My rent was paid on the 1st and my landlord gave me a 30day notice on the 5th. What if I don't want to move?

Question

My rent is current but we've had a discrepency regarding utilities because she lives in the garage and I'm in the house but the utilities are combined and I pay 75%. The problem is that in rental agreement, she didn't give a due date on the utilities and then proceeded to give me a utility breakdown 1-2 days before rent was due and then added it to her note thus making it look as if I was late because the utilities weren't included in the rent. This created a problem between us regarding what exactly was due because she tried to charge me a late fee after refusing my rent check even though it was paid on time. Now, her amount she's asking for utilities is different than what was actually due because she added on those late fees. Basically I believe she's upset because I won't pay a late fee when my rent was on time when she refused my check. I don't have money to move now and I want to know what is my next step after receiving a 30 day notice.

Answer 1

It is amazing how many people don't know squat about landlord/tenant law.

A landlord doesn't need a license to rent a house, especially one that they live in.

Your housing authority probably won't have any authority to act. Usually they only handle livability requirements, but that issue is moot as the landlord lives there too.

You can make all kinds of noise. You can get a lawyer and threaten to litigate, but in the end, do you still want to live with a landlord that wants you out?

Depending on your rental agreement, she may or may not have the legal leverage to ask you to vacate the premises. If you are month-to-month, she can give you notice any time she wants.

If your lease is in effect, assuming you have one, she can deliver you a 3-day pay rent or quit. Some states that may be a 5 or 10 day notice, but usually it is a 3-day.

Now that doesn't mean she can physically throw you out after 3 days, only that she can contact a lawyer to seek a forcible detainer and evict you. By the time they get a docket date, it could be 3 months before they could physically remove you.

My advice is to talk to your landlord and ask them what it will take to square everything, and do so. Then go find another place. In a short period of time, you can give her notice.

I prefer to think of my tenants as customers. I can't let one customer drive the costs up for the rest, but I also don't pick a fight over a misunderstanding either.

It is just better to find a good landlord.

Good Luck

Answer 2

This sounds horrid for you. This is the advise you need!!!!

Your landlady seems to be acting unreasonable with you and can't really give you notice to leave unless you refused to pay your rent or are continually late with your rent or utilities. She ought to have done the math way before this period and made your rent all inclusive at the very start. I don't know what kind of tenancy you have, but she can give you no notice at any time if you haven't got a formal six months contract with her and pay her month to month. You also need proof of rent paid to her via a rent book or direct debit.

All tenancy agreements are different and so you need specialist advise on this one because her rules in the agreement may not be the rules she is making outside of it. If your agreement is only verbal, then you are very vulnerable and she can do whatever she wants.

Whether she is registered or not, she can still rent her property out legally and a landlord can increase or change rent or make new money proposals at any given time they want (in the UK anyway) and they cannot be legally done for this. I know this because I also went for lots of legal advise myself when being charged extra rent last year without any notice given. They are not obliged to give notice to you if they increase or change your rent amount or utility bill fee. I would strongly suggest that you try and reason with her about extending the 30 day period because it just isn't enough time for you to find another place that quickly. She has to be reasonable about this or give you your rent money back so that you can find another place.

If you have family at all or any friends, make sure you get their support and help because there is nothing worse than going through this alone and if the worst comes to the worst you can always move in with them if she throw you out 30 days from the 5th will take you up to the 5th of the next month so that is almost four weeks until then. Be strong, get legal advise and try and find another place flexible with a deposit in the meantime in case you can't get anywhere with this legally?.

Many landlords are protected by the law rather than against it even in the UK. The law will not intervene unless you have done something in the contract you shouldn't have or herself. She will have to evict you through the courts if you refuse to leave but could break in and change the locks if she were evil enough and they can do this if they wanted to get nasty and get you out or if you have no formal agreement.

I can only say what I know but please do try and get some legal help and not from the people on here who seem to only know bits of housing law but not the whole truth of it. I really feel for you and wish there was something I could do more. Keep in touch won't you and let us know what happens? - I am sure she will see sense in all of this because I am sure she needs the money more than petty disagreement.

