Posted by Perry on July 13, 1999 at 10:48:38:
In Reply to: Re: Eviction After Denial of Lease Renewal posted by Ruth David on July 12, 1999 at 08:23:45:
Well, that's different. Sorry for the lecture before, but you really did paint your landlord as a good guy in the initial post.
You say "apparently" he has reneged on his word to give you until Christmas, but are you sure? He legally has to send you that certified letter (and not accepting it will not give you any protection, by the way). I also lived in a house and was asked to move because the landlord wanted to sell the building. I received a formal notice, but she verbally told me I could stay longer. Are you really sure your landlord is going back on his word? There is no substitute for communication.
Your landlord has to give you 30 days' notice (unless the lease says otherwise), so he must have told you to move on July 1st or earlier. But that is a small point.
If you don't move, he has to go to housing court to evict you. The problem is, some landlords ignore the law and put their tenants out on the street without notice, even though that is illegal. If you have a great deal of stuff in your apartment, he probably won't do that (especially since you are a family and not just one person). He'd have to do it when you weren't home anyway, so he'd have to know your schedule. (If he did do that, your only recourse would be to sue him, which is very costly.)
I strongly suggest you move your stuff from the basement to your other living quarters. I am not sure whether or not he has a right to seize your property from the basement, but to be sure, get it out.
Anyway, a housing court proceeding can take a while, at least 30 days and maybe 60 days. Once you are in housing court, the judge will probably give you a reasonable time to move. By simply staying put, you will buy yourself at least until August 31st and maybe later. But you should start looking right away.
Living out the security deposit won't make the judge look kindly on you if this comes to housing court. Do that, but make sure you do it in the last month you are actually there, not now.
The fact that your landlord gave you permissible to use the basement and now has taken that permission away probably won't do you much good. The bottom line is, once the lease has expired, he can ask you to move, no matter what other issues are involved.
: Thanks for responding. I understand your advice and sorry I wasn't clear but apparently my LL has reneged on giving us ample time to move by attempting to deliver a certified letter asking us to vacate by July 31. His former employees have told us that he doesn't like a vocal tenant who doesn't hesitate to complain whenever a wrong has been commited (forcible entry of basement - breach of agreement to call us before needing to enter basement which we have always complied with). Also, we have openly used and LL has given verbal permission to use basement, although has denied us use of basement on lease. Can LL take our basement possessions in order to harass us if we are still here after July 31?
Follow Ups:
Note: Posting is disabled in all archives
Post a Followup