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Friend Kicked out on 10 day notice, reduced to immediate notice

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Tarwn

Junior Member
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?
North Carolina

This has been editied to include a shorter version that glosses over a lot of the events that I thought had bearing, left the longer story in, follows same order of events - Included my thoughts/questions at end

Short Version:
Oct 30: A friend was accused falsely of having/smoking pot in the house and was told he had to move out by his roommate (leasee) by Nov 15th. Friend was surprised and denied all claims. Roommate desists. Proof consisted of several dried strawberry tops that had been removed from his trashcan when the leasee decided to search his room while he was in the shower
Oct 31: Friend locks door when he leaves so his roommate won't search his room (personal privacy concerns). His roommate takes this as an admission of guilt, tells him that he must vacate by Nov 10th. He then attempts to goad my friend into a fight by shouting and bumping him with his chest multiple times, friend stands off and doesn't react.
Nov 1st: Several of us go over to remove all of my friends belongings with him and his father, as he is concerned that something could be planted, etc and just wants to be done with the situation as quickly as possible. Roommate interupts regularly with demands, including the threat to take him to small claims court if he doesn't pay full rent and bills for the entire month of November (based on a "Verbal Agreement" that did not include any mention of eviction/kicking out/etc). Also included a later interuption where he (roommate) required the key be left behind when my friend left (effectively making that my friends final day, despite having given him until the 10th originally).

Longer Version with Actual Story and pseudo-quotes
This actually is occurring to a friend of mine and I am trying to find some information for him.
Back Situation: My friend has been living with his roomate for about two years. Under the verbal agreement he accepted when he moved in he was responsible for a certain portion of the rent and monthly bills. When asked he told me that there had been no mention of terms for moving out or anything like that. Since then the roomate (who's name is on the lease) has also allowed his girlfriend to move in (perhaps not relevant).

The other evening (Oct 30) the fire alarms randomly went off. They checked around, couldn't find a cause, and went back to sleep. The next morning (Oct 31) my friend took a long shower (he had been out of town for the weekend at a concert and was feeling sore) then went and ran some errands, including a trip to the doctor (sprained hand). When he returned to the apartment, the roomate (leasee) approached him with:
"Did you ever smoke in the house?", answer was no,
"Did you ever bring pot in the house?", answer was a confused no,
"Did you ever smoke pot in the house?", answer was again a confused no.
Roomate then informed him that he was lying and had until the 15th of Nov to move out. Friend was understandably upset and extremely confused and demanded to know why he had to move out and what was going on. The roomate then said he had searched my friends trashcan while he was in the shower and found something he believed to be pot. He then took this across the street to one of the construction workers who burned a piece and agreed that it was pot. He then took it to a police officer who burned a piece and said it was pot. On showing it to my friend my friend said it looked like a dried up strawberry top and again said he had never smoked cigarettes in the house (recently quit) and of course had not brought any pot in the house (much less smoked any in or out of the house). Roommate said he didn't have to move out by 15th.

Later that night after relating the story to myself and a couple others, he returned home. Apparently my friend had locked his bedroom door before leaving. Roommate demanded to know why the door had been locked and said this proved that my friend was hiding something from him. His roommate said he had almost believed him but now it was obvious my friend had been lying. Friend replied that he just didn't trust him (the roommate) to be searching through his room when he wasn't around and didn't feel comfortable with it. Also said he was worried the "Pot Fairy" might visit his room and leave something questionable behind. His roommate lost his temper and attempted to goad him into a fight, at one point yelling at the top of his lungs and bumping him with his chest. My friend basically stood quietly (I give him a lot of credit for that and saw it later myself, though part of it was probably just shock at his roommates antics). He was then told he had until Nov 10th to move out. My friend left and spent the night with another friend of ours.

