Two star-struck lovers spending so much time with each other that they start wondering (perhaps with some trepidation) whether they have actually moved in together is the stuff of soap operas. Whether an elderly couple has actually moved into an assisted living apartment is serious business.
It got serious indeed for a Ponte Vedra Beach couple and for the company owning the facility in which they were about to move. When they changed their mind, there was a 5-digit difference between the portion of their enormous deposit that would be refunded if they had already moved in, compared to what they would get if they had not. And while they had not started to personally inhabit the unit, they had moved a lot of their furniture and other personal property into the unit. So… had they moved in? The question was further complicated because the facility had used several agreements on top of each other, and they were not always consistent.
When we insist on the value of relationships with our business clients here at the Roth Law Firm, it is because of cases like that. A lawyer intrinsically involved in that business would (or should) have known that it was important to define what moving-in meant, and to keep it consistent in every document.
Instead, the business lost in court, got a remand on appeal, and will now be preparing for a third round of litigation.