Good luck. x

Answer 3

I'd see a lawyer. It sounds like she is making it up as she goes along though. Laws are different depending on where you live, but I believe in most areas it's 60 days notice. How much is the late charge? It couldn't be more than a few bucks.

This landlord of yours sounds like a real winner...living in the garage of her own house, and evicting you for not paying a piddly little late fee on a utility bill. She obviously hasn't got 10 cents to her name.

She refused your check? Why? Just so she can jerk you around? Even if it is not the full amount, why would she do that? She's CHOSEN not to accept any payment. That's not your fault.

To me it sounds like you are in the right and she is in the wrong, but I'd start looking for another place to live anyways, 'cause if she's bitching already at something so tiny - and would even evict you for it - then you are only headed for more problems.

Answer 4

You usually have to pay the utilities with rent and it is all due at the same time. If you paid the flat rent amount without including the the utilities, she probably thinks you are trying to play games with her and so she is saying you did not pay the full amount due so you are late, in effect some kind of note on your door. I think all you need to do is pay her the remaining balance and the late fee now.

Answer 5

You can consider taking your landlord to court since it sounds to me like she's trying to cheat you out of rent by adding stuff on like a late fee and if she didnt stipulate that in writing when the agreement was made then she's violating your rights as a tenant. She needed to have a lease for you stating how much you pay each month, and when it's due whether its the 1st or 15th-typical time frame for bills and rent to be paid. Everything should have been in writing and if she's coming to you 1-2 days before rent is due with a utility break down she's not a good landlord because a good landlord has everything from rent to utilities listed on the lease making the terms and conditions in writing. I would consult with an attorney if needed to see what can be done because it sounds to me like she's trying to cheat you out of your rent by all of a sudden tacking on things without notifying you in advance of any rent increases or anything that warrants a rent increase. If it's not in writing then you have no reason to pay it and if she's coming to you late with extra stuff then she can be reported for being a slum lord because most landlords don't just come to you with a breakdown of utilities before rent is due that should have been laid out in the lease before you moved in. I would keep track of everything and consider legal action if she's trying to evict you after you paid rent on time.

Answer 6

hi... a million) relies upon what style of lease you have. If that's month-to-month, you're out of effective fortune. Or, in the journey that your lease expires in Jan, you're out of effective fortune. SHe would not would desire to renew you. besides the undeniable fact that, in the journey that your lease is for a 300 and sixty 5 days and you're purely on month 4, then hard good fortune on your landlord. yet, with that mentioned, are you incredibly eager to stay in that domicile? 2) Take your landlord to small claims courtroom. in the journey that your water went from $50 to $2 hundred just about in one day, then there is something incorrect. Water charges are just about by no potential that best except you have 10 human beings taking incredibly long showers each and every day and you're watering your backyard for 2 hours an afternoon hah. that's probably you had a broken water considerable under the domicile and probable saturated the floor under the domicile... that's by no potential solid. in any case, you have a appropriate to sue your landlord for maintenance matters that weren't resolved or weren't reimbursed for the unavoidable expenditures those restore matters led to. 3) by no potential EVER use the range for heating a house. Why interior the worldwide would you do this???? in case you die via that, that's no longer the fault of your landlord yet instead is your man or woman fault. That basically flat out defies logic. circulate out and get a conveyable room heater (50-one hundred bux) and use that for now. 4) If the subject on turning the needed-air on is basically the pilot easy interior the furnace, then you definately can call the gas corporation to return do it, your landlord would not would desire to try this. they only come out and easy-weight it.

Answer 7

Do you have a lease? If not, you are considered month to month and she can give you a 30 day notice for any reason she wants too. If you do have a lease then she has to go through the eviction process . That can only take a few weeks though. (If she knows what she is doing!)

Answer 8

report her to your local housing attourity most likely she is not licenced and this will stop your eviction. If you have an agreement she can not kick you out reread your agreement and talk to a lawyer the will find a loophole. But basically you probably won't have to move