My jurisdiction is: Arkansas
The church I pastor owns a house that we typically rent to college students that are a part of our college ministry. I am new to the church, so I decided this semester to have the students sign lease agreements. It has been known all along that rent is $150 per student. This is outlined in the lease agreement. The lease was to start september 1 and go through the end of May 2009. The students living in the house have refused to sign the agreements until we lower the rent and fix problems in the house, problems of which we were unaware of. Two of the four students have been living there for a year or so without paying rent because of a previous verbal agreement with only one of the students. My questions are these:
1. Do I have to give an eviction notice to get them out of the house, or does the law view them as unwanted house guests at which time we can ask them to leave without giving notice or reason?
2. What do I need to do by law to have these students evicted?
3. I have given notice for them to be out by October 30, at 5:00. I explained the reason why and made them aware that the proper law enforcement offices would be contacted on that date if they were not out. Is this sufficent?
The church I pastor owns a house that we typically rent to college students that are a part of our college ministry. I am new to the church, so I decided this semester to have the students sign lease agreements. It has been known all along that rent is $150 per student. This is outlined in the lease agreement. The lease was to start september 1 and go through the end of May 2009. The students living in the house have refused to sign the agreements until we lower the rent and fix problems in the house, problems of which we were unaware of. Two of the four students have been living there for a year or so without paying rent because of a previous verbal agreement with only one of the students. My questions are these:
1. Do I have to give an eviction notice to get them out of the house, or does the law view them as unwanted house guests at which time we can ask them to leave without giving notice or reason?
2. What do I need to do by law to have these students evicted?
3. I have given notice for them to be out by October 30, at 5:00. I explained the reason why and made them aware that the proper law enforcement offices would be contacted on that date if they were not out. Is this sufficent?
