Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Iowa

My wife, I and our 5 kids have been renting a duplex for 4 years now. I budget all my bills so I always pay our rent on time. We have never given the landlord problems. We signed our lease on March of 2007 and our rent is due on the end of every month with a 3 day grace period. Just recently my wife (Amanda) called the landlords wife (let's call her Linda) and asked if we could skip this months rent and make it up either installments or at the end of our lease. My wife said Linda was very kind and helpful and said "sure no problem we will work something out. Dont worry about it" and even engaged in friendly small talk. Bless her heart, my wife knew I was a little stressed out lately because of some auto repairs that need be done and thought she would try and help out somehow. I was glad she went through the trouble and felt some relief but knew there would be strings attached. This all happend on the 3rd of the month I had intended on getting home, writing the rent check and mailing it out until she had told me the "good" news. Well I had come home on the 5th to find Linda walking towards me from a couple houses down and approached me about the rent and even went as far as to mention something about involving a lawyer. I was surprised and confused and told her I thought her and my wife had worked something out. She apparently wanted to back out of the deal and so I went in and wrote the rent check and handed it to her. She had also asked if I had had a chance to look at the new lease agreement. I said I had not had a chance to look at it and I would do so that night and mail it to her. She said ok and left. I woke up the next morning and my wife said Linda called and demanded the signed lease be brought to her work by 11am. So I looked the lease over real quick and noticed Linda had changed the rental agreement to May 31st 2011 through May 30th 2012. Like I said we signed the original lease in March of 2007. So I started to head down to deliver the lease and called Linda on the way. She was very short and nasty with me and told me to forget it. Its too late and she was going to rent month to month increasing the rent by $100. I told Linda we couldn't pay the extra and we would have to move out. Later that day the landlords brought "pay or quit" papers to sign and gave us our 3 day notice and brought back the rent check. Needless to say I am confused. I guess my question is is this legal and do they have a leg to stand on in court? What are my rights? Needless to say regardless of the outcome it is time to move.

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