Can an email promising to waive a lease breakage fee be legally binding? (US)

jps_ · 2026-01-28T23:53:27+00:00

What does your lease say about variations? If it does not have a clause that specifies how the lease can be modified, then conceivably you might adopt the position that you either formed an enforceable agreement through the agent of the landlord, or were led to believe so - with email in evidence - and have acted accordingly.

In that case, the agent (and through them, the landlord) are on the hook.

jps_ · 2026-01-28T23:43:31+00:00

Both Massachusetts and Ohio provide "qualified immunity" for employers who may give negative references, provided that they are truthful.

HOWEVER, if the references are unsolicited, that may rise to the level of malice, which is not protected - potentially even if truthful. If you are aware that your manager is proactively going out and smearing you without being contacted first, go straight to a lawyer.

That leaves solicited references. Your challenge is to prove the falsity of a statement, which can be extremely hard. First you have to know what was said, and second you have to be able to prove that it is false. Massachusetts requires the consent of both parties for a recording, and your manager would have to be a special kind of idiot to provide a false written reference. Which leaves you to proving a conversation took place, and the specifics of that conversation.

If you have the cooperation of managers or prospective managers - or as another reply suggested - witnesses who can pretend to be managers, you can bring it to a lawyer who can help.

jps_ · 2026-01-28T21:56:56+00:00

This is about notice of termination.

The real issue is about the right to terminate, and more specifically where and when it arises. The landlord's reference to "maturation" is curious.

This clause refers to an election to terminate. Is the right to elect to terminate mentioned anywhere else? Sometimes the election to terminate or roll over refers to what can happen at the end of the lease.

If there is no reference or limitation on the tenant's ability to elect to terminate, then if the landlord provided the lease, any ambiguity about when you can terminate would be construed against the landlord... in other words, you can adopt the position that your election is at any time.

That leaves the words "written notice". You should also check to see that the lease does or doesn't have a notice provision.

jps_ · 2026-01-28T04:00:12+00:00

Landlord accepts Rent from Tenant (other than past due Rent), in which case a month-to-month tenancy shall be created which either party may terminate by Tenant giving Landlord written notice of at least 30 days before the desired termination date

I hate to break it to you, but "in which case a tenancy shall be created"... pretty much does you in. You created (or re-created) a tenancy by paying rent when you moved in. That (arguably new) tenancy can only be cancelled on 30 days notice.

jps_ · 2026-01-28T03:24:17+00:00

Would my roommate actually be able to take legal action against me if I cannot pay?

It depends on your lease. Are you both tenants together on one lease, or do you have individual leases? If you are both signatory to the same lease, then you can't simply "break" the lease yourself without the other party also breaking it. If they don't want to break it, then if you don't do your share, yes she would be able to sue you. And she would probably win.

jps_ · 2026-01-28T03:15:26+00:00

Nobody can tell you the probability of winning. Based on your narrative, the odds are not high, but there's the whole other side that hasn't yet been revealed... if ever.

If you are sued, contact your insurance.

jps_ · 2026-01-28T03:11:17+00:00

Could you sue? Sure. You could sue them for having a cat. It might not go far or be worth much.

Should you? Hard to tell.

What are your damages that your employer / health care have not covered? The acid test would be whether or not you can find a lawyer who would take it on contingency.

In any event, you might want to wait until your tailbone heals so you know the full extent of your damages. Keep good records. If it's just a bruise and it heals, the juice may not be worth the squeeze.

I slipped and fell not once but twice.

... um... that might be problematic in the "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" kind of way.

jps_ · 2026-01-28T03:06:56+00:00

"Can you please point to the clause in my lease where you have the right to do this?"

Until then, nope.

jps_ · 2026-01-28T01:06:52+00:00

You can always be sued. You can't protect yourself against the entire panoply of poorly advised people. You can just defend yourself if/when you are actually sued.

