I moved to Dallas for a job, so I signed the 13 month lease. Jobs being what they are, I had me move back OUT of Dallas 8 months later. Ooops! By Texas law, the landlord has a duty to mitigate meaning the management company must attempt to rent out your apartment to recover lost rent before sticking you with a fat bill for the rest of the lease. Well, they had 5 months to find a replacement renter and failed. Couldn't find a renter in 5 months' Give me a break. I'm currently in litigation with them over the matter.

Don't expect the management company to work with you if the unexpected happens!

Outside of that, the kitchens were getting dated.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/09/2008
Let me know which apartment you were in and I'll let you know if they rented out. I am sure they did. Are you litigating in JP court? Don't forget punitive damages for fraud and definitely pay the five dollar fee for a jury trial. Need pleadings? I will supply. Yeah, like to see you get the smug SOB's. JP Court has upto to 10K in jurisdiciton. Definitely go for punitive and in this area .. the jury will award it. Go, go, go. Post the apt number here. I will let you know when I think they rented it out. But most of these have not stayed vacant for long and if they rented any apt. with your floor plan during that time ... whether it was your apt. or not .. you can go with punitive damages. I'll post the pleadings you need. Oh, and DO NOT FORGET .... if they screw with your credit ... forget about JP court. Go after them in County Court at Law for Dallas. In fact you might have a better jury there anyway.
From: bttapts	Date: 08/11/2008
mdufel - First of all you were not in apt 1201. Secondly, you have spoken with management and the corporate office on a number of occasions over a number of months. You and I have spoken personally. You were made fully aware of your rights and responsibilities under your lease which is a legally binding document. We offered to work with you regarding paying your responsibilities. You decided not to and choose to default under the lease. We did try to mitigate, the apartment has been actively marketed since it was vacated. There are a number of websites where it is listed, you should look into that. It is still vacant at this time. Trust me, we want to lease apartments, we do not like them to sit vacant with no rental income. This is just business 101. We have followed every one of our responsibilities under Texas law and under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. When we spoke in March I asked you to call the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas which is a great source for renters who have questions regarding their leases, you declined the phone number. I'm not sure what more we could have done to assist you with your life change. You rejected the offer of pay out over time, you rejected the offer of sources that could assist you with questions, and you have not contacted us in over 6 months. If you would like to discuss the situation you have my phone number. Please call, the debt has not been placed on your credit - that is why I sent the courtesy letter, to give you the opportunity, once again, to address the situation before it adversely affects your credit. I'm not sure what more we could have done and I can promise you - you would not get a courtesy letter from 99% of management companies.
From: mdufel	Date: 08/12/2008
melmismo - you just put your finger on the reason I didn't bother contacting the TAA. I certainly didn't expect them to do anything other than what you did; a simplistic reading of the contract language. Contracts may have language that doesn't stand up to litigation. A good example of this would be a non-complete agreement between employers and employees. The employer can have a widget maker sign an agreement to never make widgets again if he leaves the company, but such an agreement would get tossed out in court. In short, the dispute is lies in the legal grey are of what constitutes an attempt to mitigate, as required in Texas law. In the end, because the language of the state law is vague and therefore subjective, it boils down to what a judge or jury thinks. The contract may state that I am responsible for the rent, but this language should be looked at with respect to state law. I'm not looking for someone to blame, I'm looking for BTT to live up to the requirements of state law.
From: melmismo	Date: 08/13/2008
And I am looking for the spell check....perhaps you should look into it as well. "???the dispute is lies in the legal grey are" - assuming you are trying to say the dispute lies in the legal grey area. Non-complete agreement - 13 years of working in the legal field, never heard of it. Non-COMPETE is what you are looking for I am guessing. Also, non-competes do stand up in court. Perhaps you should do a little more research on Lexis (no, this isn???t a reference to the car manufacturer) and get the case law. Lastly, of course contracts cover the company, which is their purpose. Looking for loopholes is what the thousands of people filing frivolous lawsuits do. Good luck!
