[sportsfangal]

Hi-
my sister was illegally evicted from her home last Christmas (crummy timing, huh?). She is a truck driver and is on the road several weeks at a time, despite late rent issues, she was not a problem tenant.
her cars were towed away, much of her belongings were thrown out.
she obtained a lawyer and he found that there had been no notice of eviciton issued or filed with the courts. she came home to find her home almost empty. Her neighbors tried to tell the people throwing her things away that she is on the road and is coming back, etc. but they did not listen.
my question is-how good is her case? the lawyer seems to think it is a good one, since he did not recommend small clamis court.
thanks!

[MichiganMovesSouth]

Originally Posted by sportsfangal

Hi-
my sister was illegally evicted from her home last Christmas (crummy timing, huh?). She is a truck driver and is on the road several weeks at a time, despite late rent issues, she was not a problem tenant.
her cars were towed away, much of her belongings were thrown out.
she obtained a lawyer and he found that there had been no notice of eviciton issued or filed with the courts. she came home to find her home almost empty. Her neighbors tried to tell the people throwing her things away that she is on the road and is coming back, etc. but they did not listen.
my question is-how good is her case? the lawyer seems to think it is a good one, since he did not recommend small clamis court.
thanks!

I used to work as an Assistant Manager for an apartment complex. I don't know how this landlord filed the paperwork (if they even did) but I know in the apartment world it takes up to 3 months to evict someone - to the point of removing their items from the apartment. In apartment world the tenant if fully aware of the situation, as are the police. Do you know if the police were involved in removing her items? If this is a private landlord then she may have a good case. If this is corporate owned and the landlord filed paperwork with the police - she may not. I know you said she is on the road a lot but unfortunately corporate owned rental companies don't care about that. They must treat everyone the same to avoid a fair housing lawsuit. So, they can't give her a break if she did not get the paperwork just because she wasn't around.

I work with contracts now and I can't even tell you how important agreements between two parties are. Does she have a lease agreement? Did she violate the agreement in any way to result in her being evicted?

I hope everything works out. I'm glad she has a lawyer and he is really the best source of info for you.

[sportsfangal]

Hi-I don't know the exact details of her rental agreement, this is a private landlord.
I thought that there at least had to be phone calls, notices, letters, etc if they are going to evict you. the landlord had many ways of contacting my sister but since nothing was ever established, my sister feels this was unlawful.
I did read that in order to evict, the landlord should have filed this with the courts and allowed time for my sister to respond. I'm under the impression that this did not happen. they have her phone number and employer name! they even had MY number if they needed to contact my sister about this) Even if the landlord keeps her deposit, my sister is still to be notified as to why the deposit is being withheld (repairs, damage, etc) this also did not happen. another interesting note is that of my sister's 2 cars, one was destroyed, yet the other, a Bronco, was taken to a different location-the tow truck man told police it was taken to the landlord's son's home! why would the landlord do this? this all seems so fishy to me, especially since there was no notice or warning given to my sister. Seems like there would at least be a phone call, letter, notice of some kind, even something issued with the courts which there was nothing.

[dragon_fly_12]

Landlord tenant laws in MI state the landlord had to *legally* give her written notice of plans to evict. Once notice was posted / received (posted on her door is sufficient), it HAD to go to court. The judge would have had to rule in favor of the landlord for past due balance. Once this judgement was awarded, the landlord would have had to then file with the court an order of stay - basically have the judge rule in favor of the landlord that then tenant had to vacate the apartment by a certain date. Once that was achieved, the landlord could only physically move out the tenant once the deadline was missed.

Legally evicting someone is a lengthly process, and costly one. Apartments tend to give tenants the chance to move out on their own before the end of the month BECAUSE it is so time consuming and expensive.

Both private and business owned rentals are legally bound to the MI L-T laws. If the tenant receives mail at the address (or has a contract), she is protected by the laws. This basically goes for any type of "rental" agreement -- if you let a friend stay in a room of your house temporiarly and then decide it is not going to work out, you MUST go through the proper eviction process if that person received mail at your home.

Yes, if your sister's landlord never followed the procedure for legally evicting her, she has an EXCELLENT case against the landlord. She needs to tally up her losses - how much it cost to get the cars back, the value of the items thrown out, etc, etc. But, also keep in mind that the landlord can counter sue for any rent she hasn't paid if she never paid for the time that she was behind on. I strongly advise she needs to speak with an attorney that specializes in L-T laws.

Good luck!! (speaking as a former apt manager at a complex in Haslett, MI)