Are verbal contracts legally enforceable?

"A verbal contract is not worth the paper it is written on"

ques. former friend received forecloser letter from bank he was going to let them have it back i said let me buy it for what the bank wants him to pay or lose it he said ok 911.00 that day icame up with 750 went to bank with him ask if i could hav a week to get remainder bank said sureall igot was the bank receipt with his name my name on nothing due to not having it all to get deed that day payed another 100 leaves my balance at 50/ now hesays deal off wont take my 50 were do i stand leaglly how do i get my land

Can't advise you on this situation, John, but it seems to me that it's fishy the bank didn't actually generate a proper receipt that indicating what the payment was for, what amount remained, etc. You also should have had a contract - written, not verbal - with your friend indicating that if you assumed the debt you would also receive the transferred deed for the property. Good luck with this one.

I agreed to but a cricket outfield roller from Leicestershire CCc for £600. I visited their site twice the last time being two weeks ago to view the item. It would not start but they promised to get it goimg. If this was a problem I told them to get a third party in a I would pay. I went away to arrange transport. I phoned them last week without any rersponse. I phoned them on Friday to make final arrangements but they told me they had already sold it (In the last two weeks I presume). This was done without any contact with me.

Have they broken a verbal/oral contract.

I was going to buy a car from a dealer. I called and confirmed a price. I was sent an e-mail stating the price. I then asked two or three times if this price was correst. I was told the price was correct. Then my wife and I went to see the car. I went to buy the car. When I got to the dealer I again asked two or three times was this price correct, I was told it was and that the sales person had checked the price with their manager. Then they brought me the paper and aske dso do we have a deal and I said yes, I have the paper with the agreed upon price. Then I asked agin three or four times is this the correct price and again I was told it was. When we went to the finance department. They took the paper work into the other room. The sales person came back and said that there had been a mistake! We were $ 8,000 a part on the deal.

Do I have any recourse?? I have the e-mail and the deal they offered me in my hands.

Thank YOU,

I have an oral agreement with a gentleman to paint an apartment complex. After completing the first coat of paint, he told me that he needed me to not work for a week because he was short on money. I discovered that he had gotten another painter to complete the work for a cheaper price. I went to this person and questioned him about this and he told me that the other person was only doing some touch-up work and that he still wanted me to finish the job. This was 3 weeks ago and the second coat of paint is now complete and the person is now working on the interior. The only evidence that I have is a hand written estimate. Do I have any recourse?

Keith Plumley
Atkinson, GA

Hi Dave,
I was offered a position in a real estate firm . The affiliated position I was asked to be involved in was this: One partner of the firm wanted me to be his sole Buyer's Agent. Thus , the team of his was the partner doing the listing of properties, his secretary ( paid contractual employee) conducted the paperwork etc) and me - the buyer's agent for all buyers who inquired on the Partner's properties or who were referred directly to him through friends, banks etc.
All was as agreed upon until the secretary started withholding buyer inquiries from me and keeping them for herself and the Partner. Prior to this behavior she had been demeaning to me and I had attempted to address this in a professional manner with the partner and then at his suggestion with the two of them.
In the end, she had kept many buyers for herself( although her contractual agreement forbid her from showing property, so perhaps she knew she would be successful in getting rid of me( somehow she must have envied my youthful energy ( we are same age but I am much younger in many ways) and then either she would have -or she could give to her boss - the partner- those coveted buyers whom she'd 'stolen' from me.

Since my verbal contract for 4 + months was pretty consistent, what strategies, suggestions do you have when I go to mediation with the local board?
Thank you very much

have a friend who agreed to put up a fence for us. In return we'd pay him $400 plus buy a power washer (worth $400). We bought him the power washer and now he's not returning our calls and we've pretty much got the idea he's not doing the fence. However, I doubt he's going to give back the power washer or the money that we spent on it. I'll probably have to take him to court. Here's the other part. Just before this, we were flooded in this area (iowa floods of 2008). We borrowed his power washer which was over 3 yrs old and it died within 5 min of using it. We had it checked out and the guy said the pump was bad and it could have died at any time. We're thinking he rushed us into getting him the power washer now because we told him we weren't going to pay for one previously. However, he legitimately acted like he was going to do the fence, we trusted him. There were other parts of our house he wanted to help on too. In court, do we have a case, even if we don't say anything about the old power washer??

