Land lord issues (Anchorage, Wasilla, Hope: apartments, renter, eviction)

[Sasabe_Luner]

Hello,
So my situation is this.
My family has rented from our landlord for over a year and just recently we went to give a 30 day notice and he in turn gave us a 7 day notice.
We were lied to when we moved into the apartment that was still occupied by prior tenants, and told that the wood stove worked, later learned it didn't, and wall heater was enough to warm the apartment. Sadly these were not true and let's just say it was an extremely cold winter, especially with temps outside reaching below zero. Yes we complained about it ALL the time but nothing was fixed.
Then we were pressured, with threat of eviction, if we didn't want to be evicted to put the electricity in our name. My bill rose to almost $2,000 in a matter of 4 months, and we barely used electricity. I later learned I was paying for other tenants electricity.
I had to pay for all repairs, to include changing of my locks when I was continuously broken into.
He continuously shut my outlets off, stopped providing me water when I was 6 months pregnant, and for this I was hospitalized for a month.
Then electricity problems began to happen, which I started complaining 4 months prior, till it got to the point I was being approached at 10pm, which I was there all day and he had means of contacting me, telling me to turn my power and heat off. I had a 15 week old, at the time, infant and all I had to heat my room was a single small portable heater to provide us heat. I put my foot down and told him no and in the end that was all we had to heat ourselves. That night the power blew and a fire almost started while we slept. I awoke to find my son cold and unresponsive. I had to perform emergency Cpr/First aide on him and luckily managed to bring him back to normal. I went to my parents, made sure he was safe then went back to confront the Land lord. Sadly he didn't care and he blamed us for it and admitted to using a paying tenants electricity to run four units, a huge fire hazard.
My husband continued to live there while we looked for a place and we went on a christmas vacation only to come back to learn he turned off our outlets and we lost all our food and my pet frilled lizard. When confronted he started demanding crazy amounts of money and getting in my face. Needless to say this was my snapping point and I tried giving my 30 day notice and was answered with a 7 day notice.
He tried taking us to court and still plans to, which I am ok with because before moving out I managed to alert the state of his illegally set up apartments and with a little turn I learned there was way more to this then I originally thought.
I even had defficulty retrieving my tires and wheeler out of the garage after a court order was issued.

Now the problem is one of the Tenants decided to come to court as our witness's and the very next day he is requesting an inspection and making all sorts of false claims. Me and my husband still go and visit this tenant because he's a very dear friend of ours but now he is claiming we can't go onto the property. He has never once tried to talk to us in person instead he had his attorney do this but the attorney is a little shady in his actions as well.
If I am not being handed a restraining order and am invited onto the property for visiting purposes and only staying anywhere from a few minutes, I give him rides, to a few hours, to watch a movie or play video games, is the land lord allowed to call the cops on us and have us removed. We are currently helping him find a new apartment and helping him pack his things as well.
I am asking this because I have been told several times, that so long as I am not being handed a restraining order or a legal document saying I am not to be on the property then I could still go for visits.
Has anyone else been through something similar to this?

[Dakster]

That's a crazy story and sounds like a real nightmare.

My unofficial advice as I am not attorney (and I don't play one on TV either). Is that without a court notice saying you can't be on the property, you can be on the property. The other thing that could prevent you is a trespass warning by the police, but he would have to call them and you would have to still be there to get the warning. You would have to leave immediately and then wouldn't be allowed back, even if invited by someone that lives there.

Assuming the above hasn't happened, as long as you are not gong to your old apartment, and you are going there to visit a friend that lives there AND he is inviting you, you SHOULD be OK. My disclaimer: I haven't researched all of this in the Alaska Law books, so I could be missing something. But the rules and laws that I have researched all seem to indicate that the above is the case. Also, my life experience says this is the case where I was an Officer for 21 years (but that wasn't in Alaska). You didn't say what town or area this is in, so it's possible your city has different rules as well. I only know about Alaska State Law and Anchorage Law regarding landlord tenant and trespass issues. Seeing as I'm a renter right now and I like to know my rights and what the landlord can and cannot do I read the entire Landlord tenant act as it applies to me.

Still, this is going to be a very stressful situation for you. And you need to be prepared to be calm when and if the landlord and/or the police show up. What can happen is that your dear friend could end up getting served with an eviction notice too.. This is something to consider.

Obviously you need to get away from that landlord and building as soon as possible and I see that you are.

