glittervixen
Junior Member
I live in Utah and I recently moved out of a mobile home that I was renting from a woman who was managing the home for her son. A little back story. When we first moved in the house was not it good shape at all. There were several problems that needed addressed and a lot of cleaning from the previous tenants that needed done. She had told us about how her son and bought the house and intended to fix it up and had started but had lost motivation and ended up moving away, leaving it for her to manage. They had only completed drywall and paint in one room, the living room. All other rooms in the house had either not had the holes and bad drywall fixed or had been fixed but not painted. The house is 3 bedroom 2 bath. Both bathrooms needed new flooring under the toilet. One leaned to the left and one leaned back towards the wall. The floor had soft spots all over and even one spot where the floor under neath was separating and the linoleum had tore and you could see right down the crack. All the kitchen cupboards needed work most of the cabinet trim was missing and the drawers weren't working. The house did have all appliances. The oven however would not preheat, once it reached a certain temp it would beep until it shut itself off. So after looking through the house and me being optimistic I figured it would do until we could find something better. We needed anything bigger than the one room we were living in.
So I tell her we want it and she says okay, I won't charge you a deposit because I don't want to clean it or deal with any of the problems. She says, you guys will be responsible for fixing anything that needs fixing and whatever parts or supplies that involves. She then says, if the project is a way big one I want to be fair and I will take some money off the rent for your time. She then tells us that we must pay in only cash because the previous tenants payed with a bad check and it messed up her bank account and she doesn't want to deal with that again. She wouldn't even let me pay with a money order, had to be cash. So then she goes on to tell us about how there was some stuff left behind (two rugs, 3 dressers, old couch, old fridge, dvd case, computer desk, lots of garbage/belongings, tools and supplies from a botched remodel job) and that we could use whatever we wanted and whatever we felt was garbage or didn't need we could throw out. She did mention some other things about the house like how to turn the water off in the winter and some stuff about the A/C. She then took my cash gave me the keys and left.
We lived in this house for 8 months and during that time she would come over unannounced and tell us things like keep the lawn clean, you have too many cars parked here, accusing us of letting more people than my husband and daughter move in. She would constantly call and text wondering what we were doing and then she would sometimes come over and say there was a folder in the kitchen she needed to put some papers in (I think so she could look around inside). She also came over every month to collect the rent, since we weren't allowed to mail it or take it to her. She also drove by about once a day and would call and tell us the neighbors were calling her saying that we were letting people move in.
So after the 8 months we decided we couldn't handle it anymore and moved.
During the time we lived there we got rid of all the things we didn't want to use or thought was garbage, I did keep all the tools and supplies she had bought for the house. I did keep some of the personal belongings that I thought might be valuble and moved it all into the spare room we didn't use. I did paint, hang a new chandelier, cleaned the carpets and put up a nice fence.
She had been in the house during one of her many visits and had commented on how much she liked the paint color I chose, she had mentioned how nice it looked inside and she had even offered it to us to buy for 25k.
As soon as she found out we moved all hell broke lose. She called and asked if we had moved? After she had driven by and then helped herself in. We told her yes but we hadn't given her notice yet because we weren't done and had planned on paying up to our 30 day notice. She then started freaking out saying we needed to come back there and paint all the walls white, that we needed to replace the couch, one rug and one dresser. She said that she never told us we could throw anything away that she didn't want it and that if we didn't want it she would sell it. Which she never mentioned. She also didn't say anything about all the other stuff in the house because I honestly don't think she even remembers how much crap was really in there. She is claiming that the house was partially furnished and that it wasn't garbage. She is saying that we need to come back and do all this work for her because it wasn't like that when we moved in (but it was). She continued to scream at my husband and tell him that she is suing us and that it is our fault that she never had a lease signed because we told her we didn't need one. Which is not true. She said she would bring it by and never did. She then hung up on my husband.
Then she kept calling and we just let it go to voice mail because we didn't want to argue with her. She called over and over again and left repeated messages. She texted too about 20 times, now being all nice saying I just want to know if you moved out is all call me back. Which we did not respond to. After everything she said and how rude she was we just want her to leave us alone. Well finally at 10pm she quits calling. The day after that she starts calling again this time saying, I know you didn't move out of this city I've been watching you, I have pictures of you. You need to return my stuff or I will take you to court. I have already filed a report against you.
