My roommate kicked me out on October 1st over an argument. I had already paid rent until the end of the month so I told her I would be out on the 24th. Now she is telling me I can't enter the house to get my things unless she is there, even though I still have a key and technically still live there until the end of the month. Can she legally tell me I can't enter unless she is there? My name isn't on the contract. It was just a agreement between the two of us, though all the utilities are in my name. How should I handle this?
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Uslu Airlines
Marshall Ward
7trends
I dont think she can. Just go get your stuff. If she wants to call the cops and act up, let her. Also, you should shut off all her utils asap if you can just to mess with her. hehehe!
hope it works out for you...
1By law you have 30 days to vacate the property. This is regardless of the lack of written contract. In fact, even if you HADN'T paid rent she would be required by law to give you a 30-day notice to vacate. It is unlawful to evict someone from their place of residence without notice.
You need to contact the police so you can get in and get your belongings. You should also demand to have your rent reimbursed for the days you aren't able to live there in October. Don't let her screw you - the law is on your side.
2Sorry but you aren't on the lease which means you don't really have any rights. It's under contract to be her place, so why not just respect that and go get your things when she's there instead of causing even more animosity? If all the utilities are in your name then you can always use that as leverage and threaten to cut her off if she isn't going to help you out, but really you can be the bigger person here...pick and choose your battles:)
3this isn't really the sort of question that i would ask in Group Therapy. you need to contact a lawyer or the police to find out what your rights are in this situation. if it's not too late to put a stop payment on the check, i'd do that. also do you pay rent to her or the rental company? i lived with a couple roommates for a year & i just paid one of the roomies because his name was the only one on the lease because he had lived there for a few years. if you're paying the rental company, talk to them. i also love the idea that 365UIK had of getting all the utilities you pay for turned off. i hope you can get this resolved & can find a new place to stay! if this happened to me i could always go back to my parents house because they live 20 minutes away, hopefully your parents are close or you have good friends nearby!
4I was recently in a similar situation (the roles were reversed)- only my roommate decided to give no notice, and just LEAVE 2 days before rent was due. She claimed not to have money to pay rent anymore and that she was moving home. She then left for vacation, and left all of her things in my apartment for another 2 weeks without paying rent while she was away. Unfortunately, the lease is only in my name, as well as the utilities, so I didn't really have any leagal right to say she owed me 30 days notice. She agreed to pay her half of the utilities/cable bill in writing (I saved the email), and then she shortchanged me on that. I guess I could have leverage since I have it in writing, but at this point in time, it is not worth it!
She came to get her belongings when I wasn't there, which made me really uncomfortable, because of the animosity. I had no choice in that situation though - I was out of town for one day, and of course that was the day she decided to show up. She left my apartment a mess - which may be what your ex-roommate is worried about, especially since you guys split due to an argument. Either way, it is a tricky situation, and I would contact the rental office to let them know of the situation, and see what their advice is.
5luisamapacha is correct...you have rights whether you had a lease or not. The law says that you have 30 days to get out whether you had a written lease or not. If you didn't have a written lease then under the law you are considered month-to-month and there are definite rules governing that arrangement. Look up your rights, get the utilities out of your name and go get your stuff...if you have to, call and ask for a police officer to come with you so she can't say you did anything wrong.
6i would go and pick up all your things when she is there. bring someone to help you so you don't have to speak with her, and don't say anything to her at all. give her back the key and say goodbye.
when you get home after you get all your stuff...shut off all the utilities. you're not legally on the lease so when it comes to that you have no say about her just kicking you out or telling you to not enter the apartment without her. any law enforcement will take her side since you arent on the lease and if you break her rules you may never see your stuff again.
since she isnt on the utility bills you can screw her out of that like she screwed you out of your apartment. theres nothing she can do about it.
7and also it depends on the place. i work in property management and we own several rental buildings in NYC- and every state is different as is every management company. if she doesn't have a contract this girl can say whatever she wants (that she was visiting and just offered to pay utilities etc..) and by the time you drag everything through court you will spend more money and time trying to fight it. these things drag on for months and since you only have a few days left i don't think its worth it to go through all of that.
