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I am on a month-to-month lease in Nebraska. My landlord sold the duplex I am living in, and on August 20th gave me a 30 day notice to vacate on September 20th. I have since learned that according to Nebraska law, the notice she gave me was not sufficient, and I actually have until October 1, as that is our rental period.
Of course, I have been madly searching for a place, and feel I have been extremely accomodating to her as I have allowed the new owners to come over and take measurements, etc. I found a place that I thought would be okay, and he just needed to check my references. He got back to me and told me that she had told him I didn't pay my rent on time and wasn't leaving it in very good condition! Not true at all! My rent has been paid in full and on time every month, save one time when it arrived over a week late. However, even she saw that it had been postmarked on time, but for whatever reason took a long time to arrive.
Also, she never bothered to clean the place when we moved in, and the former tenants were pigs. I paid $400 to have it cleaned when we moved in, and have improved the place a lot! and I don't mean whacky "improvements" that some people think they are making, I mean we repainted the halls and one of the rooms (nice neutral colors)because they looked absolutely awful (and on our own dime). In addition, she never did make any of the repairs she promised she would do when we moved in, including the front door lock (extremely loose when we moved in, now completely broken), as well as the dishwasher never worked even though it was stated in the lease she would supply it. Even so, I continued to pay my rent and do everything possible to be a good tenant.
So she screwed me out of that place, and I am NOT happy. With this being said, because of what she told this potential landlord, I think she is going to try to keep my rental deposit. I fortunately have pictures and notes from when I moved in, but she never signed them, so I'm not totally sure how they would stand up.
Anyway, my question is: what exactly is the process she would need to go through from here on out? Is October 1st the date she would need to give me the 3-day notice to vacate? And if so, and I don't vacate at that time, what happens next? How long could this process take?
I am not trying to be an awful person here, but I do have a son to think about and so far have not had any luck in finding a place. I could use any advice you might have. Thank you!
Your "improvements" immediately become part of the house, and you cannot recover anything for them unless you made a deal in writing with the landlord. The cleaning you did before you moved in -- you should have discussed that with the landlord before moving in, and gotten whatever deal you made in writing. Your rent arriving late -- it's your responsibility to make sure that check is in the landlord's hands by the due date. She still has to pay her mortgage whether or not you pay the rent, so how is it fair to her to have to deal with late payments because you couldn't mail it in time? Since you did pay late at least once, she is fully within her rights to pass on that information to your new landlord.
As far as the repairs she promised to make, you should have pursued them before now, especially if you have them in writing. By letting them slide, you pretty much gave tacit approval that they weren't important.
Is all this fair to you? Probably not. But you could have mitigated things before now.
I am on a month-to-month lease in Nebraska. My landlord sold the duplex I am living in, and on August 20th gave me a 30 day notice to vacate on September 20th. I have since learned that according to Nebraska law, the notice she gave me was not sufficient, and I actually have until October 1, as that is our rental period.
Of course, I have been madly searching for a place, and feel I have been extremely accomodating to her as I have allowed the new owners to come over and take measurements, etc. I found a place that I thought would be okay, and he just needed to check my references. He got back to me and told me that she had told him I didn't pay my rent on time and wasn't leaving it in very good condition! Not true at all! My rent has been paid in full and on time every month, save one time when it arrived over a week late. However, even she saw that it had been postmarked on time, but for whatever reason took a long time to arrive.
Also, she never bothered to clean the place when we moved in, and the former tenants were pigs. I paid $400 to have it cleaned when we moved in, and have improved the place a lot! and I don't mean whacky "improvements" that some people think they are making, I mean we repainted the halls and one of the rooms (nice neutral colors)because they looked absolutely awful (and on our own dime). In addition, she never did make any of the repairs she promised she would do when we moved in, including the front door lock (extremely loose when we moved in, now completely broken), as well as the dishwasher never worked even though it was stated in the lease she would supply it. Even so, I continued to pay my rent and do everything possible to be a good tenant.
So she screwed me out of that place, and I am NOT happy. With this being said, because of what she told this potential landlord, I think she is going to try to keep my rental deposit. I fortunately have pictures and notes from when I moved in, but she never signed them, so I'm not totally sure how they would stand up.
Anyway, my question is: what exactly is the process she would need to go through from here on out? Is October 1st the date she would need to give me the 3-day notice to vacate? And if so, and I don't vacate at that time, what happens next? How long could this process take?
I am not trying to be an awful person here, but I do have a son to think about and so far have not had any luck in finding a place. I could use any advice you might have. Thank you!
It takes a LL a lot of time, trouble and expense to evict a tenant. If you have chikldren, it takes even longer.