Meagan, sounds like a tough situation. I suggest that you indeed go into small claims court, but think beforehand whether it's worth $400 to potentially have an angry neighbor forever, versus just writing off the loss and getting on with your lives.

Bob gave my son an atv/4-wheeler worth app 2500.00. It needed app 2500.00 worh of mechanic work performed. My son performed the work and 2 moths later Bob comes back and wants his atv back and stateing that he did not give Paul the atv. app. 35 days ago Paul sent Bob a certified letter stateing that the only way he was giving the atv back was if Bob paid him the 2500.00 for the mechanic bill. Bob shows up today wanting to take the atv and Paul refuses to give it to him without paying the bill. Bob said he was going to the police and report it stolen! Paul is scared! can the police make Paul give the atv back??? or does it have to go before a judge??? Paul has no contract signed!!!but does have a copy of the certified letter stateing that if Bob does not pay his bill within 30 days he is to late! Bob showed up 33 days later!! refuseing to pay.

We paid a guy to remodal our bathroom back in Sept. he still has not finished it and will not return my calls. My son works for him and he has talked to him about it and the just laughs and says ( what can they do about it). He says that he is loosing money on theis job b/c he priced it to low.It appears that he has no intention of finishing the job. My trusting husband has paid him all the money unfortunatley ($3500.00). It there anyting we can do?

Judy

Hi I finished working self employed as a recruitment consultant last august and my employer is stating that he does not owe me commission as it is a custom within recruitment agencies not to pay owed commission if the employer has not recieved the money by the time I left. I worked for the company for three years and I had never heard of this custom before. The people i had placed had worked the hours by the date i left so it was just a case of invoicing the client for the money. Can you let me know if this is true?

I heard from a friend that an elderly woman in my neighbourhood wished to sell her car. I called at her place to inspect the car that was for sale. I was shown a Honda Civic by the woman's grandson, Ail. I noted that the car had an odometer reading of 63,000KM. I indicated that I was prepared to buy the car for $10,000 and Ali said that it was a price he could accept. I left $800 as a deposit with Ali.

Before taking the delivery of the car, I discovered that it was Ali whi owned the car, not his grandmother. Also, it had done 163,000 Km since new.

Q1. Advice me if I am entitle to renounce the agreement and the return of my deposit.

Q2.would your advice be different if Ali had said to me during the negotiation that he belived the odometer reading to be genuine?

I was wondering if an employer is obligated to pay commission on sales for last year and a half. This was averbal agreement and many people were aware of it. The commission is at about 15,000 dollars, and i have since then been fired. What kind of legal action can I pursue??

Dear Dave

A little over 3 years ago I went to work as Executive Director for an association. As foolish as it was I did not obtain a written contract but we did enter into a witnessed verbal agreement and I went to work. There are several board members who have had issue with hiring me since the beginning and have made my position less than pleasant. Five months ago I received a bonus acknowledging my hard work and contributions to the association. There has since been a change of board members and the new board members are seeking reasons to remove me. Here is my question - since there is no issue with my work performance and there is no issue with my management of the association, if the board decides to terminate me do I have any recourse? I do not want to keep the position if they would like me to leave but I would like some type of financial compensation. I work out of my house so all of the associations records/documents are stored in my basement and all of their data is my computer as the computer, etc. belong to me.

Thank you for your assistance.

Greg, I would get written statements from the people you believe were aware of your commission offer from the company, then send a letter to the president of the company detailing the exact sales you brought in that were eligible for the commission, a copy (not the original!) of the statements from others and a spreadsheet showing exactly ow you calculate the $15,000 you believe you're owed. Ask for a chance to meet and talk about a settlement prior to your gong to small claims court and see what happens. Good luck.

