Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia

Re: Apartment lease laws

This kind of attitude burns my toast, because you can be sure they would not want to execute a new lease if you were saying there was a mistake. Businesses think that contracts don't mean anything when they don't want to enforce them, but you can be darn sure they will hold you to every little detail and ever penny in their favor.

Of course they cannot disregard the written lease. The only way they could do this would be to prove that you BOTH equally intended June. But since you dispute this, it is exceedingly unlikely that they would prevail on that point.

My colleague correctly points out that we don't know what the lease says. But your question was whether they have to live by the lease as written, and the answer is yes. However, we don't actually know what the lease says. All I can say is that whatever the lease says will be binding.

The question is what to do about it, practically. You could certainly wait until August 17, and show up to claim your apartment at the rate specified in the lease. If they refuse to rent to you, you would have a lawsuit against them, but only if you are "injured." A lawsuit consists of 3 parts: (A) a breach of a duty (a wrong), (B) causation, and (C) damages. So if someone does something outrageously wrong but you are not injured by it, then you don't have a lawsuit.

In your case, if you showed up on August 17 and they refused you, and then you had to pay MORE money for a comparable apartment in a similar area, you could sue them for the difference between what you were required to pay (for the entire one year of the lease) and what you would have paid under the lease with them. In addition, if you have any further costs like storage, etc., you should keep careful documentation and you could sue for that as well.

Also, if they tell you point blank they are not going to give you an apartment at the agreed price on August 17, you can treat this explicit refusal as a breach. You don't have to wait and drive up with a U-haul full of your stuff to show that they are in breach. However, you should send them at least one letter in writing saying "I understand that you are telling me that you refuse to abide by the lease that we signed, and that you will not be providing the agreed apartment at the agreed price on August 17. Please respond if this understanding is not correct."

Re: Apartment lease laws

No, you may not have to submit to your prospective landlord's mistake but it would appear that more information would be necessary (including a review of your lease agreement)before anyone who might be qualified to offer an opinion on this matter would in fact have enough information in order to do so in a credible manner.