Articles on Landlord Tenant Law
Is Landlord Responsible to Pay for Sewer Line Repairs Resulting from Tenant Parking on it?
I have a rental house and the tenant has parked in the backyard without my knowledge. The big issue comes now that my sewer line is crushed due to their use of the backyard as a parking area. I would believe that I am not held responsible to pay for these repairs but would like your answer on this matter. ‘I am a partner in a LLC. We own one two family duplex together. My partner choose a tenant without consulting me. The tenant has a son with MS. His disability was noted on the Application. I have no problem with that. But now my partner has discovered that the disabled person’s condition is much [...] I have vacated my condo, but my downstairs neighbor had a problem with a leak coming from my condo upstairs. She tried to contact the HOA but they are closed on the weekend. My tenant had multiple violations upon leaving my property and I only returned part of his deposit. He is now suing me for the rest. Am I responsible for paying court costs if the judge agrees with me? My landlord has not maintained the property in which I live and I am opting to leave without paying this month’s rent. The landlord and I had a verbal agreement only. Can she come after me for unpaid rent? A maintenance worker entered my apartment today without warning or permission. Can I take legal action? I made a verbal agreement with my tenant regarding something not specified in the written lease. They are not holding up their end of the agreement. Do I have a case against them? The home I’m renting is facing foreclosure. Do I have any rights? The HOA of our rental home recently passed a law that, although owners are, tenants are not allowed to have dogs. Can they do this? I’ve applied for an apartment but am being told that before I can sign the lease, the apartment manager is going to have my current residence inspected for pests. Is this legal? Why would a landlord request pictures of all people living in a residence? A fire, which appears to be a result of faulty wiring, caused us to lose everything in a home we’ve been renting. Our intention was to ultimately buy the home and part of the rent money went directly towards insurance on the property. Can we file a claim in order to be reimbursed some of our loses? My new roommate is threatening to harm my kitten, have me thrown out and not pay her half of the utilities. What can I do? What is the eviction procedure for a month to month lease? We’ve recently discovered that the house we’re renting is to be sold in a trustee’s sale before our lease ends. Is the homeowner in breach of contract with us? Can we legally vacate the premises? I’ve fallen on hard times and can no longer afford my rent. Although I did sign a lease, nowhere did it state what my share of the rent is. Can my roommate sue me for unpaid rent? I’ve lived in a duplex for 10 months now. The main problem was the heating vent in the master bedroom did not work at all. Time went by, nothing was fixed. We called the health department and building commissioner on him and they have recorded pictures and written evidence from when they inspected the building. Can we file anything against him for refusing to fix anything, especially the heating vent? Hello, I am an international student currently working in Newport, RI for summer. The owner demanded deposit $500 before I came to USA. Next day I went to a real estate agency and they found me new housing, cheaper and clean. So I logically decided to leave the house after 2 nights. However, the owner has not given me the deposit back yet and he has told me he is not going to do so since he declared he lost time and money from June 15th to June 25th till I came to USA, so he used my deposit money to cover his “expenses”. What should I do? Is there any chance I can get my money back even without signed lease? The new property was under renovations at the time and the landlord said in order to hold the property so no one else would be able to lease it to give them $850 dollars (that money would be applied to my lease when it was signed, for which I have a receipt). The landlord’s representative specified a date the property would be for move in. That time has come and past and the property is not ready as specified and no lease has been signed. I have asked a return of the $850 and there has been a refusal of the landlord to do so. Do I have a legal course of action to obtain my money and reimbursement of expenses and hardship this action is causing and that such a legal action would encumber? I am the owner/landlord of this property & have a court-order, dated 6/13/08, from the magistrate, Order of Possession/Removal: Wrongful Occupation of Residential Rental Property, giving me back the right to my property as of midnight, 7/11/08. The occupants did not move out, so the locks were changed. My question is, “do these previous tenants have the right to come back & claim their personal belongings, even after the date that was ordered to vacate & should the police be defending the tenants while I’m standing there with a court-ordered “order of Possession/ Removal”? I just recently moved out of my apartment on Sep. 11th because my lease was up and I did not want to renew it. When I moved in I