No lease-can landlord evict without going through legal process?Making threats

[pittguy53178]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA

This is in regards to my sister. She and her husband have been renting a house off of her ex husband for past 3 years. It is a strange situation obviously, but it alllowed him to move into a house with his new wife around an hour away. He was under water with house and offered them really low rent to entice them to do it. He raised it as soon as he found out she was pregnant since he thought he had leverage. But that is neither here nor there.

My sister was laid off as a paralegal back in May. She didn't have enough time working after maxing out her precious unemployment claim to collect again. She lost the job mainly due to health issues. She had kidney failure due to taking too much Advil for pain in back and had to miss work and needs a double fusion. It was a small firm had couldn't keep her on books with that uncertainty

She was primary earner so they fell behind on rent.
From what she told me her ex husband came unannounced last night. Swearing and calling them names
and very loudly. He was ordering them to get out of his house. He said if he didn't have any rent by Monday he was going to go "nuclear" and take their pets to shelter.

He has not even started any legal eviction procedures at all. Are they protected without lease ? She is ok total panic. They are looking for other places to go but nothing wil be done by Monday

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA

This is in regards to my sister. She and her husband have been renting a house off of her ex husband for past 3 years. It is a strange situation obviously, but it alllowed him to move into a house with his new wife around an hour away. He was under water with house and offered them really low rent to entice them to do it. He raised it as soon as he found out she was pregnant since he thought he had leverage. But that is neither here nor there.

My sister was laid off as a paralegal back in May. She didn't have enough time working after maxing out her precious unemployment claim to collect again. She lost the job mainly due to health issues. She had kidney failure due to taking too much Advil for pain in back and had to miss work and needs a double fusion. It was a small firm had couldn't keep her on books with that uncertainty

She was primary earner so they fell behind on rent.
From what she told me her ex husband came unannounced last night. Swearing and calling them names
and very loudly. He was ordering them to get out of his house. He said if he didn't have any rent by Monday he was going to go "nuclear" and take their pets to shelter.

He has not even started any legal eviction procedures at all. Are they protected without lease ? She is ok total panic. They are looking for other places to go but nothing wil be done by Monday

Yes, they are month to month tenants and he cannot evict them without going through the proper procedures. If he comes back again like that they need to call the police. If he attempts to take their pets they need to call the police.

However, I would probably try to find some temporary housing for my pets, elsewhere, if I could not make sure that someone was home 24/7 until I could find a new place to live.

 

[FarmerJ]

Considering how so much data is now available to the public and that includes eviction court hearing records that are pick up on by screening firms then the information is re sold to landlords who are screening tenant applications and used as reason to refuse to rent to someone. Your sister really would be best off to get out of that house before he files for a eviction hearing , YES she has every right to force it to go that route since they owe rent and are behind. But the consequence is that they create a record that is easily found and can be used against them to decline future rental applications. At least if they get out of there before the landlord files then if the LL couldn't sue for eviction based on non payment but instead could sue for just money owed.