8I agree this is a weird thing to come to group therapy about. Laws are different in every state so it is hard to say what rights you really have. I do think it is strange that her name was the only one on the lease but all the utilities are in your name. Just because you take them out of your name does not mean she will automatically be without power, gas, or water there is a grace period that she will have to get signed up for service. The only thing that will get turned off is if you shut off the phone. You should handle it by packing your stuff and getting out of there.
9I agree this is a weird thing to come to group therapy about. Laws are different in every state so it is hard to say what rights you really have. I do think it is strange that her name was the only one on the lease but all the utilities are in your name. Just because you take them out of your name does not mean she will automatically be without power, gas, or water there is a grace period that she will have to get signed up for service. The only thing that will get turned off is if you shut off the phone. You should handle it by packing your stuff and getting out of there.
10Yeah, this isn't something group therapy can necessarily help you with. Have you tried the livejournal community law_questions?
I have no law background, but as far as I know, you don't have rights if you don't have a contract (lease.) Don't turn off the utilities, that's extremely immature and vindictive. Even if your former roommate is being a b*tch, it just makes you look bad to anyone who knows both of you.
11Um, okay, I can't believe how many people are ignoring those of us who do know for a fact that even without a lease tenants have rights!! This is not a state-by-state issue. You get 30 days no matter what.
12I vote to turn off the utilities immediately. She's being mean to you, do the same back. Or atleast threaten to unless she lets you in. Most places I've lived will let you shut off utilities within a day or two.
13No one is ignoring those that have said she has rights luisamapacha. I think that since a lot of us do not have a background in real estate law we are just telling her to research what she can do in her state no one is discounting anything anyone else has said.
14Without knowing the situation, I don't think we should be suggesting retribution.
Look, just wait for her to be there when you get your sh*t. Life is short. It's not worth making a big fuss about this with police and lawyers.
15Luisa that is actually quite incorrect. Depending on where you live and what is allowed by your individual apartment, they may be in the wrong for having someone living there who ISN'T on the lease at all (there are several like that here in Florida). I am on the lease in my apartment and I rent out one of my rooms to someone. They have no real right if I want to kick them out tomorrow, and I have no real right to fight if they ditch me when rent is due. You just have to trust the person you're living with. A lot of people wont (or can't) go on the lease b/c o their credit. So yes, you can go month-to-month in some places but since one girl is the sole name on the lease, it's her place.
16Berlin, you are wrong. Here's Florida law:
* If there is no written lease, the span of your rental payment (weekly, monthly, etc.) determines the length of the agreement.
This means that like in this case, if the person has paid rent for the month, they get to live there for the month.
In addition:
LANDLORDS CAN'T JUST THROW YOU OUT!
* Only a judge can order you evicted, and only the Sheriff can put you out of your
home
Here's some more info that you should probably read up on, considering you currently rent a room to someone:
17http://www.coj.net/Departments/Environmental+and+Compliance/Consumer+Aff...
Yes but there IS a written lease for the apartment and the other girl is on it. It would be different if she was legally subletting the place or she was the landlord who didn't have leases. But technically it's her place so she can state whether or not the other girl is allowed in (trust me I went through ALL the legal crap with this before trying to get another, dangerous, roommate out). The OP can fight to get her money back, but she can't just walk in after being left. Landlords cannot throw you out because it is a verbal and/or written agreement with the owner, but this OP is just a roommate of a girl who is on the lease with her landlord. So technically she CAN be thrown out.
18Go in when you know she's not going to be home, get your stuff, and go. Don't touch any of your stuff. Even if you go when she is home, she cannot do anything about it.
In addition, call the utility companies and work out a way to get the utilities changed to her name. If they can't be changed, get the utilities shut off so she has to renew then in her own name. I know it may sound a bit drastic, but she could easily "forget" to pay a bill and your credit will be screwed over for life because of it.
19Today is the 24th, so what happened? Just curious...
20If you still have a key to the place just go in and claim your things. If she calls the cops then show them the utility payments for that address in your name (which will prove you live there). Also demand she pay back the rent you paid for October on the days you didn't live there. I would totally get my stuff out and turn off the utilities.
If she won't budge on paying you back then take her to small claims.
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