I suggest you have a conversation with your LL, and tell her it behoves her to give you a good reference or you will hold out until the last dog is hung. She will have to take you to court and go through the hell LL's must suffer, and it will take much longer than the time alloted. If she wants to play hardball, so can you. I'm sure her buyer doesn't want to wait for a court date to move in. Even after she gets a judgment, it takes weeks to get you out, so she plays ball or loses the game.
If she is lying about the late rent and poor condition, even more reason for her to play ball. The place is sold, it's no skin off her nose where you go next.
Tell her to call the place she gave a bad reference to and say it was a mistake. Yu can make her life very uncomfortable under the circumstances..
She has to file a small claims case, and wait for a trial date. Depending on where you live, and how busy the courts are, that could take months. If she wins, it will take weeks after that. Tell her the facts of life. I'm sure her buyer doesn't want to wait that long...
She probably files in small claims court. It could take up to a month to get a hearing. She gets an eviction judgement. You get a small number of days to protest. Then she gets a court order for a constable to give you a small number of days to get out. If you don't get out, the constable removes you.
However, she can sue you for 1) additional rent and legal fees and 2) worse yet, holding up or killing the sale.
You can call your local housing authority about her badmouthing since it's preventing you from finding new housing. You can sue her for slander in small claims court if: 1) you can prove it, 2) you can prove that it caused you financial hardship.
Your "improvements" immediately become part of the house, and you cannot recover anything for them unless you made a deal in writing with the landlord. The cleaning you did before you moved in -- you should have discussed that with the landlord before moving in, and gotten whatever deal you made in writing. Your rent arriving late -- it's your responsibility to make sure that check is in the landlord's hands by the due date. She still has to pay her mortgage whether or not you pay the rent, so how is it fair to her to have to deal with late payments because you couldn't mail it in time? Since you did pay late at least once, she is fully within her rights to pass on that information to your new landlord.
As far as the repairs she promised to make, you should have pursued them before now, especially if you have them in writing. By letting them slide, you pretty much gave tacit approval that they weren't important.
Is all this fair to you? Probably not. But you could have mitigated things before now.
I don't care about recovering for the cleaning or improvements. I did them because it made it a nice place for us. And as far as the rent, I always mailed it 3-4 days before it was due (she moved out of town, but mail still generally gets there overnight). I'm not sure what else I could have done to make sure it landed in her hands on the first. And as far as that goes, she herself said she saw it was postmarked on time, so she could hardly prove the other side either, that it *didn't* get there on time.
My concern is that she wants to be able to close this sale, and yet is making it difficult for me to find something else. If I couldn't find anything, I had planned to put my things in storage and stay with a friend for a short time, but now with this I guess I don't feel like being so nice.
Among the harsh truth here, get a walk-through with a professional apartment inspector before and after renting anything, anywhere. It is cheap insurance and is documented (in writing) evidence of the conditions. You're right about the 30-day notice covering the full rental period, but these laws change from place to place. Depending on the your state, your landlord may need a court ordered eviction sent to you, it depends. If it goes to court, you could be locked out that day. Once the judge says you're gone, that's the last you'll see the interior, unless he gives you 3 days or something. He usually doesn't have to. Unfortunately, without a lease, your dilemma is not uncommon. With a lease, it won't happen. The new buyers are responsible to fulfill the lease or buy you out with a written amendment. I may be wrong. I'd check with an attorney if I were you. Good luck!
It has not been mentioned...BUT...if she sold the duplex, she is no longer the landlord. The new owner is now your landlord and probably has the deposit. communicate with the new owner. I'd by[ass the old owner and try to negotiate with the new landlord and see what agreement you can come to in order to have time to find a new place and leave with a better taste in your mouth. Check your lease for provisions of selling the property. it should state that the new owner has the deposit.
It has not been mentioned...BUT...if she sold the duplex, she is no longer the landlord. The new owner is now your landlord and probably has the deposit.
This brings up an interesting question. Why are you being asked to leave? Doesn't the new owner want tenants? If the property is being bought as a rental, existing leases are usually of value to the sale. They ensure that the property will continue to generate income in the short term.
But if the new owner doesn't want tenants, he/she has no obligation to act as a landlord or hold the deposit. And vacated premises may be a condition of the sale.
Something like that happened to me, but the landlord was resident on the property. They sold out to a buyer who wanted it as a personal home, so I had no choice but to move. In fact, the OWNER had only about 30 days to get moved out. Got my things into a small storage unit, and lived partly in my car, partly at work (when it occurred to me that I had a key to the place, and was usually the one who closed up at night!)
This brings up an interesting question. Why are you being asked to leave? Doesn't the new owner want tenants? If the property is being bought as a rental, existing leases are usually of value to the sale. They ensure that the property will continue to generate income in the short term.
But if the new owner doesn't want tenants, he/she has no obligation to act as a landlord or hold the deposit. And vacated premises may be a condition of the sale.
The new owner wants it as a residence.
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