Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Backing out of verbal agreement
Due to personal reasons I had to back out of a verbal agreement to rent a room from an aquaintance. He asked his prior tenant to vacate 15 days early for me to move in. Tenant was moving out anyway. We will be going to small claims court in a month. He wants half of the rent he lost due to me not moving in. I did only give him a few days notice, but the circunstances did not allow for more time. He sent an agreement to me, but never signed it and after reading it, there were several things I would not have agreed to anyway. He calls it a verbal agreement, although he sent me a paper agreement to sign. Is he entitled to this money or should I go to small claims court and try to argue my point? Is there a writen rule stating a time limit for me to safely back out of a verbal agreement?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Backing out of verbal agreement
Leases for longer than a year must be in writing. Otherwise, an oral agreement suffices.
In order for any agreement to be enforced in court, it must be sufficiently definite and complete so that an intention to be bound appears. This is probably the case here, although you might be able to argue that the alleged oral "agreement" was only inoperative preliminary negotiations.
On the whole, based on your version of the facts, I think you are somewhat more likely to lose than to win in small claims court. Of course, the judge will also be hearing the other side's version of the facts, which if persuasive and perhaps backed up by third-party witness testimony could make a very strong case against you.
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