Katie, you probably have no recourse because most states are what are called "at will" employment states which means that you can be fired for any - or no - cause and there's not really much you can do about it. What I would suggest instead, however, is you exploring what you can do to make your relationship with these Board members more pleasant. Have you had a meeting where you let them air their grievances? Created a "task force" with them involved so that they can address some of what hey believe needs to be different about the association? I'd try to solve the problem rather than block them exercising their legal obligation as Board members to steer the organization in the direction they believe is best for it.

I paid for a hotel room this last Thursday in cash for use of the room on Saturday. Friday night i called and asked the women working at the front desk if the room was booked so i could come in and decorate it for the following night. She paused for a moment. I told her that if she needed to talk to a manager and get back to me it is fine because i dont want my things touched. She told me it was fine. I told her okay but if my things are messed with i will be reimbursed for the room and all of the decorations she said that is fine. I go in at 11pm no one has still checked into the room. I got the key and decorated for the next 3 hours. The next night was my bestfriends bachelorette party (the reason I decorated) I walk into the room and everything is gone. My bestfriend, the wedding party, and myself were so upset that we called it a night and all went home. I talked to the manager the next morning and she told me i could get my money back. I told her i also wanted atleast 50$ for the decorations and presents (though i spent more i was being civil). She promised me that i could pick the money up Tuesday night when i got off of work. At 930pm i drive to the hotel and ask for my money. the young lady tells me the manager didnt come in today. This is 2 broken verbal contracts....Can i do anything???

Unfortunately, probably not. The down side of a verbal contract is that there's no proof that it was made nor any record of the terms agreed upon. Sorry.

A broker has agreed verbally with me to pay me commissions on new accounts , just brougt a new account and refuses to pay. Has paid 3 or 4 times on other accounts. Now he wants a new "partner". Can I sue for the $4500 commission? He is in Tx, the account is in NJ, I am in Sc..If I can where do I file? Thanks

Dan, until you started listing all the states involved, I was thinking that maybe you could have some sort of case. But, honestly, with that level of complexity I think you'd be hard set to figure out where to prosecute the case, let alone establish a solid evidence trail and inform a judge about what happened. Sorry.

What if you were interested in doing a puppy training so you contacted a man who claims to be a puppy trainer. He then emails you prices for his services, and offers to meet up with you and your puppy on a particular day to talk about his services and get to know me and my puppy. So, I agree to meet with him. (At this point there is no mentioning of a "consultation fee of $79" nor a gas mileage fee. He comes over the next week and we talk for a long time. He explains his services and shows me what he would be doing with the puppy. It sounds good, and the price is doable. Then in excitement I tell him I'd like his services- 6weeks of puppy training. I write him a check for the 6week course without thinking and he says, great, we'll begin as soon as you have time. We''ll make a schedual. So, it's all great until he leaves my home.
Not to long after he leaves my home I realize the time constraints I have that will not allow for me to meet with this man 6 times a week to teach the puppy. I also realize how little I knew of this man, and that he had no real creditials or references other than what he said about himself. So, I decide to call him...literally a few moments after giving him the check, that I did not want to go through with the services and I wanted my money back. I said it kindly, and professionally, and I didn't think it would be a big deal at all.
He told me he had already cashed it and he didn't offer refunds.
I was in shock because I just paid him almost $300 for services I was not going to use!
I felt scammed. Any other company would rightfully refund the money, especially since I had given him the check literally minutes earlier.
I continue to tell him I was rfusing his services, but he refused to refund my money. So, I had to take further measures and inform my bank of what I felt was a scam, and they stopped the payment.
He then emails me back the next day implying that he was going to take me to small claims court. He said tht he would let me out of the 6 week verbal contract, but that I had to pay an "initial consultation fee of $79" and a stop payment fee of $14 and a gas mileage fee of $10. He had mentioned nothing about a consultation fee before, we had just met to talk! And he had not mentioned anything abotu gas before either. The stop payment fee---well maybe that's justified, but I had requested a refund and he refused. Does his claim have any basis? And if not, can I sue him for the stress he's causing me? Also, for soliciting services without having proper credentials? And lying about training tigers and lions?