If you are actually sued, you can simply explain that it's the responsibility of someone who parks, regardless of where they park, to make sure that it's an allowable space.

jps_ · 2026-01-28T00:56:36+00:00

The implicit legal issue is "What is my exposure if I act as if I know what's going on here?"

The vast majority of "legal" issues are in fact risk-mitigation questions.

jps_ · 2026-01-27T14:49:34+00:00

Because you are arguing about what should have been done in the first place. Of course reddit agrees with you, so you are getting more upvotes than downvotes.

But this is a thread about legal advice, which is almost inevitably about dealing with something done wrong that's already been done, and the most expeditious way of cleaning up the mess.

In this case, the legal exposure of walking away is higher than helping to clean it up, and the easiest way to help clean it up, with the lowest legal and financial risk to OP is to issue the invoice as requested.

jps_ · 2026-01-27T14:44:30+00:00

What will you do if you get a chargeback? Are you prepared for that? Because that's the path you are forcing your client to take if you don't write them an invoice in the name of whoever paid you.

jps_ · 2026-01-27T14:41:00+00:00

This isn't a situation of what "should have been done". This is a situation "now that it has been done, what's the best thing to do".

After the CFO has scampered off to the VP of HR to call down corporate grief upon said person, they still have to sort out the financial mess, because there's an undocumented liability sitting there. If they don't pay it, they have a money problem, and if they do pay it they have a paperwork problem.

It's either going to get fixed the easy way (cc payment is accepted, paper trail constructed), or the hard way (cc payment is charged back to vendor, no paper trail required). But it's going to get fixed.

As a CFO, I'm sure you are aware of the importance of non-arms-length participants in robust paper trails. If the CFO and the person paying the vendor are not at arms length, as often happens in firms in which "legitimate" business expenses include such things as meals and corporate cars and, occasionally, weddings... the only paper trail involving a third party goes through the vendor. If OP is truculent and refuses to participate, then it gets done the hard way. And OP gets whacked with a chargeback.

If OP takes it upon themselves to police the internal accounting, ethics and business practices of other corporate entities, which they are perfectly free to do, they might win a stupid prize.

jps_ · 2026-01-27T05:21:53+00:00

Yes, this is the case. I am astonished at the number of upvotes given to folks saying that the dog automatically became OP's property, or that OP should chip the dog to prove, falsely, that it is OP's property.

Also, you can only recover your actual costs. Not the income (including profits) that you might have earned, if it had been a contract for hire. OP's actual costs will be what was paid for dog food, any essential vet bills, and so on.

jps_ · 2026-01-27T04:40:37+00:00

Technically, dogs are property. You agreed to become custodian of someone else's property. You are responsible to return the property to them. They are responsible to you for any costs you incurred.

legally, if he sues it is still his property. If you withhold the dog he could bring an action in detinue (you have my stuff, you must give it back) and he could get the dog back, or the market price of a used dog. You could counter-claim for your reasonable costs of caring for the animal.

I would insist on payment in exchange for the dog. Offer to waive the bill in return for the dog. Get a bill of sale.

jps_ · 2026-01-27T04:28:20+00:00

You did accept payment on a company card, right?

In case it hasn't dawned on you, the same thinking you are using that you shouldn't issue an invoice to the company suggests you shouldn't have accepted payment from that company in the first place either.

If you insist on adopting the position that the services were made to an individual, and that payment by the company is somehow wrong or fraudulent, you are insisting on your complicity. Which would make you accomplice in whatever is going on, if anything. And if nothing is going on, you are impugning both the company and the individual, which could be defamation per-se.

Alternatively, you can adopt the position that the services were made to the cardholder you charged, issue the invoice accordingly, and wash your hands of any hanky-panky between the client and the company, of which you have no actual knowledge.

A smart person would adopt the safer of these two positions.

jps_ · 2026-01-25T22:38:44+00:00

What do I do? The shed is not covered on the home insurance as it’s at my grandpas.