My question is what is there that she can really do? There was no lease ever signed. No proof we ever paid her a cent because it was all in cash with no receipt. Everything she is saying now is opposite of what she was saying when we first moved in. She is saying she is going to take us to court and that she has already filed a report with the police. But what about her constantly harassing my husband while he is at work by calling and texting his company phone non stop. Is there anything we can do? Or do we just keep letting her harass us non stop? Can we file a report on her for harassment and stalking since she supposedly has pictures of us and has been watching us in order to get those. She also knows where my husband works and we are worried that she might just be crazy enough to make the hour long drive down there to bug him at work.
So I tell her we want it and she says okay, I won't charge you a deposit because I don't want to clean it or deal with any of the problems. She says, you guys will be responsible for fixing anything that needs fixing and whatever parts or supplies that involves. She then says, if the project is a way big one I want to be fair and I will take some money off the rent for your time. She then tells us that we must pay in only cash because the previous tenants payed with a bad check and it messed up her bank account and she doesn't want to deal with that again. She wouldn't even let me pay with a money order, had to be cash. So then she goes on to tell us about how there was some stuff left behind (two rugs, 3 dressers, old couch, old fridge, dvd case, computer desk, lots of garbage/belongings, tools and supplies from a botched remodel job) and that we could use whatever we wanted and whatever we felt was garbage or didn't need we could throw out. She did mention some other things about the house like how to turn the water off in the winter and some stuff about the A/C. She then took my cash gave me the keys and left.
We lived in this house for 8 months and during that time she would come over unannounced and tell us things like keep the lawn clean, you have too many cars parked here, accusing us of letting more people than my husband and daughter move in. She would constantly call and text wondering what we were doing and then she would sometimes come over and say there was a folder in the kitchen she needed to put some papers in (I think so she could look around inside). She also came over every month to collect the rent, since we weren't allowed to mail it or take it to her. She also drove by about once a day and would call and tell us the neighbors were calling her saying that we were letting people move in.
So after the 8 months we decided we couldn't handle it anymore and moved.
During the time we lived there we got rid of all the things we didn't want to use or thought was garbage, I did keep all the tools and supplies she had bought for the house. I did keep some of the personal belongings that I thought might be valuble and moved it all into the spare room we didn't use. I did paint, hang a new chandelier, cleaned the carpets and put up a nice fence.
She had been in the house during one of her many visits and had commented on how much she liked the paint color I chose, she had mentioned how nice it looked inside and she had even offered it to us to buy for 25k.
As soon as she found out we moved all hell broke lose. She called and asked if we had moved? After she had driven by and then helped herself in. We told her yes but we hadn't given her notice yet because we weren't done and had planned on paying up to our 30 day notice. She then started freaking out saying we needed to come back there and paint all the walls white, that we needed to replace the couch, one rug and one dresser. She said that she never told us we could throw anything away that she didn't want it and that if we didn't want it she would sell it. Which she never mentioned. She also didn't say anything about all the other stuff in the house because I honestly don't think she even remembers how much crap was really in there. She is claiming that the house was partially furnished and that it wasn't garbage. She is saying that we need to come back and do all this work for her because it wasn't like that when we moved in (but it was). She continued to scream at my husband and tell him that she is suing us and that it is our fault that she never had a lease signed because we told her we didn't need one. Which is not true. She said she would bring it by and never did. She then hung up on my husband.
Then she kept calling and we just let it go to voice mail because we didn't want to argue with her. She called over and over again and left repeated messages. She texted too about 20 times, now being all nice saying I just want to know if you moved out is all call me back. Which we did not respond to. After everything she said and how rude she was we just want her to leave us alone. Well finally at 10pm she quits calling. The day after that she starts calling again this time saying, I know you didn't move out of this city I've been watching you, I have pictures of you. You need to return my stuff or I will take you to court. I have already filed a report against you.
My question is what is there that she can really do? There was no lease ever signed. No proof we ever paid her a cent because it was all in cash with no receipt. Everything she is saying now is opposite of what she was saying when we first moved in. She is saying she is going to take us to court and that she has already filed a report with the police. But what about her constantly harassing my husband while he is at work by calling and texting his company phone non stop. Is there anything we can do? Or do we just keep letting her harass us non stop? Can we file a report on her for harassment and stalking since she supposedly has pictures of us and has been watching us in order to get those. She also knows where my husband works and we are worried that she might just be crazy enough to make the hour long drive down there to bug him at work.