Can they do that?

[jkgfish]

We moved into a house where the owners were "getting divorced" and needed someone to pay the mortgage for them. Before moving in I insisted that we draw up a rental agreement, to protect us if they decided to get back together. The Owners drew one up, we all reviewed it and signed it. She (the owner/landlord) took the agreement with her to make copies to us. We have been in the house for three month now, have never seen a copy of the lease agreement and two weeks ago the landlord put a letter in our mailbox that said we broke our lease (that we have never seen since the day we signed) and must move out. They say that because we have a cat we broke our lease. The lease says we may have our two dogs but says nothing about having a cat (or not having a cat).

The truth is the owners got back together and now want the house back. My question is what legally does she need to do to evict us? The letter she gave us was from her personal computer and was put in our mailbox by her.

 

[presutin]

Ask for your signed copy of your lease agreement. After that, check out your state landlord/tenant laws to see what kind of notice you need to get from your landlord if you are really found in violation of your lease agreement and to verify what the law says in your state. Since it varies from state to state, just google it. Hope this helps!

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Do you remember the length of the lease; was it, say a year lease or only a month to month contract?

If just a month to month contract, in most states the landlord need only give 30 days notice for the lease to terminate (in my state..Georgia..the landlord must give 60 days notice). There need not be any reason for this request to have the tenants move out.

If a longer lease (say, a year lease) the landlord must give a reason for such. Your landlord is claiming you broke the lease because of your cat.

Keep in mind that the landlord cannot actually evict you. If you ignore this request, their next step is to formally file against you for eviction through the local court system. What typically happens here is that once they initiate this filing, you will be served and have a certain number of days to respond to this notice.

If you fail to respond, the landlord wins the judgement against you for eviction. If you do respond the next step is setting up a hearing in court where both you and your landlord can present the case as to why or why not you should be evicted.

I hope this helps explains the steps a bit.

Gail