Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California
Untruthful Verbal Contract
We entered into a verbal agreement with my in-laws for the purchase of a house. They bought the house in their name and we were to make paymetns for the first 5 years. After five years we were to pay a higher amount (the actual amount of the mortgage). When our credit had been repaired we were to by out the remaining loan on the house and it was to be ours. They had us sign a lease agreement for the amount to be paid for the first 5 years. But nothing else was ever put into writing. We have sunk every spare penny we have into repairing and improving the house over the last 2 years. They are now trying to put us under a rental agreement with Century 21 as the 'property manager' and claim that at the end of the lease we need to find somewhere else to live without any compensation for the money and labor we have put into the house. Do we have any legal rights to fight this?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Untruthful Verbal Contract
A contract to buy real property must be in writing to be valid. I don't think you can get paid for the work you did, but it depends on the facts.
What you should do has nothing to do with legal rights. Tell your in-laws that if they don't live up to their word, they will never see their grandkids (your kids.) Make sure your wife supports this approach before you try it.
Re: Untruthful Verbal Contract
typically property sale contracts/agreements need to be in writing so they are not violative of the statute of frauds. however, there are various exceptions to this rule if detrimental reliance on the verbal agreement is shown, i.e. in the form of improvements made to the property that ordinarily would not be done by "a normal tenant". thus, from your facts so far, you have a very strong case showing that you partially performed your end of the verbal agreement thru all of the investments you made, which would show detrimental reliance. i would strongly suggest that you retain legal counsel asap in this matter. if you would like further assistance in this matter, feel free to email my office today with how you might like to proceed.
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