Recent Feedback
my daughter is a disable veteran that spent 2 yrs in a prison in iraq. she has returned home with PTSD which is a serious mental disability. She signed under duress of high pressure sells manager and her(abusive) boy friend a rental contact for nearly 10k on an apt at 5pm 7-1-09, the next morning they were notified of she circumstances and they agreed to drop the lease with paper work from va stating her mental status, which we did and they accepted the keys to apt. she never moved in. now they are calling and making threats of law suits if she doesnt give them money after the verbal agreement to drop the lease 7-10-09, they are fully aware that she is disabled and that her boy friend is violent and has beat on her and forced her to sign the lease. since they accepted keys and she never moved in and she gave them the paper work that asked for concerning her PTSD can they sue or harrass for money with threats of full 10k for lease she signed under the above circumstances? lease is in FL
Optional Information: State/Country of Question: Florida Already Tried: I have called adult protective services and they dont know yet if they can handle this matter or not. Is there a cooling down period for contacts in Florida or help out there to get her out of this mess without costing atty fees and court cost? its a crying shame they are that low to make threats, lie and take advantage of someone that served our county.. it makes my blood boil.
<p>Unfortunately, your daughter is going to be bound by the lease she signed. A verbal agreement changing the lease is ineffective as it should have been in writing as well. </p><p> </p><p>Your daughter must sue in court to invalidate the lease based upon the fact that she signed it under duress. She can also claim detrimental reliance on the manager's representations that they would accept a cancellation of the lease when in fact they did not. </p>
She can also claim detrimental reliance on the manager's representations that they would accept a cancellation of the lease when in fact they did not. what does that mean in laymans terms? can Small Claims handle this matter? do disabled people have an edge getting out of such matters? is there any way to get free help for her as she is unable to work now?
Since the claim involves a sum of $10,000 (that is how much is at stake if the lease if judicially invalidated), that means that she would not be able to sue in small claims court. If she can bring medical documentation and prove that she was under duress and coerced into signing the lease, then she can succeed. However, that is not to say that disabled people as a whole are more successful because fo their disabilities. She must definitively prove that her disability was such that it rendered her incompetent to sign the lease without such coercion by others. In order to seek legal assistance, she should contact her local county bar association as well as the Florida State Bar Association (www.floridabar.org). Detrimental reliance means that even though there is no contract or duty owed by one person to another, when someone makes representations to another, that causes the other person to rely on those representations to her detriment, that person may sue the misrepresenting party for all the damage suffered because of the false representations.
Experience: 10+years of experience in all matters of civil litigation and Hearing Officer/Arbitrator