In 2006 my now ex and i went to a car dealership to purchase a vehicle for me. he was the primary on the contract and we agred verbaly that i will pay for the vehicle and be handed the title when it was paid off. I paid $400.oo monthly without his help these past three years and after we broke up 4months later he stole the car late one night and the car was paid up to date. can i sue for the monies lost

Over the past 8 years I have helped my wifes side of the family, her parents..Remodels of rentals, list goes on and on..We were under the impression that the parents didn't have any $, so just did it to help them out...the costs have been enormous, upwards of $250K, is there anyway of me recouping this money...By the way,I paid cash for most of this stuff..

Tom in California

I am not a lawyer, of course, but Tom, I don't think you have a leg to stand on, I think you're just out the cost of the goods and the time you've spent. :-(

Are nursing homes liable for enforceability of an oral contract when reneging upon a promise of offer of vacancies?

I have a question:
my roommates and I agreed to a 6 month lease and now, after 2 months, one is trying to step out of the deal. His part is $300. He still owes 1200 for the remaining months. I am the only one who signed the lease but have text messages from him agreeing on the amount of time and money he would be responsible for. I don't know how well his verbal agreement will hold up.. Will these text messages help any?

My ex-husband is trying to claim a share of our property for his "sweat equity". He states that we had a verbal agreement that his labor would give him parity to the $160K down-payment my mother put down on the two unit building. There was absolutely no such agreement. However, I worry that he could he get a judge to believe him. We live in CA. I do not know if "verbal agreements" are considered binding in this state.

Thorina, sounds like you need a lawyer to help defend your rights in this situation because while I think it'll be hard for him to defend his share of the house, California is a community property state, which changes things...

Good luck!

I recently sold my daughter and her jerk of a boyfriend my old tv for 100$ me payed only 60 or 70$ on it and stopped paying on it cause i threw him out of my house i told my neighbor about it and he offered me 100$ cash that day so i sold it to him now her boyfriend wants me to pay him back i dont think i have to am i right

Actually, Jim, seems like you do owe him the $60 or $70 he's paid towards something that he never received. Do what's right, don't do what feels like revenge.

well dave maby so but im realy not doing it out of revenge im trying to teach him a lesson hes abusive to my daughter and hes a drug dealer/user and very disrespectful see wen he lived with my daughter i made him pay 200$ amonth to cover the extra utility expence its been two months since i threw him out and all of his stuff is still in the one side of my home as i see it he owes me alot more than 60 or 70$

i went into a computer shop the other day and got talking to the owner about getting him to build me a pc, the day he orderd the bits for the computer build, i emailed him telling him to cancel the order as i could not afford it.
Now he wants me to pay £100 to cancel the order which was the amount of the deposit, but he didnt take the deposit of me when we talked about going ahead with it.
i havent signed nothing so do i have to pay him the £100

would appriciate replys

Jim, good luck on that one. I surmise that from a legal perspective you're mixing up separate issues, but from a practical perspective, there's probably not much this guy can do to recover the $$ from you.

Mike, if initiating the order required a £100 deposit, but they didn't collect it and you canceled the order, I would say that they might be able to argue it in court, but realistically it was their mistake, not yours, and you should just be able to say "no" and walk away.

Thanks Dave

My husband was offered a coaching/teaching job at a local school. The school stalled a while on getting the contract together. They called 1 week ago and said that the contract was ready to be signed. At that time my husband was out of town and said that he would be there in one week(today). The school called today and said that the job no longer stands because of a new coach that was hired. Can this be right? Do we have any legal standing here?

I hired a business to do some landscaping. The owner came one day but never came back to finish the job. He did not bring enough brick edging and never planted the plants. I paid him the entire amount he wanted for the job on this very day because he said he would return to finish as he had to purchase more brick edging and it was getting too late to plant the plants. He started refusing to except my calls so I wrote him a letter and included pictures of the unfinished work. I have since had to hire someone else to plant the plants and finish the brick edging as he refuses to talk to me and I sent him serveral letters requesting this and explaining the work he did not finish along with pictures. I also sent a copy of the cancelled check showing when he cashed it. I told him in advance that I would hire someone if I did not hear from him by a certain date. He simply refuses to talk to me. Do I have a case to get him to refund enough money to pay what I had to pay someone else to finish the job he was paid to do. I have the cancelled check that he cashed. I know that a verbal contract is harder to prove than a written contract but it is my understanding that it sometimes is a matter of who is more believable.

