Can My Landlord Legally Do This?

On October 1st, we signed a one year lease for an awesome house. We were required to pay a $3,500 deposit for the house, plus a $400 deposit for our dogs. Our cost of moving was $400, our natural gas deposit was $250, and our deposit for electricity was $250. So just over a month ago, we spent $4,800 to move in. Since then, we also had November's rent payment of $1,675. We also had the added headache of having to transfer the kids to new schools, change our address, licenses and voter registration. As expected when you move.

When we signed the lease, the owners told us they would love if we wanted to stay for several years, because their two tenants skipped out after a few months. We said our plan was for 5 years or more, and they couldn't have been more thrilled.

12 days ago, they left a note on the door to give us 24 hours notice that they were coming by with an appraiser to do the annual assessment for taxes. No big deal. Today, she called me and told me she is coming by on Sunday to show the house to potential buyers. WTF? When I pressed her for details about how that would impact us, she acted cheery and very vague. We have had an excellent relationship with her and her husband since before we moved in, so this is all out of left field.

The questions I have are......

1. Can they legally sell the house before the lease expires?
2. If they can legally sell the house before the lease expires, does the law require the new owners to honor the lease?
3. Can they just come over and inconvenience us whenever the hell they feel like it to show the house to potential buyers?
4. If they can sell the house and boot us out, do we have legal ground to recoup our nearly $5,000 expenses, and the additional expenses associated with having to move again?

To me, it isn't just the inconvenience, it's rude as shit. This will be the second visit in two weeks, with who knows how many more visits to show the house. We live here, we pay rent, and personally I don't feel like opening my home to strangers whenever my dumbass landlord feels like stopping by. Had they told us these were their intentions before we signed the lease, we never would have signed it. It pisses me off to not know whether they could tell us we had 30 days to leave, when nothing has been on our end to violate the lease agreement, and they just got a bug up their ass to sell the house 6 weeks after we moved in.

Honestly, if they tell us we have to leave, and they can legally do so, we're screwed. We have no money saved up to put another deposit down somewhere, plus all the expenses, and I damn sure don't want to move the kids to a third school in the third month of school. Besides, when we were trying to leave our old house, it took us 3 months of constant searching to find this place. We couldn't get approved anywhere else, and I didn't want to have to deal with that pain in the ass again.

If anybody knows what rights we have legally, please share.

1. I had a landlord do this and the next people who came in to rent it out raised the rent on all of us immediately. I don't know for sure if it is legal but I have definitely seen it firsthand.

2. I don't believe they have to honor anything. They did not sign the agreement with you so you would have to reach a new one with the new owners.

3. They have to give you notice....I think its 48 hours(?). I could be wrong about the amount of time but I know they can't just "show up" and expect you to stop whatever you are doing for them.

4. I honestly don't know the answer to this question.

That is a shitty situation all the way around, bro. I am very sorry this is happening to you guys.

If you have a legally executed lease you have the rights afforded you by the lease for the duration of the lease. Additionally, the owners access to the property during the lease term should be spelled out in the document. The term often used is "quiet enjoyment".

Thanks for the responses fellas. I've been trying to dig up as much as I could find on this, and from what I can decipher, in Virginia they can only legally visit the property 4 times a year, regardless of reason. Any requested visit after that, we can tell them to shove it. I also found out that if they want to keep showing the house, we can set a schedule for it and they have to work around that schedule. If we say we don't want the house shown more than once a month, they can't show it. The language is kinda iffy as to whether the new buyer has to honor the lease, I'm still researching that.

The one upside, is in Virginia they would have to refund 100% of the deposit plus interest, and our last month would be rent free. So there's that. I just don't want to move, I love this place.

Yeah you may have to consult a lawyer on this one. Hope it works out for the best. If that doesn't work follow the instructions at the link below...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r7PyukrFCJ4

The money you paid to move in would have been enough for a deposit for a house of your own. Just saying!

SkinnedAussie said:

The money you paid to move in would have been enough for a deposit for a house of your own. Just saying!

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Not where I'm at unfortunately.

I was always under the assumption that if the house was sold the lease had to still be honored. I am sure there is language in the lease that spells that out.

I can't believe they let you move in and did not give you a heads up that they are going to put it on the market. I would think you have some sort of recourse on that.