Landlord/housemate used a tro to evict (security deposit, legal, vacate)

[c0705]

LL states in the TRO that she evicted the last 2 tenants (Including my daughter, LL has only had a total of 3 tenants for this property). LL does not state by what process. She's put a lot of strange things in the TRO that she didn't need to put in that are not in her best interest and really work against her. Example; She talks about 3 new Addendums she added to the lease over a 4 month period of time that my daughter refused to sign causing her Extreme Psycholgical Abuse. A landlord cannot add an addendum that is not approved by the tenant per the Hawaii Landlord/ Tenant Code.
We think that after looking at the TRO and the 4 pages that the LL has attached that this women is a little crazy and we are hoping that the Judge read what she has written and let her talk enough to get a good sense of what is going on. The more she says the more outrageous she sounds.
Our only concern is; We may only have 5 or 10 minutes before the Judge makes a ruling. If the Judge upholds the TRO it will come up whenever my daughter has a search done on her for future employment. My daughter will ask the Judge to consider this before making the ruling.
This is more than just getting out of a bad living situation.

[virgode]

If this is the Landlords mode of operation, a judge may be aware of
the methods she uses for unwanted tenants.
Landlords earn reputations with judges, if they see to much of her
they'll put it together, hope it's the same judge.
To obtain restraining orders, she'll need to prove just cause,
unless theres something you've left out, I think your daughter will be okay.
Let us know how things turn out.

[c0705]

Okay, the Court hearing lasted 8-10 minutes. My daughter made a statement to the Judge saying that; Normal use of a kitchen is not extreme psychological abuse and that LL used a TRO to circumvent the Hawaii Landlord/Tenant Code, harassing her and effectively leaving her homeless with two cats, no clothes, food or money creating a huge financial and emotional crisis. The Judge asked LL a couple of questions and basically said, "What are you doing in my Court?". Then said he was ready to rule. He ruled to Dissolve the TRO. He told my daughter that she could go back to the house at anytime.We ordered transcripts of the hearing and immediately contacted a moving company to move her things out of the house and into a storage facility the following day. We got to the house 2 hours before the movers to pack her personal belongings, there was a note taped to the bedroom door from LL saying rent was due for July and needed to be paid. We opened the bedroom door to find the whole room had been trashed. (We had pictures of the room taken June 30 when the TRO was served showing a clean tidy room and bathroom). LL was in the house while we were there and it was very difficult not to say anything to her. After the movers got everything out we cleaned the bedroom and bath and then asked LL to inspect the bedroom and bathroom and sign a paper saying everything was clean and there was no damage.. The paper also requested the security deposit back. LL refused to sign and refused to give back the security deposit. We knew based on her previous behavior that she would not sign the paper...we had to go through the motions. We also took more pictures.
Is it over? Most of it is. My daughter just found a cute studio apt in a great location that allows her to have her two pets. She moves in Sat. Now we just need to get her pets from my home (on a different Island) to her home. More money spent. So far over $3,500 in cost.
One person asked on this site, Why not just move out? I think I answered that my daughter had financial reasons for staying which is true, but there was a legal one also. If she had just moved out, she would be breaking her lease and would be responsible for the lease rent until the end of the lease (7 more months) or until the LL found another tenant and she would not get her security deposit back. LL never gave her anything in writing to let her out of the lease and only said she had another tenant for the bedroom. Will we go after LL in Civil Court?..YES. But, I won't be writing about it here It's basically over, time to move on to happier things.Thanks for letting me vent.

[kettlepot]

C0705,

THANK YOU for letting us know how it ended. From a reader's perspective we needed closure.

I had situation with a landlord who wouldn't return my security deposit. He wouldn't even respond to my phone calls and letters after I moved out. I finally took him to small claims to get my money. Your daughter has much bigger issues to sue over than I did, and I hope you ask for more than just the security deposit. Being left homeless for 8 days during the period the TRO was in effect was just outrageous.

So, if you are going to sue, sue not only for the security deposit but any other documentable cost you can reasonably ask for. If you win, will you get the money from the LL? Not immediately (and don't live your life as though the money will ever come), but someday that lien will be paid. And during the intervening years the emotional satisfaction your daughter will receive knowing that this person has a lien against her property that impairs her credit rating until she pays will be priceless.

I know many of the other posters here are assuming that there must be two sides to a story, to prompt the LL to act as she did, and we aren't hearing the other side. But sometimes, there really are crazy landlords out there.

[1phwalls]

Just wanted to reiterate that once you get the judgement, don't think about spending the money, cause you might not see it for years. Just forget about it basically, then one day you might get a christmas in July - cheers!

[Ultrarunner]

How is Hawaii when it comes to Legal Aid?

Sounds like a righteous case... everything from constructive eviction to abuse of the courts... almost as if the Landlord is unbalanced.

You did good by getting her out. Her safety is the most important.

I believe that in the end things do work out for the better.

I would go after the deposit... but that's just me.

Had a friend in a similar situation and the legal wrangling left her emotionally drained for almost a year because she was not expecting to be counter sued and then the Landlord asked for a change to a higher court... etc.

In the end she got all her deposit back and the Landlord lost on the counter suit...

[c0705]

There is Legal Aid in Hawaii. We were refered to Affordable Attorneys by the Hawaii Landlord/Tenant Code office. Affordable Attorneys took copies of the TRO, Addendums LL made to the lease and my daughters statement in response to the TRO. A couple of days later one of their attorneys looked everything over and called my daughter going over what would happen in Court and how she should respond. He told her the TRO was "Laughable" and the Judge would probably be irritated that it was in his Court. The hearing went just as he said it would. The cost was $10.
If we go to Small Claims Court my daughter will not need an Attorney. If we go to Civil Court she may. All receipts, communication and pictures have been kept. Key returned by Certified, Return Receipt Requested mail. (Since LL refused to sign off on the room being clean/without damage and refused to return the security deposit we felt we needed proof of receipt of key) LL broke the lease by serving a frudulant TRO. Effective eviction without proper legal due process per the Hawaii Landlord/Tenant Code. Small Claims Court or Civil Court...don't know yet. If LL gives us any more problems maybe Civil Court. And, it looks like she may, today, LL is saying she still does not know if my daughter is a tenant or not. At the house, on the day we packed and moved my daughter out, she claimed to be a lic. Real Estate Agent. (Yes, I know I can make a complant to the B of R but I don't think she is a lic Real Estate Agent. She did not disclose it on the lease) She also said my daughter had access to the house during the TRO and was not locked out by the TRO. This lady lives on a different planet. Crazy things just come out of her mouth. She really doesn't know when to stop. She's just digging a deeper hole for herself. I will not let her pull us into her makebelive world.

[rubytue]

I followed this thread from when you first posted. I'm so glad to hear the judge saw the freaky L for what she was. Good luck to your daughter!

[Mt-7]

Is this Landlord the owner/occupier of the property? It is possible that this is not even a legal rental.
Cut your losses, concentrate on a new home for her, at the hearing IMO get some type of agreement that the Landlord is responsible for any loss of personal property and the renter has a reasonable time frame in which to move it. Better for your daughter in the long run, this sounds like someone with cobwebs in her attic

woops, sorry, did not see there was a second page. will go read it now.

[virgode]

So glad things turned out well in court, I thought they would.
Myself, I'd be taking her to civil court with an attorney.
Abuse of the legal system, with fraudulant charges is a crime.
What a looney tune.