We were originally in a rent-to-own property, owned by Deuk "David" Yeon. As the lease was expiring, we talked about buying the property. At the time we really liked it, so we agreed to a significantly higher price than we believed the property was worth, because we planned on staying a very long time.
After signing a contract he agreed to let us stay in the house until approximately March 1 (this was summer 2006). Over the course of the lease (1 year), we saw David once and spoke to his voicemail 2 times, and his wife once.
Over the course of the next few months the house began to fall into significant disrepair. We found a leak inside a wall, water came in the basement, appliances were 30 years old, a pipe was rusted so bad it flaked off when I tried to replace part of it, etc... Neighbors told us that as long as David had owned the house, he had not repaired external damage (storm door perpetually off the frame), and had allowed tenants who violated multiple HOA violations and had the police called on them, to stay without apparent consequence.
When he called us about getting a mortgage, we began looking. *Note: rent had been prepaid through the end of February, several months before* An online CMA of our house showed it was about $40,000.00 overpriced, and when a rep from the CMA company called and said we could look at similar houses, we decided to. Within 10 days of that call we had a contract signed and ratified, mortgage, insurance, everything. We informed David we weren't going to buy his house and moved out the next day. Until now,
On the day of the move, David's wife, Kyong Hui Yeon, showed up and, in front of my family, the movers and my father, threw a huge fit in the front yard. Besides not answering why her husband left the place in such bad condition, she demanded 3 months rent right there to "make this go away." Yes, she used those words.
We paid all the rent, they knew we weren't going to be renting from them as of March 1, and we were okay with losing the deposit on the house. We said we'd have the place professionally cleaned and would be out before the end of the month as a courtesy. Later that day, as we continued to move out, David came by the house and threw a fit, said he wanted money, etc...
Now we got a letter in the mail saying that if we don't give them 2 months rent they will sue us for emotional distress and loss of rental income.
1. A business transaction does not result in emotional distress: if you're sad that we're not buying your dump that's really your issue
2. If we're out before the end of the lease, someone can move in March 1: if we bought a house of the course of a week, you can rent one in less. Unless you decide that the house isn't in rental condition and think it'll take 2 months to fix it up well enough to sucker someone else into.
3. The letter demands that we be completely vacated by February 16 (later this week). Considering we payed through the end of the month, and you generally cannot evict someone for not paying the current (in theory, March's) month's rent, this sounds very close to an illegal eviction.in which case we will definitely NOT pay for his pain and suffering, our lawyer can explain that part.
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