Paid a lawyer $500 to review a lease and he missed a hidden renewal clause

Signed a 12 month apartment lease in Lincoln Park back in 2019. Paid a local guy $500 to look it over because I was nervous about getting burned. He gave it a thumbs up. Fast forward 11 months and I go to give my 30 day notice and the landlord says sorry, you already auto-renewed for another year. There was a clause buried in paragraph 14 that said if I didn't give notice 60 days before the end, it renews. The lawyer totally blew past it. I had to pay out 3 months rent to break it. Anyone else had a lawyer miss something obvious on a contract review?

2 comments

2 Comments

abbyp614d ago

Oh man, the "60 day notice hidden in paragraph 14" thing really got me. I had almost the exact same thing happen with a lease back in 2017. Paid a guy $400 to look over a commercial lease for my small business, and he completely missed a clause that said if I didn't give 90 days notice, it auto renewed for two more years. I ended up stuck paying rent on an empty space for six months because I couldn't find someone to take it over. It's so frustrating when you pay good money for somebody to catch stuff like that and they just don't do their job. Makes you wonder what they actually read or if they just skim the first page and call it good.

lewis.brian4d ago

Betcha that lawyer didn't even read past page 3, just flipped through it like a magazine.