paid a 250 dollar pet security fee which was said I would not get back just in case there was any pet damage done they could use the money for the repairs. Also I had been living in this apartment for almost 3 years and every month they charged me 10 extra dollars on top of my rent for having a pet. Well when my lease was up and it was time for me to move out there were a couple of places on the edge of the carpet where my cats had clawed and unraveled the carpet some but I did not take any actions to replace the carpet on my on because I was under the impression that the 250 I paid when I moved in that I wasn’t getting back and the 10 dollars extra I had been paying every month for the whole time I lived there would cover it. What can I do to avoid paying this or it being reported on my credit because if this was the case then they should have told me during the first inspection so I could have had it replaced myself because like I said the apartment is very small and I could have got it done for way cheaper than 900 dollars? My current tenant gave me 30 days notice that they were vacating the property. I found another tenant and told her she was approved to move in. The current tenant came back and said she does not want to leave now. Can I force her to leave based on her 30 day notice? Does the new tenant have any legal recourse? I moved into a new apartment a few months ago, and it was supposed to have air conditioning. However, it is only good enough to heat 340 sq ft. My apartment is 840. I have complained to the management multiple times; however, they only send the maintenance guy to look at it, who, of course, says it’s fine. Is there any way I can get them to add one that’s the appropriate size to cool my apartment? I live in a home with a 20 ft easement driveway from the main road to a semi public lake. Home owners have been granted ingress & egress to the lake. There are 3 houses and 1 duplex on the easement driveway. About 20 years ago the owner of our home built and maintained a dock that sits just off the natural water line of the lake and it meets all state codes and is legally there. We bought the home 7 years ago and we have maintained the dock and keep our boat anchor during the summer. Can the owners of the duplex give their tenants the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Can the tenants of the duplex give anyone (i.e., friends, neighbors, relatives, etc.,) the right to use the easement to the shoreline? Do we have the right to prohibit the tenants from the dock even though we have no paperwork showing ownership of the dock? I own a house with three of my brothers – it was written over to us from an uncle approximately 10 years ago. The house is a two family house. One brother lives in one apartment and the other apartment is where our mother lives. We made an oral agreement with the brother, lets call him John, that he would pay a discounted rent to take care of the property as well as take care of our mother. John has not paid rent in three years and has not taken any of the responsibility with our mother. John has broken off all communications, and we cannot even sit to discuss possible resolutions. He will not admit real estate professionals into his apartment and that would make selling the home impossible. Is there a possible way to evict him, buy him out, etc? My son has taken a new job and must relocate. He currently has approx. 3 months left on his rental lease agreement but needs to get out of the lease early. The lease agreement has no provisions for terminating the lease early but the landlord’s representative has told my son he is responsible for the rent payments until the end of the lease. My son acknowledges there should be some penalty like losing his security deposit but to also have to pay the remaining 3 months seems excessive. The landlord posted a notice on the main doors for a few days, that anyone caught letting in others that do not live here will be evicted. This was never added to any lease. My husband came in with another tenant and another man who, we thought, still lived here. At the time we did not know that this other man no longer lived here anymore. Now the landlord wants to evict us for letting this man in. Can he do this? I have recently moved in with my boyfriend who is on a month-to-month lease with his landlord. His landlord has told us that he will not let us live in the apartment because we are not married. Is this a form of religious discrimination? My husband and I were evicted by our landlord a couple years ago, we were late in payment when evicted. As we were evicted does that still mean we need to pay? What should a tenant for commercial space do when the landlord refuses the tenant a pre move-in walk through, and refuses to provide proof of permits and other documents for work which was to be done before move-in? Most states require that in performing a service of process, the person serving a legal notice be a) over 18, and b) not a party to the action themselves, but most do not require that service of process be performed by an attorney. A question about tenants rights where a landlord kept a tenant’s security deposit after they moved out, and used it to fix problems which were there when the tenant moved in, and about which the tenant had complained.