I provide basketball training for youths. I was paid $350 up front to get started.(15 sessions) The youth attended 4 sessions. He then informed me that he would not be going out for the high school team so he had to quit my lessons. I tried to explain that his fee goes into court reservations and any equipment needed. The oral agreement with his father was to complete the sessions. it is not my fault that he voluntarily quit. They are now taking me to court claiming that I told them I would pay them back. They are the ones that have breeched the contract by quitting. I should not have to come out of my pocket for him quitting. What are my options? Dave what legal rights do I have?

quint, I'm not a lawyer. What I will say, however, is if that the boy attending four of fifteen, then it seems reasonable for you to agree to refund a pro-rated amount of the fee. The courts might suggest 75% refund (4/15 is approx. 25%), but you might be able to make a case for 50% or more. Still, without a contract, without a written agreement about the terms of engagement, cancelation clause, etc., you are in a difficult situation. Good luck.

During a traffic stop it was brought up that the driver was diabetic. The police asked the driver if he would volunteer to have his blood sugar checked. The driver agreed only after he was told that that there would be no cost to do this. The ambulance came to the scene and the police released the driver. The ambulance attendants proceeded to check the drivers blood sugar. While having his sugar checked it was found to be higher than normal. The attendants wanted to proceed with further medical treatment on the driver which included a trip to the hospital. The driver refused. The ambulance attendants proceeded to strap the driver on to a gurney within the ambulance telling the driver that he had to go to the hospital for treatment even though the driver did not want to. The driver was further told by the attendants that if he refused the treatment he would be arrested. question: can medical treatment in such a case be refused? can it be forced upon a person?

Georgia: My 17 year old moved out against my advice. She moved into a friends place. My daughter says she made an agreement with the friend, that when she got a job with a regular income coming in that she would pay her half of the bills. My daughter worked a temp job and only earned $100.oo. She still has not found a permanent job. After an unrelated arguement the friend now says move out and has filed a civil suit for approximately $650.00. My daughter only lived with the friend for about 1 month and few days. Can a 17 year old child even be held liable for a verbal contract?

I am involved in a magazine subscription with a pretty shady company. I'd like to cancel due to finding out that they have scammed thousands of others, but they told me that because it's a pre-paid program, I cannot cancel and that I had already agreed. They ignored my cancellation form that I sent them when the confirmation letter arrived a week after the initial phone call. If they only have a recorded agreement from you and nothing is written on paper, is it valid?

Hi I am havin issues with my home security company. First off there has been multiple false alarms which have caused up to $450.00 in fees from the city in which I live in. This has gone on over the past year. I am extremly disappointed with the customer service and also the service that the company does for security. So my main question is I want out of my contract with them. My original contract ends at the end of April 2011. But when my wife and I got rid of our landline phone we had to have a cell phone installed for the security system. We paid $99.00 for it. They are telling me that we have a verbal contract extension for 24 months. They tell me that they have a recorded phone call of this agreement with us. But when I ask them to let me hear it they tell me that it is property of there company and that all they can do is listen to it themselves and then tell me what is said on it, or if I get a court order stating that they have to let me hear it. Do I have anything to stand on with this? In the extension of the contract they say that they incurred the excess cost of the cell phone that originally was $350.00 they offered to let me out of the contract if I paid them the difference of the money that they say I didn't pay which is $250. I am asking can they do what they are sawing about not letting me hear this phone call that they say they have? Also we never gave any consent to them to ever record any of our phone calls with them nor did they ever say that this or any call would be recorded. Please help if you can.

Thanks
John

My ex-landlord's wife sold me a car. We had an oral agreement that I would pay $1400 for it. She signed the title over to me when I put $400 down on it. I in return sold the car to someone else, I have since still been paying on that last $1000, I have it down to $435. I'm a single mom who makes only $9.00 and hour and I get paid twice a month. I pay when I have extra money. He calls me constantly harassing me for a payment and now is threatening to take me to court..Will this stand? I know I owe him $435 and am paying it a little at a time. We had an oral agreement and no time limit, Also my ex-husband said he would help me pay for it and he has not. What can I do?

