I see ads on craigslist and roommates.com for people who own apartments or homes looking for a roommate to move in with them.
What is to stop that person from asking for a security deposit and first month’s rent, then just kicking the new roommate out? Since the new roommate isn’t on the lease, I assume they have no legal protections.
There are common law protections, once you establish occupancy, such as having mail delivered there (IANAL), basically they’d have to go through legal eviction procedures.
And of course you could sue them.
IMHO is usually where these things go.
Moved.
IMHO is usually where these things go.
Moved.
There are legal protections. What those protections are can vary quite a bit from state to state.
It is entirely a matter of state law.
Illinois has unusually strong tenant protections. I think you may enjoy reading People v. Evans, 516 N.E.2d 817 (Ill. App. Ct. 1987). (It’s not too long and a fairly easy read.)
To summarize: Maxine West placed an ad in a newspaper looking for a housemate. Joyce Evans answered the ad and gave West a security deposit and received permission to immediately move her stuff in, without signing the lease. The next day, West presented Evans with a lease to sign. Evans refused to sign. Finally, West called the police who removed Evans and charged her with criminal trespass.
At trial Evans was convicted of criminal trespass. The court held that there was no landlord-tenant relationship between the two.
Evans appealed. The appellate court found that the Forcible Entry and Detainer statute took precedence over the trespassing statute and overturned the conviction. The court held “Based on this public policy, no person has the right to take possession, by force, of premises occupied or possessed by another, even though such person may be justly entitled to such possession. The forcible entry and detainer statute provides the complete remedy at law for settling such disputes. Persons seeking possession must use this remedy rather than use force… Applying the above principles to the instant case, we conclude that the State should not have prosecuted defendant under the criminal trespass law. The complainant, rather, should have sought to evict defendant through a forcible entry and detainer action.”
A “forcible entry and detainer action” is what most people call an eviction.
Again, this applies only in Illinois.
Of course, many people ignore the law when dealing with roommate disputes. It is not uncommon. It is not impossible that a landlord could just take your money and say “Who? What? Do I know you?” It is even possible that the person claiming to be the landlord is actually a scam artist who does not own the house or live there.
You could bring suit for damages against a landlord who kicked you out without following legal procedure. But if you are dealing with an outright scam artist who is willing to lie or just disappear, you may not be able to get justice.