What Do I Do When My Landlord Forged His Name on a Lease and Now I’m Getting Evicted?

It’s a pretty common question. If you’re a tenant and you got a lease that you didn’t sign, they can evict you, and now you have to go to eviction court.
This is a pretty common question. And I will tell you that most of the cases involving attorneys and expert witnesses and handwriting experts are multi-million dollar cases. 

Usually evictions end up in a special kind of Civil Court commonly called an Eviction Court.

It is a civil proceeding, but it’s a little like a kangaroo court. I remember seeing what’s happening in Van Nuys, and they just basically have lawyers that only represent tenants and lawyers that only represent landlords. And it’s a fight, and it’s a very procedural process. So if you think just because you’ve been wronged you’re going to call the cops and they’re going to arrest your manager or your landlord for forging a document, it’s probably not true. 

So here’s the advice I gave a guy recently who called our office. He’s said, “Look, man. My landlord raised the rent $100. I never signed a new lease.” I’m responded, “Look, you could spend $10,000  for a good attorney… if you’re lucky, maybe $7,000. You’re going to spend another $5,000 -$8000 on a forensic handwriting expert. And you’re probably not going to get the cops to prosecute anybody because no one knows who forged it. So, your best bet is to negotiate or move out.  If money is a primary motivation”

Now, that wasn’t the advice he wanted because he wanted justice. And I get it, man. “You want justice. If someone forges something in your mind, you’re thinking, “Oh, we can put this guy in jail. He created a false document.”

Well, look at the government that has false documents all the time. They change elections with false documents. Will anyone go to jail? Not normally. 

So, the only reason that really matters is if the police are going to look into it or you end up in court and the judge has to make a decision of what’s real. Is it wrong to forge a lease? Of course it is. It’s just crazy. But if you are a tenant, you don’t have a lot of rights when it comes to that. Now, I will say there’s a lot of commercial real estate. That’s a totally different ballgame. I’ve seen a number of cases recently with really big famous restaurants that you would know of in Los Angeles where the leases are now in controversy because the owner, the original owner, has passed away. These legacy restaurants are 40 to 50 years old. I can’t use names, but you would know who they are. Steak. I love steak. Beautiful steak. The most beautiful steak ever. As you know, the owner dies, and then people are like, “Hey, I want to renegotiate this.” Like, “No, no, no. Your dad and I had a deal.” Well, whatever is in writing is what the judge is going to enforce. And so what happens is when someone passes away, they have to renegotiate those leases, or they have to fight over whether someone’s signature was forced at all. So if you happen to be one of those people with a big lease problem, multi-thousands of dollars a month, 10,000 to 30,000 a month, like real estate or a restaurant, then you do need to do the two things. 

You need to make sure the signature that you think is forged is actually forged, which it might not be. You need a forensic document examiner to take the case, determine if that is forged or not, and then go to your attorney and say, “Look, we think we have a false document, and then we can fight this in court.” However, if you hire a trustworthy handy expert that has good integrity, and they come back and say, “Look, I don’t think this was forged,” then you can still fight it on other grounds.

There’s a verbal contract that is legal in most states. But the key is first you have to decide, is it worth it to fight it? Because if you’re a tenant and you’re not a landlord and you can move out and it’s only 100 bucks, you won’t want to fight it. It’s too expensive. Secondly, if it’s a multi-million dollar 20-year contract, you have to fight it, and you have to have good attorneys that understand the civil procedure as well as the expert witness procedure and the forensic procedure, as well as documents. So, a lot of civil attorneys specialize in documents and business transactions. They’re the ones that would hire what they call an expert witness or a forensic document examiner to solve the puzzle of whether or not this is a poached lease. 

My name is Bart Baggett. If you need help with that, we have a number of experts and offices around the country at handwritingexperts.com. We’ll help you, who will help you solve your problem.

Bart Baggett
The Nation’s Leading Forensic Handwriting Expert
CEO of Handwriting Experts Inc.
Forensic Document Examiner • Expert Witness • Legal Consultant
“We solve million dollar forgery cases.”

Telephone: 1-800-980-9030

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