I have to defend my daughter from an illegal eviction

[catzies]

DUers, help! Or at least just a shoulder to cry on.

My daughter lives in the back part of a house on a piece of property that has multiple dwellings. A few months ago, the woman who lives in the front part of the house my daughter shares began a campaign of petty complaints about my daughter to the landlord without my daughter knowing about it. Turns out she has a friend who she wants to live there instead & she decided she wanted my daughter to leave. She doesn't want to leave. She loves the house and the other neighbors & they like her and no one likes this crazy woman.

The landlords (who don't know about her subterfuge to get her friend in) got tired of the constant complaints and figured it would stop if they evict my daughter. They dropped a typed note in her mailbox last week & told her she has to get out.

This is so unfair. She hasn't done anything in violation of her lease but this woman wants her gone & lied to make it come about & now she's getting her way.

What recourse do we have, does anyone know?

This property is just an income property; the owners are inexperienced, amateur landlords. It seems to me that in the real estate market frenzy there must be many people who are landlords who are ignorant of due process & other such important things. I wonder how many others have been adversely affected by things like this? Being a landlord is a profession & should require skills, I think. And ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Is there a lawyer in the Lounge?

[LeftyMom]

1. Not a lawyer but until recently I was a property manager

so I know CA rental housing law. If you PM me the details I may be able to help.

[catzies]

3. Really? Thanks!

Will do.

[ohiosmith]

2. Does your daughter have a lease?

[catzies]

4. Yes. She is not being evicted for violating her lease.

Her landlords don't realize how they're being manipulated; they're just capitulating hoping that will make the issue go away.

[northzax]

6. what's the reasoning on the eviction notice? nt

[catzies]

12. None. None at all. It's a simple, one paragraph letter.

It states they are terminating her lease, they're giving her 30 days & they want to inspect the property today.

I am going to be there when they do, just as a witness.

edit: They are not giving an reason at all, or saying she's in violation on anything in the lease.

[LeftyMom]

16. Barring emergencies, they need to give a min of 24 hours to inspect

(or maybe it's 48, I forget, but it's definitely not same day.)

Your daughter is entitled to a pre-move-out inspection within 14 days of her date of departure where the landlord notes any deficiencies in the unit which could result in deductions to the security deposit, so that she can fix them if she chooses. That should be scheduled at her convenience though.

[northzax]

5. if she is not violating her lease

then they pretty much can't evict herin most places. Heck, in DC, you pretty much can't evict someone who is in blatant violation of their lease. She should call the local rental board (or housing authority) and inquire about the law.

[tjwash]

7. That's not an eviction.

An eviction goes through the court, and gets decided on by a judge. If you really want to fight it, take it through the court system, and if you are in the right, the judge should go your way, but that's not something you want to do lightly. However, if you are absolutely certain you are in the right here, that's the course I would go.

Remember one thing though; at least in California it is perfectly acceptable for a landlord to ask a tenant to leave, and they do not need to provide a reason, as long as (a)the lease is over, or the tenant is not bound by one and (b) they provide the tenant with a 30 day notice. If this is the case, I'm sorry to say you don't really have much of a leg to stand on.

As a landlord myself, I'll let you in on a little secret--we don't like to lose tenants, and we don't like things to get ugly among tenants. It's not very nice on our end to be stuck without the rent, that subsequently goes to pay for our property and maintenance. I mean, if I go without a tenant for a year on just one of our properties, that amounts to over 18000 dollars for us. If you are serious, and chances are you ARE if you take it through the court system, I would absolutely do everything I possibly could to try and avoid that.

[catzies]

8. She didn't have a copy of her lease until yesterday. Will read it tonight

Yes, they gave her 30 days. She started looking when the barrage of fabricated complaints escalated.

She'll be out by the first, but this never should have happened.

The landlords don't know they were manipulated; they just capitulated.

[tjwash]

9. I completely empathize with your daughter.

The exact same thing happened to me when I was a thirty-something living in Phoenix, right down to the fabricated complaints. That was a rough stretch, because the apartment manager at the time not only was not renewing our lease, but was also ripping us to prospective landlords every time we called for a reference, making it impossible to find a place.

Finally we got around it by having them call on the weekends, when the people that actually liked us were working in the office.

I think that's why I'm so damn nice to my tenants, and bend over back wards for them. Apartment managers border on having WAYYYYYY to much power on some people's living situations, and that is just plain wrong.

[catzies]

19. So much good advice in this thread, including yours

I read the lease tonight for the first time. She signed it when she was 23 and should have kept a copy & not waited to ask for one. It's been month-to-month since the beginning. And she soft-pedaled for me a very important issue, which it turns out was a lease-breaker. She doesn't have a leg to stand on as far as it goes. It's very clear.

In a nutshell: they said no pets other than the dog and cat you moved in with. Since then she acquired _quite_ a few, thinking her landlords would be pushovers like her mom is. They're not.

I'm going to let her just deal with this as a learning experience. Other than advancing her the money I'm not helping her move since she brought this on herself. And she's going to pay me back every penny and I'm going to go forward with my bathroom remodel.

Kids.

[hunter]

10. I'm sorry.

I hope it turns out well.

I have to say, one of the things I learned to do when I was young and crazy and living in rented places was to be very friendly with the landlords or property managers. Sure, being a landlord is a profession and should require skills and good ethics, but that's hardly ever the way it works, even when you are dealing with "professional" management companies.

They should teach this stuff in high school. Oh, but that would make this great nation look bad.

God Bless America :patriot:

[catzies]

11. Thanks. We got a lawyer refferal & have an appt. to see if we have a case

The worst part of it (for me) is that I was just about to remodel my bathroom, but now I have to use that money to advance to her for ther first month's rent and deposit on the new house.

I have to wait for her to pay me back before I can start that project.

And I wa really looking forward to it.

That crazy woman has messed up two lives -- my daughter's and mine. For no good reason.

[dysfunctional press]

13. are you getting the lawyer to fight the eviction?

...you said that she would be out by the first..?

[DainBramaged]

18. Sue the landlord and the lady in front for slander

Especially the lady. She'll have to prove her claims to the landlord, hearsay is not good enough, evidence and whiteness are. Your Daughter has the right to see the claims against her. Landlord Tennant law is ALWAYS ON YOUR SIDE, Did you know that in NY and NJ, if the landlord doesn't repeat, doesn't give you an annual statement detailing interest earned and how much security you have you can break the lease and move out?

I did, they HAD to accept my security as the final month payment, refund my 1/3 month and I was scott free.

And this is how I found out

http://www.rentlaw.com/

[hippywife]

14. If she's friendly with the other

tenants, could she ask them to speak to the landlord on her behalf; let him know that the complaints against her are false? If they go to him enmasse, he may be inclined to listen to the group rather than the one manipulative tenant. Would also avoid a nasty court scenario.

[cabbage08]

15. But did she have a lease?

If so they land lord can not toss her without reason.

[DainBramaged]

17. The law is on your daughter's side no matter what state you live in

[DainBramaged]

20. How did it work out???

[spindrifter]

21. There is one other thing you may want to

talk to the attorney about. I am aware of situations involving these oddball types where they call the cops and allege incidents that result in antiharassment orders. Your daughter should be aware of what she can do to avoid this.