How likely is it that I'll be evicted?

[Caleb]

My landlord has a holdover case against me for chronic nonpayment. He has had me into court on 5 nonpayment cases -- however, the last 4 were rushed through in order to build a case for this holdover action. He is saying that I violated a substantial obligation of my lease (he is not using the nuisance theory). In each stipulation I signed, the landlord had to effect repairs and ended up spending quite a bit of money. I am claiming this is a retaliatory suit. My problem is, I left a long paper trail of faxes in which I begged the landlord to be patient while I tried to raise the rent money, so I can't claim that I was withholding rent on purpose. What do you think my chances are?

[CPM]

I believe, though I'm not certain, that there is now case law that says that a tenant cannot be evicted for chronic nonpayment if, as part of every nonpayment case, the tenant had complaints about conditions demanded repairs in every stipulation signed with the landlord. Demanding repairs, therefore, is a good way to protect yourself. However, as I said, I'm not certain (I haven't looked at that case for a while).

Also, when I was in court, with 5 non-payment cases under my belt, the judge didn't seem overly impressed by that number, having seen much worse. A lot depends on which judge you get. The judge I got (meaning the trial judge) made it clear through her overall attitude that she didn't want to try the case, and that she expected the landlord to come to an agreement. When the landlord saw that, he settled (I had to pay my rent under a probationary stipulation for nine months). If he had demanded a trial, I think the judge would have ruled against him.

In short, the most important thing you can do to protect yourself is to answer each nonpayment petition with your own allegations, and to build a case of landlord negligence.

[TenantNet]

This was discussed a few months ago on the forum. Try searching the forum for "chronic." While there may be many factors in the grounds being used to sustain the holdover and defenses/counterclaims available to the tenants, what probable matters in these cases is the frequency in which the LL "was compelled" to bring a non-payment. Six times in nine months is one thing. That is probable chronic. But six times in nine years would not be chronic in my opinion.

I haven't looked at case law on this, so I can't quote chapter and verse as to how the courts view this situation.

I would also thing that aksing the LL for time to pull the funds together might not be material if no non-payment proceeding developed in that particular instance.

These can get tricky; you might wish to consult with an attorney who knows this stuff in practice.

And BTW, stop with the faxes.

[CPM]

That was a very old post that I was responding to, and I responded simply because I thought I had some information to share for future readers. I didn't mean to reactivate the thread in some way.

Who is sending you faxes, and what do they say?