspicious of this. Was she coming to scope our house out? With all the snow, we knew the ice story was just a lie.

One day while I was at work, Meghan came over to my house and spoke with my wife, in front of my son. She asked if we had any anxiety pills and said that “xanax” really works best for her and the stress of having 3 kids.

At this point, I contacted the child protection folks in Plymouth County to inform them of Meghan’s activity. They were dismissive and wouldnt do a thing without their last name. To say that I was frustrated with their response would be an understatement.

Yesterday, these children were climbing on my fence. I told them to get down. Meghan insisted they weren’t climbing on the fence (even while they were still on it). I told her to stay away from my family. I fear for potential repercussions for confronting her.

The trash is an issue that the town does not care about. A high mother that isn’t supposed to be alone with her children yet she is, is not a concern to the state, apparently. I would report the free housing fraud but am sure I will hit the same brick wall.

I feel that my property, family and safety are in a threatened state. I am nervous that we will leave a door or window unlocked and I won’t be home to protect my family. Knowing that the state won’t do anything and that if I contact the police it will only make a bad situation worse, I am at a loss for what to do.

If I could move – I would. I want nothing more than to be as far from this problem as possible. Selling a home in this market, especially next door to a crack head, is incredibly tough.

What other options do I have?

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ

Not sure where to post this so I may post one other place too if I can find one that seems fit. Thanks in advance for your help. Its a little long but please bear with me. I really do appreciate it.

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Hey I need some advice badly. Im 22 years old and have been running this, for the most part, failing computer repair business for the past few years. I just post ads where ever I can for free and sometimes it gets me some jobs. Anwyay I did a job for a customer and I took really long on it, I was given both a laptop and desktop to fix. Long story short the desktop was a mess, it came to the point where I had to reinstall Windows. This deleted all of her program files (Itunes, but I’m sure her music is still accessible if she paid for it. MS Word which shes saying I offered her an illegal copy to replace hers) and shes saying she doesnt have access to important documents on this laptop and the desktop (her files arent gone its just the program files and Im pretty sure she said she had a copy of Office somewhere still.

Anyway she said she was going to pickup the laptop from me and never came. Next thing I know Im being sued. Basically she states in the letter that I took forever, she kept not hearing from me (a lie), I kept being late with the machine (possibly true, I did take awhile because I was waiting for a laptop part that took forever to come, so I kind of put her machine off, she said she understood due to the fact shes been a college student at one point too). She states she doesnt know why I didnt bring the laptop when I dropped off the desktop (she knew why, it wasnt fixed yet), then states the computer was in worse shape then when she gave it to me (because the internet wasnt working, the drivers didnt take to the machine so there was no internet access). I said id have to take it again and she refused because of how long I took with the machine (understandable).

I did not take payment and left her house without fixing her internet connection (I couldnt unless she let me take iit). She then says I asked her for a report of why she was unhappy (this is true, I feel I offered a suggestion for each problem she had with the desktop and it was her fault she wouldnt let me fix it, regardless of how long I took with the machine). BUT when she asked me “ARE YOU SAYING YOU WONT GIVE ME MY LAPTOP ?” I SAID NO. We had an appointment for her to come get it! She never came! It did sound like I wasnt going to give her it thoug hbecause I wanted this report first, I was going to basically say,” I offered a suggestion for each of these problems your complaining about, so I’m going to need to either fix the machine for you or require payment for the desktop before I give you your laptop” but I never said it, I was going to give her the laptop if she had come to my house and I clearly told her i WAS NOT refusing to give her the laptop.

Shes stating I refused to give her the laptop unless she stated everything she was dissatisfied with. Shes not trying to sue me for 1800 dollars (the laptop is worth about $150 used on Ebay, will this help me at all? Its too old of a machine to find one with similar specs but I do plan to print out a copy of Staples laptop for $350 which is BETTER than this one, AND brand new…will this also help me?) Basically shes saying I was very slow, offered to put illegal software on her computer and then refused to give her her laptop, and is sueing me for the laptop for about 10x what it’s worth IF IT WAS FIXED (she told me not to fix it after she got mad about the desktop).

Now my first question is, does she really have a case? Im not sure if she has any voicemails from me but other than that the only proof she has we worked together is my business card.

My second question is..is it a bad idea to go on TV with this case? Peoples Court offered to pay for this 1800$ if I lose the case, but I’m afraid to go on TV because my business isnt registered and everything. My jobs are so random and infrequent I’ve never bothered to go through all of the hassle, but plan to shortly because I have plans to start taking it very seriously and plans to start trying many ideas to become an established business.

Please help me out my court date is coming soon, Id like to go on TV with this (especially if she has a good case on me) so they’ll pay the $1800 if I lose. I dont even think she has a good case though, I offered to give her the laptop. I have message history proof but that will hardly stand up if the judge knows how esily it can be edited. It was proof that I thought she had arrived here and I went down to give her the laptop but it was a friend of mine instead.
I probably wouldnt be so paranoid about going on TV with it but I also have at least one very annoyed competitor of mine, who is actually bothered enough by me to of made a website with my business name as the domain and post rude remarks and such. Im just afraid itll come back and bite me if I go on TV with this. I’m not sure it’d ever come up, or matter at all, but to avoid having to get her recovery cd’s from her I also put an illegal copy of windows on the computer. I may have used her (legal) CD key (license #) to install it (if thats even legal still) but Im not sure. I just wanted to save myself the trip from going there and having to pickup the recovery CD’s, especailly after how long I took with the machine (2-3 weeks because I was waiting for the laptop part. I left it up to her by the way, I could fix the
Thanks so much for reading. Any advice is greatly appreciated.