Before moving to a new town, I was in contact with a landlord about renting an apartment from her. In the emails, I specifically requested a month to month lease as I did not want to commit to a year, and she told me that I could do that with the penalty of an extra $100 per month. So if I signed the 1 year lease it would be $1050/month and for the month to month lease it would be $1150/month. I agreed that was exactly what I wanted, and we continued talking about when I would be moving in, etc. When I arrived in town, I met with her to sign the lease and get the keys, under the impression that everything we had discussed in the emails would be what was in the lease. I admit that it was my mistake that I should have read through the lease more thoroughly, but here is my current situation.
Around April 20th, I emailed my landlord asking to give her 30 days notice as I am wanting to move. Her reply was that if I do that, I will be breaking my 1 year lease, and if I want to do that, we will have to discuss my options. To my shock I replied to her that I did not sign a 1 year lease, we had discussed and agreed that I only wanted month to month, and I am paying the $1150/month that she had clearly stated in our emails was the cost for the month to month lease. She then replied, the lease states it is for 1 year, if I want to come in and speak with her about options then I can.
I then went to my lease, and sure enough, she had written the dates for 1 year rather than month to month. I understand that I should have more thoroughly looked through the lease and that is on me, but do the emails count as well?
When I went in to speak with her, I tried to bring up what she had said in the emails, she kept interrupting me and and her only response was that in any sort of misunderstanding or dispute, we always refer back to the lease. I brought up how she clearly stated in the emails about the different amounts per month whether I signed a month to month lease or a year long lease, and all she had to say was how that is not stated in the lease so it is not relevant. I tried to say that according to the emails, I am overpaying $100 per month and she now owes me money ($600 now as I have paid for 6 months) and she repeated, that is not stated in the lease so its not relevant. She is also saying that I owe $250 for breaking the one year lease.
I guess what I am asking is, can she do this, and is it true that the emails are not relevant?