eviction on non lease holder-is this legal?

[stormyneedshelp]

Columbus, Ohio Just curious to know if this is legal or not...About 2 years ago, my fiance and i moved into an apartment with a friend, but neither of our names were ever on the lease in writing as the lease holder. the landlord was informed of us being residents in the apt., and had no objections, and we were only listed as residents, not primary tenant, and did not 'sign' the lease. basically, we had permission to live there, but the friend was the one held legally responsible for lease. well, some time after moving in, problems between us and the friend developed, and we were paying his rent because he was being irresponsible and we did not want to end up on the street for his neglect, as i was pregnant at the time. well, needless to say, the bills became too much for my fiance to handle alone, and we made plans to move in with his family. the 'friend' decided to leave about a month before we actually left, leaving us there in an apt. that was not ours. we informed the landlord of this, and informed him of our intentions to leave. next thing we know, we get a notice to leave premises on the door, and subsequently, an eviction notice with both our names on it(spelled incorrectly) while in the process of moving out. we never disputed it, we simply left, assuming that there was no legal grounds for this eviction, as we were not the lessee. were we wrong? did this landlord have the right to do this? any answers will be appreciated(provided they are not intended to insult or degrade) thanks!

[Edited by stormyneedshelp on 05-08-2001 at 04:58 AM]

 

[stormyneedshelp]

P.S.

P.S. Did I mention that the said landlord is a notorious "slumlord" in this city? he has been reported about on the news, and sued, and violated several codes and laws in the state regarding numerous properties.
Sorry to be so long-winded here, just trying to give all the details of situation. thanks!

 

[mary hartman]

YOU were Trespassers, Illegal tenants, squatting on the landlords property and NOT Having a lease in your names...

then to make things even worse you got pregnant with NO MONEY to pay the rent...Talk about irresponsibility...you were going to move back in with his parents....

Of course what the landlord did is legal, and he probably took all of you to court and got a judgment against you, and when you apply for credit you will find out you were sued!

This is YOUR fault for NOT having everything in writing, And just because you were pregnant why didnt you have a decent job to pay the bills?

WHY didnt you do things Legally and get a lease in your names?

Sorry kiddo.....you cant blame the landlord for this one!

[Edited by mary hartman on 05-08-2001 at 08:03 AM]

 

[LL]

Did you really think that, having moved in, that the landlord has no way to get you out? Of course he can. There may be some question of exactly what procedure, and who to name in notices and petitions, but of course there has to be a way to evict tenants that are no longer supposed to be there.

The question of landlord reputation as a slumlord seems to entirely irrelevant here.

 

[stormyneedshelp]

for "mary hartman"

Once again, you have totally misunderstood EVERYTHING and made your own assumptions and been RUDE about it!!! We had money to pay the rent, until our roomate up and moved out leaving us in a place that wasnt ours, that we then had to make arrangements to leave ASAP!! Which we did, we told the landlord of the tenant leaving, and of our intentions to leave in 30 days. We were not 'squatters' as you say, we were there as roomates of the tenant, and when he left us high and dry, we did everything we thought was right, we informed the landlord, we gave our 30-day notice to move out. The landlord was fine with all this when we spoke to him in person, but then proceeded to do what he did anyways. All I asked was if we could legally have an eviction on us when we didn't sign the lease, and he didnt even file our names correctly. We were not illegal, we were the tenants roomates when we moved in! And number 2, who the H_E_L_L are you to judge me??? I was pregnant when we moved in, and we had the money to take care of things as long as the roomate was there, and then HE screwed us by leaving without notice!!!

 

[stormyneedshelp]

reply for LL

Ok, LL, I understand all that, I am simply wondering if the guy could even file anything on us, when he never had anything more than our names listed as being roomates, and he didnt even have our names correct. And the fact that he is a slumlord is actually relevant, because he is a repeat violator of several laws, including tenant/landlord laws, housing code violations, and many many more. There are several things filed against this guy by residents and the city alike, for all his illegal practices, and I was just wondering if this was one more to add to the list. Maybe I'm wrong here, but I was under the impression that a landlord can't file an eviction on someone that didn't sign a lease, and had already given him 30-day notice of leaving. And thanks, LL for being polite and actually trying to answer my questions, it is greatly appreciated!

 

[mary hartman]

If you had the money why didnt you get your own apartment?