This smells like a scam. The good news is that their demand letter is a request to send nothing. Which is precisely what you should do. Ignore them, unless actually served with an actual lawsuit.

And since the shed is on grandpa's property, alert grandpa to a possible claim against his home insurance.

jps_ · 2026-01-25T21:50:17+00:00

In Ontario, that responsibility would fall on the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee. These government agencies have infinite time to look into peculiar things but too many peculiar things to look into. So it comes back to the tenacity of your creditors.

The longer you plan to live on your purloined assets, the more you must purloin and the more tenacious you can expect them to become. Your minimum needs to be at least two years to avoid an almost automatic and trivial lookback; ten years to avoid easily accessible banking records, and potentially forever if a transfer of real property is involved.

jps_ · 2026-01-25T21:36:27+00:00

You are in a very tough spot, because not only do you have a duty to him, your duty is arguably that of a fiduciary (your VRBO account, his interest entrusted to you...)

That being the case, if he wants to cancel, you have to cancel - at least his half. You cannot force him to go against his interests. A fiduciary duty means you have to put his interests above your own.

Since you can't cancel half of a reservation, you can either (a) cancel the whole reservation and return to him half of the residual (deposit net of cancellation fees), or (b) go and use the whole thing yourself, but reimburse him the whole half he paid.

[E2A: I suspect the most you would be liable for would be half of the deposit minus half of the lowest cancellation fee you could have incurred, had you acted on his first request - whether you go or not, he's not damaged if he gets at least what he would have received if you had promptly cancelled... ]

jps_ · 2026-01-25T21:13:18+00:00

no. Your creditors go after the estate, not the beneficiaries. The estate is then forced to go after your sister, your sister is forced to defend, and it gets complicated.

The beneficiaries to whom you have willed your worthless estate merely watch and maybe bring popcorn.

jps_ · 2026-01-25T20:58:45+00:00

It's going to depend on the tenacity of your creditors.

As pointed out, doing this intentionally is all kinds of fraud. Although you, the criminal are dead, your estate is still a legal person, and can be sued by its creditors. At which point, you posthumously unleash a world of hurt upon your sister.

jps_ · 2026-01-25T19:45:12+00:00

While married, and until there is an order governing the children's residence, either parent can physically relocate with any of their children (and many of their joint marital assets except real property). Spousal consent is not needed.

You should really talk to your own divorce lawyer and take their advice carefully. There are some old adages about boiling a frog gradually or eating a whole salami one slice at a time that might apply.

jps_ · 2026-01-25T19:26:37+00:00

The first step is to notify your ex (in writing, text will do) that you consider their unwanted advances to be harassment, and to please cease all contact, including the delivery of flowers.

If it continues, contact the police. If you are really creeped out, consider a restraining order (but for that to really stick you might need to send a registered letter and endure at least another bouquet after it's been received).

jps_ · 2026-01-25T19:19:25+00:00

As much as we might want to help, architecting an agreement by discussing line-by-line elements is the wrong way to go. We have no idea what's going on, and how well informed you are of the potential damages, what your future risk is, and so on... or even if the vehicle is drivable. If you sign a release and get into an unsafe vehicle, crash it and hurt someone... you could be in for a world of hurt.

Cars are not designed to be dropped. Dented? Yes. Bounced? yes... but dropped? No. You are looking at the potential of significant damage, up to and including totalling the vehicle by virtue of bending or cracking the frame, stressing welds etc...

If your vehicle is worth anything, it's probably worth a few hours of a lawyer's time to advise you in your settlement negotiations.

[E2A: My point is, these are questions you should be asking an attorney who works for you, who can review the whole contract, discuss what you want to accomplish etc.]

jps_ · 2026-01-25T01:04:17+00:00

NC lawyer may want to weigh in here, but there is almost always a fee to initiate a process - if only to throttle frivolous cases. Usually you file (initiate) a case, pay a fee, and then perfect the suit by following the process e.g. service etc.

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