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If you do indeed have a term lease (again, what is the beginning date and end date?) you cannot be given notice to leave. Your landlord has to go through the eviction process. Read here:
I'd have to find the lease and look over it, but every year we go into the office to sign a new lease agreement. Thanks for the info, but this concerns me...
"30 day termination of tenancy This is used to end a month-to-month tenancy or to assert that the tenant committed a major breach of the lease."
It's fair to say, that after all these complaints....threatening neighbors, destruction or property, throwing parties, etc....that I "committed a major breach of the lease?" Or am I not understanding that correctly?
Again, you need to seek proper legal advice. Find your lease, get your paperwork together and do as suggested. All you can get from a public forum is opinions and links to helpful information, not legal advice.
Yes, I realize I need to seek legal advice...but I'd rather not unless I absolutely have to. That costs money I don't have. I'm just trying to weigh my options and determine what the best course of action is. And also, figure out whether or not this is just an intimidation tactic by the PM and if not how strong there evidence would be against me if it went to court (all they have are written complaints, no police reports, no real proof that any of these lease violations took place....because they never happened)
Well the meeting didn't go well, the person we met with basically just ignored everything we said. I basically told her all of these complaints were false and that if we were so loud or had parties, than why have the police never been called on us? I asked her to talk to my next door neighbors and ask them if we're loud or have had parties, she said she would...but of course she never did. Today we got a phone call from her saying that b/c of the multiple complaints and b/c we have a history of complaints (from 3 years ago by the same elderly residents)...that her hands were tied and that we should either move or prepare for court.
So ya, we're pretty stressed out...they are on a mission to get us out of here. Nothing feels worse than being forced to leave your home based on lies. My wife and I feel pretty defeated and not sure if we even want to fight it. Even though they have no evidence outside of a witness testimony (it'd take a special kind of person to get up on the witness stand and lie to get us evicted).
I spoke with an attorney from a free legal aid service. He said that our county is very landlord friendly and it'd be an uphill battle. But that our landlord would have to rely on witness testimony. Even though the Notice they served us with is full of mistakes. HUD regulations states...the notice must state that we have 10 days to meet with the owner of the apartments to discuss the eviction (they won't even let us talk to the owner and there's nothing about that on the notice to quit). Also, HUD states they must give specific reasons for the eviction, not just lease violations, and copies of the complaints...which they will not do.
Yes. Move. You say you've been dealing with this "harassment" for on and off three years already. Nothing has improved but has obviously worsened and fighting the inevitable seems to be an exercise in futility which even the attorney you spoke to indicated. Avoid the court route, look for another place and agree to move within a certain time frame. Good luck.
Sorry if this is long, but I really need help. Thank you
My family and I live in a section 8 housing complex. For the past 3 years, we have been harassed by the property manager. This person has always treated us terribly. 3 years ago, she sent us a list of complaints. The complaint listed about 7 things, mostly to do with our children playing out side and destroying property (it was 4th of july, they apparently touched a tree with a sparkler). All of her complaints were false and we set up a meeting with her and her boss. Her tone immediately changed during this meeting, it was the first time she's ever been nice to us and not talked down to us. After that, things were good for 2 years.
Fast forward to the present. It's all happening again. 1st, she wouldn't accept our rent b/c we were 5 minutes late...forced us to come back with a late payment. She forced us to pay for repairs and paint, that we shouldn't be liable for. Than things got really bad, we called into have our oven repaired...2 weeks later we got another long list of complaints (dated as the same day of the oven repair). Again, all false. I tried to call her, she wouldn't answer or clarify any of the complaints after I told her they were false. All of these complaints go into our permanent record and she has done nothing to investigate them to determine if they are accurate. So either she's making them up, or they are all coming from the same elderly person that lives by us. We have spoken to both of our next door neighbors, they have no problems with us. They have also expressed the same feelings of being constantly harassed by the property manager.
List of false complaints: Disturbing or harassing other tenants
Excessive noise from unit
Leaving trash or other obstruction in public area
Fire pit behind unit (we've never owned a fire pit)
Parties late at night (we've never had a party)
Allowing tenants children to disturb other tenants late at night (out kids are in bed by 9pm)
Now today, we received a Notice to Quit, it says we have 30 days to vacate the property. The reason listed is "15 infractions within 3 years based on resident complaints, noise, parties, threats against neighbors, destruction of property". I can't believe any of this? ALL of this is false. I'm afraid to lose our family home and I'm not sure what I can do to fight this eviction. This lady is pure evil. We can't afford to live anywhere else, we are great tenants, we have a clean home, always pay rent. My other neighbors and I have started a petition against the property manager...so far we'd have about 10 signatures stating that "we the tenants feel our rights has been/or is being violated; that we have either experienced harassment, have been treated unfairly, or we have been discriminated against by the property manager "
I planned on sending the petition to the owners of the complex and to use it in court for the eviction proceedings. Will this even do anything? Anyhow, that's my story, any advice is greatly appreciated.
I'm sorry, but I am skeptical of your story. Whether you are on governmental assistance or not, it is a PITA for a landlord to evict a tenant. It is a lengthy legal process involved for a landlord to evict then he/she has a vacant unit to advertise, clean, repair, and rent again, of course. Thus, he/she doesn't want to do this unless there is ample reason to do so.
Also, do you really want to continue fighting this eviction? Since the landlord is obviously determined to evict you, whether the complaints are warranted or not, she will not want you as a renter even if you win your case, thus will be angry and do who knows what if you stay. It will cause you trouble down the line whether you win or lose. Another possibility you may not have considered is to buy a home with an FHA mortgage. You can put down only a small down payment (you may not have to put down any at all) and buy your own home. Good luck to you.
Thanks for the thoughts guys. It has been constant harassment and trust me I'd love nothing more to wash my hands of this mess. In our area though, we'd be paying double the rent we are now. With our income, that'd be extremely hard to do. But it looks like that's our best option.
I agree, my story does sound skeptical. The hell we've endured with this property manager is hard to believe. Basically, she looks down on low income people and treats most tenants like complete sh*t. Which is funny, in our 10 page lease it says that management staff must treat residents with respect and courtesy...guess that's a lease violation on there part. The main problem is that b/c this is section 8 they have no need to advertise or treat residents with any sort of decency to fill vacancies. There's a 3 year waiting list just to get in here. The worst part of all this, is her finally getting her way. She's been trying for 3 years to get rid of us. There's nothing worse than being forced to leave your home, uproot your children, all because of a wicked PM and false complaints.
Now I'm worried that after we leave, she's going to try charging us for everything she possibly can.
We just had an inspection last week (along with all the other residents) and yesterday received a list of repairs that needed to be done. They have given us the same list of repairs for the past 3 inspections and they've never gotten fixed. If I put in a work order at this point, do they still have to make the repairs?
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