Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Texas

My husband and I moved into a new apartment on Oct. 19, 2010. We were in a bit of a hurry to find an apartment and settled pretty quickly on an apartment complex. When we first spoke with the leasing agent, we told her we needed an apartment asap with a 6 month lease. She said she had something for us. So, my husband and I went to the office and discussed the terms and fees which included a $100 deposit and a prorate of $287.00 for October rent. The ONLY contract we signed was a 6 month lease which stated the contract start date as October 19, 2010 and the last day of our lease agreement being April 19, 2011. The leasing agent told us she would have her Manager sign the papers the next day when he was in the office. After signing the contract, I asked the leasing agent for a copy and she was quite reluctant stating, "why do you want one now?" "The owner hasn't signed it yet." I kept insisting though until she finally gave me a copy. My huband and I paid the prorate and moved in the next day.

I went back to the office on November 1, 2010 (when rent was due) and asked for a copy of the lease with the Owner's signature. The leasing agent said she was busy at the moment and that she would leave one at my door. This never happened. In fact, she began to avoid my husband and I when we would go down to the office looking for her.

Recently, February 9, 2011, my husband and I had been wondering about this difficult to obtain lease. My husband went down to the office and found a different leasing agent there. Apparently the original leasing agent who was so hesitant to give us a copy was out sick that day. So, my husband asks the leasing agent present for a copy of the lease. The leasing agent has no problem with providing one.

Later that night when I got home, I started skimming through the recent copy of the lease to find that it was a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT AGREEMENT. It stated we moved in on November 1, 2010 and our move-out date as October 31, 2011. Basically this was a 12 month lease agreement which we DID NOT SIGN. This is the scary part though, our signatures were on the agreement, but they were COMPLETELY IDENTICAL to the original contract we initially signed. It literally looks as if they photocopied our signatures onto the new 12 month contract which we did not agree to.

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