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/13/2008
Your cause of action against BTT is for damage to your credit ... so check it now. If your credit is damaged in any way sue them now. Don't wait for them to sue you. I will provide the pleadings. If they sue you --- you can use discovery to request information on all apts rented after you left. If they rented any with your floor plan and just sat on yours you have a cuase off action. A reasonable period of time to get yours ready to show is two weeks. If they drug that out longer you have a cause of action. I assume you lost your deposit. That should cover that two week period. How many square feet was your apt? What were you paying per month? I think you can look on their website to determine square feet if you do not know it. Also if they were asking signficantly more than what you were paying then that is a factor to be considered by the jury. In a true mitigation of damage claim they would have had to offer th apartment at the same price you were paying. If they were offering it at a higher rate then you can walk away from any damage at all. They are raising rents now and I suspect they offered the apt. at a higher rate. They are bullies for sure but do not be intimidated. Take them to court if your credit is impacted in any fashion PLUS sue them in your state where you are located now. Make them hire an atty there. They will have to hire an atty anyway. Sue them in COouonty Court not in JP Court. It will probably cost them $5K to litigate this. Do it. The previous post was not by an attorney ... who has any experience in non-competes. This sounds like a paralegal to me ... at best. Ignore that post. Its ludricous.
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/14/2008
TO: 13 YEARS OF WORKING IN THE LEGAL FIELD aka "melmismo". What in the world does a non-compete agreement have to do with mitigation of damanges for breach or rental contract? FIRST: Non-competes (which I litigate ALL THE TIME) are based on contractual agreements between an employer and an employee. (Nothing to do with an apartment complex.) SECONDLY: These agreements can be reformed by the court if found to be excessively broad in terms of time, geography or profession. For example a webdesigner typically can only be limited to a six month period of time while many business executives can be limited for a year or two to a very narrow field and there are many, many exceptions and ways around this.) So if you consider these to be frivolous lawsuits then clearly you have never tried one. HOWEVER, THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MITIGATION OF DAMAGE DUTY OF THE APARTMENT COMPLEX. THIS IS A PRETTY STANDARD ISSUE. THE QUESTION FOR THE JURY WILL BE DID THIS APARTMENT COMPLEX ATTEMPT TO MITIGATE PLAINTIFF'S DAMAGES BY OFFERING THIS APARTMENT AT THE RATE PAID BY PLAINTIFF. Or better yet ... get this before the court on a MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT. This is not a GRAY area. Mitigation of damages is well defined and well litigated beginning with the landmark case of Hadley v. Baxendale. 13 Years of Working in the Legal field must have been a constable or process server. This person knows zip about the law notwithstanding their ability to use spellcheck.
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/18/2008
Okay, this is how you get them. They did not attempt to mitigate damages. They were not offering your apartment at the price you paid but at their new upgraded prices. They have a duty to offer it at the price you were paying not their new prices. They act like they are doing you a favor by not placing the debt on your credit. They are doing themselves a favor. They are not in business to do you favors. If you credit is impacted in any fashion you have much more of a case against them than they will ever obtain from you in rent. You should not owe over two months rent. I am sure they kept your deposit. What is the amount they want? I promise you they will spend much more than that in attorneys fees plus you will get damages if this impacts your credit. They have not been offering any apartments at less than their new square foot market value and this includes yours. There are no special 'mitigation of damages' deals on apartments. They did not attempt to mitigate your damages. OH AND IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO DIE ANY TIME SOON BE CERTAIN TO TELL THE APARTMETN COMPLEX. The contract states:>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> of Sole Resident. If you are the sole resident, upon your death you may terminate the Lease Contract without penalty with at least 30 days written notice. You will be liable for payment of rent until the latter of: (1) the termination date, or (2) until all possessions in the apartment are removed.

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates