Retribution in Michigan from housing dispute

[happyskies]

How could you win a money judgment from anyone? What angles could be taken to successfully sue someone?

The story behind this question is that; my landlord presented an eviction notice to me because of comments I was making on Facebook (messages with women that did not live in the building.) I left the building because I did not want to risk getting an eviction if I took them to court and lost.

But, I’m livid and will never forget this. The building was really nice and nobody is moving out. So I reapplied to live there again and they may take me back but the wait list could be 10 years.

I talked to a lawyer and they said I couldn’t sue them because I left willingly. I want to sue the property owner, their legal team, the property manager and the sub-manager. What angle could I take to sue everyone involved in having me leave? I don’t want to hear that I can’t sue them. I want to hear how I can go after them in any manner possible.

It’s a hud subsidized public housing for elderly and disabled in Jackson, MI.

 

[reenzz]

Your lawyer is right. You willingly left and therefore have no case for an illegal eviction.

 

[Just Blue]

How could you win a money judgment from anyone? What angles could be taken to successfully sue someone?

The story behind this question is that; my landlord presented an eviction notice to me because of comments I was making on Facebook (messages with women that did not live in the building.) I left the building because I did not want to risk getting an eviction if I took them to court and lost.

But, I’m livid and will never forget this. The building was really nice and nobody is moving out. So I reapplied to live there again and they may take me back but the wait list could be 10 years.

I talked to a lawyer and they said I couldn’t sue them because I left willingly. I want to sue the property owner, their legal team, the property manager and the sub-manager. What angle could I take to sue everyone involved in having me leave? I don’t want to hear that I can’t sue them. I want to hear how I can go after them in any manner possible.

It’s a hud subsidized public housing for elderly and disabled in Jackson, MI.

What type of messages were you posting on FB?

 

[adjusterjack]

I don’t want to hear that I can’t sue them

OK, I won't tell you that you can't sue. Obviously you CAN sue because anybody can sue anybody for anything.

You just aren't going to win.

You left willingly at the request of the landlord. Had you stayed put and come here and asked questions you would have learned that you didn't have to leave and you would have had a defense to eviction in court.

Now, you have nothing. Get over it.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I talked to a lawyer and they said I couldn’t sue them because I left willingly. I want to sue the property owner, their legal team, the property manager and the sub-manager. What angle could I take to sue everyone involved in having me leave? I don’t want to hear that I can’t sue them. I want to hear how I can go after them in any manner possible.

You've already had a lawyer tell you how this plays out. If you sue them, you will lose because you made the choice to leave voluntarily. And if you sue you might get hit with sanctions for filing a frivolous claim.

You didn't have to leave. You could have stayed, called their bluff, and see if they actually followed through with a court action for eviction. If they did, then you could have fought the eviction and if you won then there wouldn't be an eviction on your record. Your fear was that you'd lose the eviction action. Why? You could have at least reviewed your situation with a lawyer before you moved out to see if the landlord had much chance of winning. Chances are that posting stuff on Facebook would not itself be good grounds for eviction. So was there something else going on here that lead you to worry you'd lose if you fought the eviction?

If you were on a month-to-month lease then generally the landlord may require to you vacate with the appropriate amount of notice for any reason other than illegal discrimination. Perhaps being a HUD subsidized place HUD would have some extra protection in there for you. But otherwise, prior to your lease period expiring, your landlord needs to point to a material breach of the lease to evict you. Posting on FB likely wasn't addressed in the lease. So the landlord likely would have needed something else.

In any event, you chose to leave. Having done that, you cannot now turn around and successfully sue the landlord for the choice YOU made.

 

[NeilTheCop]

You're angry, and I know exactly how you feel, but you have already contacted a lawyer who rightly said that you are wasting your time. I'm confident that you will get the same response from any other lawyer you talk to.
Now you want to "sue the property owner, their legal team, the property manager and the sub-manager" and "I don’t want to hear that I can’t sue them. I want to hear how I can go after them in any manner possible."
If you do this it will be pro se, that is by yourself and I can almost guarantee you will lose.
If you are still determined check out this handy leaflet from the courts on the process.
https://www.courts.mo.gov/hosted/circuit13/forms/CIVIL_SmallClaimsCourtHandbook.pdf
To be honest your first stumbling block will be explaining on the petition exactly why you will be suing them.

 

[DeenaCA]

Causes for eviction from a public housing property are described in the HUD regulations at 24 Code of Federal Regulations 966.4. Internet postings critical of management do not violate the resident's lease obligations (unless the messages were threatening to neighbors or staff). What was the cause stated in the eviction notice?
Your only recourse at this point may be to report the incident to the appropriate HUD field office. Here's a directory for Michigan.