John, if they only have an oral agreement, I'd say that isn't enforceable. Even if it's recorded, if you didn't consent to them recording that phone call in advance (the old "may be recorded for training purposes" meets this legal requirement, btw) then they can't use it in court anyway. I'd call the local better business bureau and ask them for advice.

Stacy, did you in your oral agreement ever stipulate how long it would take for you to pay for the car? I think that the seller has a reasonable expectation of being paid in a timely manner. Otherwise you could pay them $1/month and say "it's what we agreed upon, sorry it's going to take me 37 years to pay it off" and they would have been tricked out of their vehicle. Sounds like you two need to sit down, calculate the remaining debt, figure out how much you can afford to pay, and write up a contract for the remaining amount owed. If they want you to pay it off faster, well, maybe you're in a position where you need to borrow the money from someone else, pay her off, and then pay back that other person in a manner you can afford. Good luck!

I posted my van for sale online and a couple came to see it. They took it for a test drive and said they wanted to negotitate the price. We came to an agreement and they left me a small cash deposit. I wrote down a receipt stating we received the cash and what the balance owing was. We got the vehicle ready for them and we agreed when to drop-off. When they stated they had a cheque but it was not certified I told them we needed it certified or cash. The wife got all upset because it couldn't get done in the time frame they wanted the van. They called the next morning to say they didn't want it anymore, after we had already spent money to have it e-tested and certified (which expires in 36 days). We didn't make a copy of the receipt and only have a business card for the husband. What can we do?

Melanie, I think you're out of luck and should just be glad that you didn't sell them the van and end up ripped off, holding a bad check.

My hubby and I were looking for a semi retirement job...an acquaintance of ours spent time dixcussing possibiblities with my husband and decide we should look into him(acquaintance) buying a small motel and we would run it. We spent hours dixcussing this and found a motel we all liked and went up to see it 3 times....contacted the realtor and paper work was sent all this time our friend is telling us all is going ahead good and we have a possession date of Aug 27th....hubby and I gave our notices at work and must be out of our residence by the end of Aug. This was not some quiet deal...lots of people including the guys who work for our friend know about this deal...today we found out that his lawyer has not even return the offer papers....if he does not go thru with this and we are out of jobs and a place to live is there anything we can do...like take him to court fdor breech of verbal contract...we do have outside witnesses. I am frantic and looking for an answer
thanks

Dee, that's terrible, but I'm not sure what the damages are in your case. Yes, you've given notice at your house and you've quit your jobs, but that's different to having paid in $5000 to a non-existent company from a legal perspective. Still, what's happened is awful and I would call an attorney to see what options you have. They should be willing to hear the basics of the situation and offer broad advice without a charge, btw. Always, always get things in writing. Good luck.

My father promised my daughter he'd pay for her college education, proudly announcing he'd completed Florida pre-paid and presenting her with a framed certificate stating her account was fully paid. He never specified any requirements for the money. After her freshman year, he changed his mind, and cancelled the contract, so she had to drop out of college; he said because she didn't call him often enough. How often is often enough? Never specified or even mentioned.

Is this contract legally enforceable? Only my daughter's name and my stepmother's names are on the Pre-paid agreement with the state. What can I do? Many thanks.

Susan, sounds to me like your Dad isn't living up to his side of the bargain, but I don't think there's anything you can do to enforce it. You could ask an attorney, but I'm not hopeful. Sorry!

We had verbal agreement with a Landlord about leasing a business building, all we were waiting for was for some modifications in the original contract. We emailed the landlord several times over the week. After one week he sent us an email stating that his brother leased the location while he was out of the city.
Please let me know if action can be taken.

During my 90 day review (Jan), I requested in a powerpoint presentation on screen and in a hard copy for him for an IRA matching plan of 5% of my income and he agreed. He said set it up and we'll do it. Well, I'm just getting around to doing it now (October). Either way, can I hold him to the financial aspect of 5% of my income for the last 41 weeks (up to the $5,000 max contribution limit for 2011)?