The next evening (Nov 1st), we showed up at the apartment with my friends father, myself, and 3 others, along with an assortment of boxes, bags, etc. His roommate came out yelling something to the effect of "What the hell is going on" but promptly shut up and walked off when we just kind of stood there (I swear, no threats or even threatening behaviour, we were all a little shocked, especially my friends father). We carried the boxes and so on up to his room and started packing. We managed to pack up all of his belongings in a little under two hours. During this time the roommate came up a minimum of 5 times while I was there (we tried to keep one person with my friend at all times as to not allow the roommate to try to goad him again). Multiple comments were repeated but the main ones were:
- Write down your forwarding address for me so I know where to send your mail. I need you to write it down now (as we were packing, unfortunatly I can't convey the tone propoerly here)
- We had a verbal agreement about the rent. You owe me the full rent and bills for November, if you don't pay them I have the legal right to take you to small claims court anytime up to one year from now for the full amount.
- I need you to get out by (some time I wasn't paying attention) tonight, make sure that these guys don't take anything that isn't yours and don't mess up the place.
- Make sure you get everything. You need to leave your key tonight and bring me your rent check by the end of the week.

There were more and none of us made a comment, simply continued to pack and break down the furniture and stuff.​

My Thoughts
Now, it seems to me that demanding a full month's worth of rent for the month of November is a bit much. There was no agreement regarding payment on being kicked out and so on. I suggested yesterday on the way over that my friend should probably pay a pro-rated amount for the rent, full past portion of bills, and a pro-rated amount of future bills (ie, cable is pay in advance, electric is pay after use) based on the roommates date of Nov 10th. In my mind this wouild be fair, perhaps exceedingly so due to the fact that it was only 10-day notice.
This morning I thought back over last night and believe that if any pro-rated amount should be paid, it should be paid only for the 1st of Nov (ie, yesterday) since the key was demanded and the roommate said access would be denied as soon as we left last night.
I suggested my friend total up a 1-day pro-rated portion of the rent, 1-day pro-rated portion of the cable, the total for the currentl bills for electric and gas, and give his ex-roommate the check and list (after making copies) making sure to bring one to two witnesses along to witness payment and acceptance of payment.

We do expect some sort of trouble, though I am not sure his roomate would truly go to small claims court over this (then again, between the stories of how he was acting and what I saw myself last night, who knows how he will act).

My question is what kind of legal standing we have, if this approach seems reasonable, and if not, what might be a more reasonable solution.
 
Last edited:


JETX

Senior Member
Far, FAR too long a novella for anyone to dig through. Edit to remove all the extra crap and someone might decide to wade through it.
 

Tarwn

Junior Member
I apologize for the length of the original post, I appended a much briefer version without the background information. I had thought it might be relevant to post about the background to show the lack of provocation as well as events I witnessed myself as a third party. If the longer version is distracting I can remove it entirely. Let me know if there are any other alterations or information I can provide, as I would appreciate some opinions on this matter.
 

JETX

Senior Member
Response to short version.
No clear cut case here.
I really can't believe I am saying this.... but your post missed RELEVANT issues. Such as:
1) What is the relationship of the individuals to each other? Are they co-tenants to another party (landlord)?? Is one of them the tenant and the other a sub-tenant (if so, which/who)??
2) Is there a written lease binding anyone to anything??

In any case.... The law requires that EITHER party provide 30 day written notice to the other. So, the 'you must leave' demand was NOT a valid termination. Neither was your friends decision to leave. Absent any specific determination, your friend should pay ALL rent, utilities, etc. through the day of his leaving. Get proof of payment.
Then, if the other roommate wants to pursue litigation... the court will hear both sides and decide. Personally, and based SOLELY on the information in your post, I doubt your friend will have to pay.
 

Tarwn

Junior Member
Thanks, that was my take on the situation as well. In case of relevance:

My friend was not on the written lease and was paying rent and bills to his roommate who was the official leasee for the townhouse.

He only decided to leave after the roommate's second decleration (ie, the you must leave by Nov 10th).

His roommate is expecting a full months rent for November as well as forward bills (cable) but I suggested a list of past bills and amounts and a pro-rated amount for the cable and rent.

Last remaining question, since he moved his stuff out on Nov 1st (and had until the tenth) but the roommate demanded his key and denied future access to him based on Nov 1st, would it make more sense to pay a pro-rated amount based on the 10th or on the 1st?
 

JETX

Senior Member
Tarwn said:
Last remaining question, since he moved his stuff out on Nov 1st (and had until the tenth) but the roommate demanded his key and denied future access to him based on Nov 1st, would it make more sense to pay a pro-rated amount based on the 10th or on the 1st?
If he was completely out on or before the first, and surrendered all access to the property.... my OPINION is to not pay for anything in November.
However, as I noted previously, it will all be determined by a court if it gets that far.
 

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