Notice to Vacate

[jewels1978]

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

My family received a notice to vacate on Friday, last week. The notice came via email, and we have yet to receive it through regular mail, and have not had a notice put on our front door yet. We don't know if the property manager has already gone to court to file the eviction suit, but wouldn't be surprised if he did. I had a few questions about the eviction process in TX.

1. Is email a valid form of delivery for a notice to vacate?
2. If, after the property manager files an eviction suit, we can still pay our rent, plus all applicable late fees, can we get the eviction suit dismissed and remain on the property until the end of our lease?
3. Is our lease "void" after the first time of paying our rent late?
4. If there is a wrong starting date of our lease, on the notice to vacate, will that help us?
5. We contacted our property manager on Friday, letting him know we were working on getting assistance from outside sources, and needed him to fill out some forms in order to get the money together. He responded via email "I'll fill these out for you, but we haven't had luck with places like these actually paying, and will be starting the eviction process today". Will that help us in court?

I'm trying to figure out if I need to be prepared for leaving the property, or if we can make it through the end of the lease, which is the end of October.

I should also mention that this is not the first time we have been late with our rent, but we have always paid by the LL's deadline, along with all late fees.

Please help, as soon as possible.
Thank you in advance.

 

[Gail in Georgia]

"1. Is email a valid form of delivery for a notice to vacate?"

Typically the notice must be in writing. However, some courts will accept email notices. Tenants often use emails with varied results.

" 2. If, after the property manager files an eviction suit, we can still pay our rent, plus all applicable late fees, can we get the eviction suit dismissed and remain on the property until the end of our lease?"

Much of this will depend on whether your landlord/management will accept the rent and late fees. Landlords don't actually like to evict anyone; it's costly, time consuming and then they're stuck with having to find new tenants. Often these "Pay or Quit" notices are a kick in the butt to get deadbeat tenants moving that management is serious about them paying their rent.

"3. Is our lease "void" after the first time of paying our rent late?"

No but you do face the risk of eviction if continuing to not pay.

"4. If there is a wrong starting date of our lease, on the notice to vacate, will that help us?"

No.

" 5. We contacted our property manager on Friday, letting him know we were working on getting assistance from outside sources, and needed him to fill out some forms in order to get the money together. He responded via email "I'll fill these out for you, but we haven't had luck with places like these actually paying, and will be starting the eviction process today". Will that help us in court?"

Not really unless you can show the court that you've got the money to pay your rent. Promises don't hold much water in court.

Gail

 

[jewels1978]

Gail, thank you for your response. This LL and property management team have been trying to get us out of the proprty since a month after we signed the lease, constantly threatening eviction. I do not have high hopes of them being willing to allow us to remain until the end of our lease. The owner of the house even has it listed on Craig's List, for the past month, as "Available now", even though we are still here and haven't even had a hearing date yet. Do you think we have a possibility of getting this dismissed at all, woth the fact that TX property code states that a notice to vacate has to be by mail or in person?

 

[Gail in Georgia]

" Do you think we have a possibility of getting this dismissed at all, woth the fact that TX property code states that a notice to vacate has to be by mail or in person? "

Since I'm going to assume this "Pay or Quit" notice was because of failure to pay rent, this is highly doubtful (unless, of course you can show up at the court hearing with all the rent money plus late fees). Even if the request is dismissed on this technicality, there is nothing to stop the landlord/management from turning around and starting the process again, this time correctly providing you the notice by mail or in person. This might buy your family a bit of time but unless you can come up with the rent money and any late fees and management agrees to accept this, the handwriting might be on the wall on this one.

Gail