And of course you have NOTHING in writing from the roomate or the landlord!

Oh well...look at all the trouble you would have saved yourselves.

Better luck next time.

 

[LL]

Sorry Stormy, but yes, landlord can evict people without even knowing their names.

Use your head, there HAS to be a way for landlord to get people out of his apartment who don't belong there, and there are ways. The law and the judges are all sympathetic to a landlord who has people who don't belong there, either because they didn't pay rent, or they did damage, or the right to be there has expired, or maybe even never existed. There are procedures for all that. Landlord can get an order to remove EVERYONE from the property, without names.

(P.S., the names can be added at the scene by the Sheriff, or later by a petition to the court.)

You ought to go and visit in a court sometimes (I mean with a real judge). Most of the time, cases are handled very professionally, and you will see how the judge will control the admission of relevant testimony and evidence, and suppress what is not relevant. All of the complaints you have about the landlord and his reputation have nothing to do with the case at hand, which involves only the right of certain people to remain in possession of an apartment for which they are not actually tenants. The rest is just "dirt", intended to try to prejudice the judge against one of the parties. Any judge who listens to it is not giving a fair trial, and most judges wont listen. In fact, they will think less of whoever brings this "dirt", because they will take it as meaning that you can't support your case on its own merits. Go sit in court a few times. It's interesting.



[Edited by LL on 05-08-2001 at 11:14 PM]

 

[stormyneedshelp]

reply for LL

thanks LL for your quick response and info...
what is the purpose of the 30-day notice that we gave him that we were leaving then? we wanted to leave after the roomate left us there, we didnt want someone elses place for that exact reason, we didnt want to be held responsible for an apt. that wasnt ours and we didnt want. so we told him that the tenant had left, and that we were leaving as well, by way of giving him a 30-day notice. so what was the point of him filing an eviction to remove someone who was already leaving?

 

[LL]

Well, lets see.
This is Ohio, and I don't know anything about their laws or procedures or court experience.

But here are my thoughts:

1. Since you think that you weren't tenants, who gave you the right to give a 30-day notice? I mean, if you thought that you weren't tenants, what is your right to stay there even one day?

2. It is easy to get distracted by all of the garbage from hartman, aka djdj, aka dj1, aka richard, aka loudrich, aka other names, that I don't know if all of the rent was paid up to the end of your 30days. If not, that would certainly make the landlord want to start getting you out as quickly as possible.

3. Maybe just like you, the landlord was bothered that he had no rental agreement with you, and maybe he was afraid that he would not be able to colect rent from you. Maybe he is accustomed to doing simple evictions by himself and he wasn't sure of himself this time.

4. Is there any reason that he might not have wanted to wait for the 30-days? After all, one thing that landlords take into account is the length of time it might take to actually get you out. We figure that whenever there are problems, we have to start the eviction process right away, in hopes of getting you out before the security deposit is used up.

5. I could take the time to stop and think of other scenarios of what may have happened, but the bottom line is, that you got some kind of eviction notice. What kind of notice? Was it from the Sheriff, or some law enforcement officer? Did it say that a law enforcement officer would come back in a few days and put you out? Or was it just a warning from the landlord that you had better leave or else he would start an eviction. Or, was it a court summons?

Anyway, I take it that you are out, now. You might want to check if anything was ever filed in court, and if so, go and look up what was the outcome. If any money is owed to the landlord, I suggest that you go and speak with him and see if you can't negotiate some settlement that puts a final end to the whole matter.

 

[stormyneedshelp]

to LL

thanks LL

yes, we are long since gone from there, and thank god have a landlord now that is just terrific! we have learned a few things since then, and life is just that way, thats how you learn! we actually just gave him the 30 day notice as a courtesy, letting him know that we did not wish to stay there since our roomate had left, and we didnt want to sign a new lease with him(the original lease agreement was a month-to-month). and we left as soon as we could, before the 30 days was up. there were other issues at hand that made us not want to continue to be there with a new lease of our own. i am not sure what type of notice it was, i think it was a summons, but im not sure, it was simply taped to the front door one day while we were in the process of moving things out. our names werent correct on it, and we never gave it a whole lot of thought at the time, since we were leaving(a mistake, i know, but like i said, you live and learn). anyways, thanks for your info, i appreciate you taking the time to try and help. and i agree totally about hartman aka whoever they are...full of misinformation and has absolutely no consideration for anyone else.