I purchased a vehicle in my name in January of this year. After 6 months of making payments (on time) I then made an agreement with my sister that she make all the payments on the vehicle until completion of the loan. The vehicle was going to be hers (for all intense purposes), she would keep the vehicle with her, insure it, maintain payments etc. and would eventually refinance the vehicle into her name. She recently disclosed that she would not be able to make any future payments. I have since gotten into other financial obligations. Is a verbal agreement binding in this scenario? if I sell the vehicle or worse case scenario, voluntarily repo it, can I make a case to have her responsible for any negative equity left in the loan? Thank you.

Hi, will someone please answer this for me? I just rented a new building for my new restaurant under an llc. My partners and I have spent an immense ammount of money on this building that seemed great in at first looks. It was promised to us that the placewould be in tip top condition once leased and that any cost on our behalv would be rembursed. Now he landlord and relator both didnt want us to have our money back so we met at their office and came to a mutual agreement that they would pay for our exspenses along with starting our rent from Oct 1st to Jan 1st. They did pay for our exspenses because of promises they made to us but they did hold up on our full agreement to not have to pay any rent until Jan 1st. They are basically trying to make me start paying early and this was not agreement does anyone think I have a case?

I live in Ohio, Back in August 2011 A friend and I agreed he could move in at $400 a month. Well he didnt move in but wanted to leave all his stuff here that he moved in. So he told me he would pay me 100 a month to leave his stuff. I told him to get a storage unit, He didnt want to so we agreed on 50 per month. He told me it would be out november 1st 2011. November hit I told him he needed to come get his belongings, not until 2nd week of december did he get back to me. He kept giving me the run around until today 1-2-2012. Now he is telling me he isnt going to pay me and he is coming to get his belongings on friday. What grounds do I have to stand on. Thanks William

Hello.
i went into a verbal contract with a long time friend of mine... I put in business equipment and he put in 30K. the business was already in his name. i worked hard for a year and a half as did he. I was supposed to have my name listed as 40% owner and it was never done, i complained for the last several months and then we agreed to work it out in Dec at the year end owners meeting. i though he was stealing some of our money so i hired an accountant to go over the books and she found alot of discrenpancies and when i told him he freaked out and ereased the books and said she is an idoit. The account said she will testify in court that both the partner and his wife admitted to her that i was 40% owner at there house.
I was supposed to be paid in dec 2011 my share($24K) and this is when it all went wrong. He said my word is better than any piece of paper but did not sign anything. I did not get any money and he said he would offer me a nice severence package? I am an owner and we have recorded our business conversations saying so. He then said i am just an employee. I decided to retake my business equipment and then he called the police and said i stole everything and the police came to me and took everything back and gave it to him saying i had nothing on paper. I said this is a civil dispute and we have a verbal agreeement. i let him listen to the year end meeting recording and showed many emails saying we are partners. He said i need it in writing in the state of Colorado but this was our working agreement for the last 1.5 years. Both of our wifes were aware of the deal but his wife changed her tune as well.
Now i am looking at burglery charges when in reality i am an owner that does not want to give up the business i founded not to mention i trained my partner for the last 4 years for free.
It gets better... at the year end meeting i also learned he filed Bankruptcy with out my knowledge and is paying the person we bought the company from under the table, which i think the IRS would be interested in. The BK was also fraudlent as i know for a fact that he has alot of cash in his safe.
What should i do?

I have a roommate who i told that i was moving out in 2 months, and i was basically living with my girlfriend for previous months before this, and he agreed to it. Then he waited about two weeks and said that i was unable to move out due to me being in the lease. Well i called the place and i am a resident under him on the lease however i was not on the lease itself therefore the realitor place said i was not bound to them in any form. So then he goes and says that i am bound by an oral contract, which he said i agreed to live with him. This is simi true i did agree to live with him however i did not agree for the duration, i graduate in may and his lease is not up til august. Which should tell him that i was planning on moving out before his lease was up anyway. So since i did not agree to the duration and never told him how long i would be living under him, am i still bound by his "oral contract" and if i am is he not bound by his oral contract for agreeing that it was okay for me to move out in two months and then changing his mind?

If I have a verbal agreement on a recorder will it hold up in court?