Hi, My friend signed a lease. Her Landlord is (WestCare) a program called VetsCare. The property is in the state of Georgia. The issue is th...

Question

Hi, My friend signed a lease. Her Landlord is (WestCare) a program called VetsCare. The property is in the state of Georgia. The issue is the lease has 2 errors which resulted in rent that on the lease being higher than what it should be. The facts: VetsCare is a program that has received funding from the city.

HUD, Housing Authority and the grantor (the City of Atlanta) stipulate what amount the grantee is suppose to charge for rent. Prior to signing the lease the program (VetsCare) tried to charged my friend more than 50% of her adjusted AMI (adjusted monthly income) for rent. My friend called the various agencies HUD, Housing, and Grantor to see if they (WestCare) could do this. She was informed that they could not based on the current policies that are in place. My friend then discussed her findings with the agencies and they agreed to charge her the rent in accordance with funding guidelines. However, after the lease was reviewed, after signing, there are 2 mistakes. One of the mistakes may be an oversight the other error may be intentional.

The first mistake is an error in calculating her income. It appears they looked at her income verification letter from social security and grabbed the wrong number to come up with the monthly rent. The letter from SSA, because of an increase to my friends income, said she would receive $834.70. However, on the next line it stated that they have to round down to the nearest whole dollar which would result in my friend receiving $834.

The error is they, WestCare, left out a table of deductions on the application and lease. Each program participant may be entitled to a yearly deduction from there AMI based on type of income received or child care paid etc. In my friends case her deduction should be $400 because she receives social security. On the landlords application and lease they refer to this table in a paragraph below where the table should appear however the table was not printed on the lease or application and my friend missed this.

Question: Is this a valid lease? Can or should it be amended or fixed?

Thoughts: My friend would end up paying more than she should if this lease is enforceable.

Answer

Frankly, not many will read that long post because if the story is that long it probably is not a simple question for the internet and there is probably a couple more sides to the story. At the end, you ask if the lease is valid. To get an opinion on any contract, it generally has to be reviewed.