Oral contract in Missouri

[michaellaurren]

We live in a trailor park and the landlord is suing for back rent. There was no written lease agreement when we moved in. Due to financial hardships we became behind on rent. Our landlord made a verbal agreement that if we did maintenance work around the park, we would be current on the owed rent. We have several witnesses as to this agreement, and we fufilled our part of the bargain. She is now suing us for the back rent. There are other problems as well. We recently found out that the sewage for the entire park is draining into a pond directly in front of our house. There are several sewage drains that are filled to the brim, and the smell is terrible. Furthermore, she failed to pay her trash bill, and the trash company did not pick up the trash for a month, at least. Trash was flying everywhere and, again, the smell was terrible. Eventually, someone set the trash can on fire to get rid of the mess. The Health Department was called and pictures were taken.

My questions are what can we do when there was no written rental agreement, and she made a verbal agreement to take care of the back rent? And would the pictures of the sewage and trash be admissable in court?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

In the absence of a written lease, a tenant is assumed to be a month to month renter. This does not mean they can avoid paying rent; it does mean that a tenant need only give 30 days notice to move out while a landlord gives a 30 to 60 day notice (depending on the state) with no reason needed to end the tenancy.

Your landlord is suing you for back rent and perhaps if you can get your witnesses to testify in court that she agreed to use the maintenance work you did as rent that you might be able to convince a judge of that.

The issue of bringing up the trash and sewer business would be useful if you had moved out and she was suing you because you abandoned the rental. However, since you continue to live there, this likely has no bearing on the case while revolves around failure to pay rent.

Gail