 

[happyskies]

The notice included quotes of my messages to girls online they found from a nasty viral thread that a bunch of girls shared screenshots of. It was a big deal in my town. Mainly because I used the word rape in one of my messages which the internet likes to go crazy over. I’m not even a dangerous person. So bad advice from my parents and 2 lawyers led me to just leave. One lawyer called their legal team but didn’t have much of a gameplan. The second lawyer said the prosecutor might charge me with terrorism. That scared me. But really?? Terrorism for asking a ton of girls out on Facebook? Never in America should someone be limited to how many people they can message online. I was just thinking if I get charged with terrorism that could be an endless sentence. Plus I couldn’t risk losing the eviction case. The place was so ideal for me.. like being a big fish in a small pond.. in my hometown.. I don’t think I’ll ever find a property location as nice. Which sucks because I had dreams of maintaining the place after I struck it big in business. Not how I expected life to go but nice to get some replies.

I think I’ll report this to hud and I’ll stay curious as to what I could sue them for. Regarding the online viral posts about me. One of them was actually false information and I filed suit for slander against that girl. Our court day is in February about one year after it started.

 

[Just Blue]

The notice included quotes of my messages to girls online they found from a nasty viral thread that a bunch of girls shared screenshots of. It was a big deal in my town. Mainly because I used the word rape in one of my messages which the internet likes to go crazy over. I’m not even a dangerous person. So bad advice from my parents and 2 lawyers led me to just leave. One lawyer called their legal team but didn’t have much of a gameplan. The second lawyer said the prosecutor might charge me with terrorism. That scared me. But really?? Terrorism for asking a ton of girls out on Facebook? Never in America should someone be limited to how many people they can message online. I was just thinking if I get charged with terrorism that could be an endless sentence. Plus I couldn’t risk losing the eviction case. The place was so ideal for me.. like being a big fish in a small pond.. in my hometown.. I don’t think I’ll ever find a property location as nice. Which sucks because I had dreams of maintaining the place after I struck it big in business. Not how I expected life to go but nice to get some replies.

I think I’ll report this to hud and I’ll stay curious as to what I could sue them for. Regarding the online viral posts about me. One of them was actually false information and I filed suit for slander against that girl. Our court day is in February about one year after it started.

So...you threatened to rape some girl? Is that it? If not what did you (exactly) say in your messages to "a ton of girls"?

 

[quincy]

You're angry, and I know exactly how you feel, but you have already contacted a lawyer who rightly said that you are wasting your time. I'm confident that you will get the same response from any other lawyer you talk to.
Now you want to "sue the property owner, their legal team, the property manager and the sub-manager" and "I don’t want to hear that I can’t sue them. I want to hear how I can go after them in any manner possible."
If you do this it will be pro se, that is by yourself and I can almost guarantee you will lose.
If you are still determined check out this handy leaflet from the courts on the process.
https://www.courts.mo.gov/hosted/circuit13/forms/CIVIL_SmallClaimsCourtHandbook.pdf
To be honest your first stumbling block will be explaining on the petition exactly why you will be suing them.

Neil, your link is to a 2011 Missouri handbook. Happyskies lives in Jackson, Michigan.

 

[NeilTheCop]

Oops.
Thanks Quincy. Being British I do suffer from being geographically challenged.
https://courts.michigan.gov/Self-help/center/general-information/Pages/General-Civil-Process.aspx

 

[FarmerJ]

giving up possession of the rental you lost your ability to stand up to the LL , Just so you are crystal clear on this If a landlord wants to take someone to court to evict based on something other than non payment , that landlord is going to have to have a lot more proof than you can imagine. If a landlord claims a tenant is too loud as reason to be granted a eviction then LL better have more than one police report to reflect that there is a long and ongoing problem besides copies of ALL the notices they sent to the tenant. If LL claims tenant is too destructive then they are going to need proof, if LL claims tenant damaged common used things like hallways or mail boxes they have to have proofs. SO in the end I suspect that you might have had a win in court if you had forced the LL to take you to court because the burden to prove why you should have been gone would have been on them and it would have had to be things that violated your lease !!! Social media seriously stop sharing information you may regret later and limit your contact list only to family , I don't use FB a lot since people I work with seem to start lots of drama including co workers publishing what was thought to be a private conversation, besides some managers actually regularly looking at staff pages and comments , A upper level manager used to check the times people posted against schedules to see if they might have been on their mobile when they were supposed to be working.