[Metlakatla]

If someone tells you to get off their property and stay off and you refuse to do so, you're trespassing and can be prosecuted for it. If this were a regular apartment building, you might have some legal leverage about visiting a friend, but if it's really an illegal apartment, it's a private home and you need to stay off the property when told to do so by the owner. Not sure if a property owner can take you to court for not fulfilling obligations in "illegally set up apartments."

[riceme]

I don't have any advice to offer, can only refer you to the Alaska Landlord / Tenant Act:

http://www.courtrecords.alaska.gov/w...rms/pub-30.pdf

[Haolejohn]

Hopefully you have documented everything you have said happens. He will throw your dirty laundry out there (if you were late, noise complaints, etc...).

Remember there are always two sides to a situation and the person that presents their side as the most accurate will often win a dispute.

Do you have your lease agreement?

[Dakster]

Met - I sorta assumed it was a regular apartment building... Seems if it is an 'illegal' apartment building this could be an interesting law suit in court... Not knowing AK law and the lease that everyone signs, typically a leasee can give someone permission to be on the property. They cannot give permission to violate a court order though. Just like a leasee can give the police the right to search to their area of normal control without the deeded owners consent.

Personally. I would settle this dispute in court, hopefully get what money I'm owed, and move on. Let the chips fall with regards to the illegal setup (assuming it is). As for the friend, hopefully they move to a place without so much strife and the OP can visit them there.

[Sasabe_Luner]

Yes we had a lease agreement when I was renting from him, as of right this moment no we don't because we had to get out of there. We gave up the apartment we were renting from him.

Thankfully I have documentation, witness's, and physical proof of a lot of the things I wrote of in my post. I am pretty confident I have covered us to the point that I don't have to worry. Also I can request any documents that came from the investigation of the code compliance and fire marshal people to add to evidence.
I am currently waiting to see if he drops the matter against me and my family, seeing as I have followed the law to the tee, and if he doesn't I am going to demand my electricity bill, from when he was stealing from me, be paid for, reimbursement for at least half a years rent, with the law on my side I can demand for more, and that all charges he wants to put against me be dropped. If he continues to pursue I am going after him with each and every charge I can, to include endangerment of a family. Of course I do understand that even if I do so I probably might not see a penny of any of it but at least I can make sure he doesn't do this to another family.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by Dakster

Met - I sorta assumed it was a regular apartment building... Seems if it is an 'illegal' apartment building this could be an interesting law suit in court...

Well, I sorta assumed it was an illegal apartment because the OP stated as much when she said she said this:

He tried taking us to court and still plans to, which I am ok with because before moving out I managed to alert the state of his illegally set up apartments and with a little turn I learned there was way more to this then I originally thought.

[Sasabe_Luner]

I don't really want much out of this. Honestly after he threatened my family, claiming he'd get the money one way or another I told him if he starts this and does not leave me alone I will not back down and once it's started there's no backing down.
I just hope that with him being investigated and his case going from a state to federal that I can get out of this with reimbursement of half a years rent, reimbursement for the electricity that was stolen from me, and all charges dropped i'll be happy. If he continues to harass me I plan to go after him with all I have.
We hope it's not going to be too hard for him to get out, he's currently dealing with his share of problems but if he's taken to court he's going to point out that this started as soon as he showed up to be a witness. Now the guys demanding next months rent in advance and trying to kick him out at the same time. My friend plans to put in his 7 day notice and get out of there.

It's just a bunch of BS where a man who's in debt is getting desperate and is taking it out on people he believes he can get the money from. Sadly he believes my parents to be wealthy all because they have nice vehicles, he threatened to get the money from them but I can only hope he goes after them. He does that he will be chewed up and spit out and then they will go after him like no other. My parents are not people to mess with that and I did give him a warning of that.

[Sasabe_Luner]

This is in Wasilla, but no none of that has happened yet. Since showing I was serious and bringing in my own legal advisor and letting him know I had an attorney he has refused to speak to me, even when I was trying to retrieve my stuff. The only way I got my stuff was texting one of his...I believe the guy is his son, claiming he can either get ahold of me or I can call the troopers and get an escort onto the property and he could explain to them why he isn't answering my calls and instead telling another tenant that he plans to throw my stuff out of the garage, when there's a court order that allows me to remove my stuff from the property. Even then he himself refused to talk and made one of his son's contact on the last day to let me know I had till the end of the day to get my stuff out.

I'm just hoping we can end this quickly and that I can simply get reimbursement for what is owed. I don't even care about full reimbursement, especially since the people going after him have made it a federal case. He's going to have enough to deal with and honestly I don't want to be involved with that as anything more then a witness.