annoying leasing company

You can try and send them a written notice that you're rescinding your offer to lease. What is your situation? Is it that you're dissatisfied with their service or that you've found another apt. to rent? Either way, it's often more productive to be polite and professional in all your communication to them or other leasing companies. They don't get paid enough for you to be rude to them or call them names (no matter how much they deserve it).

We love the apartment, the building, and the staff. We'd love to stay if possible. But the manager of leasing office has been overtly rude to us (e.g.,calling us names). We are concerned about getting into a professional relationship with a group of people who can be so immature.

If we were to send out this mail, should we kiss our deposit goodbye? Should we expect to be sued for one year's rent?

I don't know. My guess is if you don't have a fully-executed lease, then no, but I would advise you to speak to a real estate attorney as you're asking legal questions. I'm not passing the buck, but you deserve a correct answer and not a guess. Maybe a real estate attorney will answer on this thread.

I'd bail if you can--even if you love the apartment you've clearly started off on really bad footing with management. They sound like absolute jerks. Do you honestly want to deal with that?

Definitely contact an attorney ASAP before sending any letters or making any more calls to the leasing office--if they get a whiff that you're planning to bail they'll execute that lease quickly and you may no longer have any recourse.

would doing this create issues for us to rent in manhattan in the future? it seems some of the large rental buildings are bit like the mafia ..

As someone who works with leasing offices often, let me say this:

I understand that they can be frustrating, but let it go. Whatever hassle you've gone through, whatever insult you've suffered, it will soon fade, and then you'll be in your apartment, dealing with an entirely different set of people.

You have signed the lease at whatever building this is, so you obviously want to live there. Check back on your paperwork tomorrow, and be nice -- they may be backed up from the holiday. Then try again on Monday. Just remember, they're not the people you'll be dealing with on a day-to-day basis.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

Although my natural inclination would be to walk, experience tells me to agree with Ali. Enjoyment of your apartment is full-time, dealing with these jokers will be occasional at most. And if they continue to be difficult, you will likely have chances to get back at them, and/or complain to owners, if either makes you feel better.

To answer your original question, I was in a similar situation last year. The specifics of my situation were that I had signed a lease, but they were yanking my chain and not giving me back a counter-signed copy. This was annoying because I didn't know if I was or wasn't under the obligations of the lease, would I be on the hook if I got another place and then they executed the lease, etc. So I spoke with a couple of lawyer friends and was told that the basics of contract law state that if they haven't given you a signed copy, you can revoke your signature, and the contract won't exist. I don't even think you have to have any reason for revocation. Obviously, you're much better off leaving an email or paper trail demonstrating that your revocation occured before a counter-signed copy was given (i.e., in case they try to give you one later). Also, here's a link that might be useful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offer_and_acceptance. I am not a lawyer myself, so act accordingly w.r.t. seeking proper counsel for yourself.

With regard to your deposit, they ought not to have cashed it since no contract exists yet between the two of you. If they haven't cashed it, and you wrote a personal check, you may want to put a stop payment on it to reduce your stress level. If they have cashed it and refuse to refund it, or if they do after your revocation, you'd presumably have to go to court to get it back (at which point I'd personally go for punitive damages or whatever, since they had no right to touch the money w/o a contract). FWIW, I doubt it'd go that far since they wouldn't want to spend money on a laywer when they have no case: there is no lease, so there is no quid pro quo for them taking your deposit. Clearly, I have watched too much legal television, but perhaps a real lawyer can chime in here?

Now to the other quesion of should you get out, that's a personal question. The place that I had found was a super, 1-in-a-1000 type of special place, so it was extremely hard to let it go. But I set up a situation where the landlord clearly demonstrated the extent to which he was a slimeball, and knowing I had to deal with him for the next few years, it just wasn't worth it. (Remember the scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? I was Indy, and the apartment was the Chalice -- "Indiana, let it go....") As an added bonus, the guy lost a month or two of rent because I was supposed to move in a week or two, which made my belly extra warm-n-fuzzy for giving him the finger. On the downside, I had to move out of my old place in a few weeks w/ no prospects! It was a stressful time, but to make a long story short, I found a 1-in-a-2000 type of special place I live in now, so it all worked out. To top it off, my current landlord should be nominated for "The Greatest Landlord Ever" award or something....

Hope this helps...

I should add that I totally agree w/ newbuyer99 on ratting out the bastards to their bosses, but I personally would only do that (and would feel tremendous enjoyment from it) if I wasn't living there. Besides, the message to the boss is a lot simpler if they've lost money as a result of the leasing agent's behavior.

On the other hand, I wouldn't worry too much about "creating issues to rent in Manhattan in the future": it's a very big city. This sounds like a big management company, and this is some random person working there, so I wouldn't worry about being "blacklisted" at other buildings, especially ones that are not managed by this same company. So there's some small chance that 2% of the Manhattan rental stock won't accept your money -- so what?