Looks like my douchebag roommate are finally getting the boot

The BBQ Pit
1

So after all the drama talked about over in this thread, it looks like things are FINALLY going to get resolved. Long story short, the landlord told us that it’s easier (and completly legal) for us to deal with them and kick them out. He suggested that we give them written and verbal notice that they have a week to vacate (as to why it’s taken even this long, is because we were worried that we’d have to deal with some kind of “30 days till eviction” BS, and we DID tell them at the start of January that it was their last month.) I also got permission to change the deadbolt and call the cops if they are on the premises after a week from today. We put a note on their door telling them, very plainly, that due to non-payment they have one week to leave. Here’s the response that one of them )the boyfriend, who is jobless) wrote on the back of the note (I kept all the grammar and capitalization intact):

HAHA YEA RIGHT
LOOK UP Burlington Tenants Rights YOU IDIOTS
YOU GUYS BROKE THE LEASE YOUR GETTING EVICTED
I LOVE PUSSYS WHO can’t talk 2 ME!

The landlord is recieving rent from us and we are legallt Able to stay here
We have spoken to a lawyer and I suggest you do before you Say anymore retarded shit!

So…yeah, I guess that’s their response. I don’t doubt that they talked to a lawyer, but I know that they wouldn’t have explained the situation right to them. And seeing as I spoke to the landlord this afternoon, I know that he is NOT getting any payment from them (and shouldn’t be, either, since they owe US, not him, the money.) He told us they still refused to fill out any application, and on their last phone call, they said the only way they were ever going to leave is if everyone got evicted, not just them, which takes 30-60 days.

Well, I have a newsflash for them: they aren’t on the lease or any other contract. They never had ANY agreement with the landlord to live here, so as far as he’s concerned, they are, and have been, trespassing this whole time. He’s not evicting us so long as we get rid of them, and they have no right to live here. Oh, and like I said, on the pretty good chance that they try to pull the “we have 30 days till we get evicted” BS, well, they will have had 30 days, since we told them at the start of January that it was their last month. I’d really like to see them try to win a court case with a month and a half of no rent paid, no utilities paid EVER, and leaving notes full of vulgarities and insults. Judges LOVE that shit, man.

It will NOT be a fun week, especially on the day I will have to change the lock and certainly have the cops called, or call them myself. I don’t know what to do with their stuff, since I know they aren’t going to move any of it out. I don’t want to have to move it into a self-storage thing myself, nor do I want to pay for it. However, I’m sure it’s illegal for me to just throw it out or put it on the street.

So, some questions:
Should we call the sheriff’s office now and give them a heads up that they will probably get called over here on Monday? What CAN I do, legally, with their stuff? I assume there’s some kind of “if left abandoned for X days” type of thing where I can keep it/throw it out after so much time has passed?

At any rate, this whole thing sucks, and I pretty much wouldn’t care if these people got hit by a car sometime soon.

2

Are you having to deal with this yourself because they’re not on the lease, and as far as the landlord is concerned, they’re just guests who have overstayed their welcome? Can he not help with the situation, because they’re trespassing?

I believe you said you were female. You have other roommates, right? Are you all on the same page? I suggest you call the police, tell them that you would appreciate some strong burly man with a gun strapped to his hip available when D-Day comes.

I think a quick online search of your local tenant/landlord laws may help you determine what to do with their stuff. The local courthouse employees may be able to help you too.

I would not try to handle this by yourself. Things could get ugly. Make sure you have back-up standing by. Good luck.

3

Tread carefully. I would recommend calling a lawyer before the sheriff. If you change the locks on your roommate, you could end up in more trouble than the roomie. And that’s regardless of what your landlord says you can do.

Even if he never signed the lease, he likely still has some tenant rights, and antagonizing him without going through the proper channels is unlikely to end well.

(FWIW, if you want a law school student’s analysis:

If you change the locks while they’re out, they have an decent cause of action against you and your landlord. They can sue you for the value of their stuff, the cost of temporary lodgings, the emotional damage of the whole incident, etc…
There doesn’t have to be a formal signature for a contract to be formed between the roomies and the landlord. The landlord can ratify the agreement by accepting their rent. YOU can ratify the agreement (to be roommates) by letting them live there and loaning them rent money. A court would probably find (based on my limited understanding of the situation) that there is a formal landlord-tenant relationship here, even in the absence of a signed document.
They therefore have a right to “occupancy” of the apartment. If you deny them their legal right (by changing the locks), you are committing the tort of trespass. Both to chattels (preventing them from getting to their stuff) and to real property (the lock is partially theirs as well).
There is a metric buttload of law concerning situations just like this. It is VERY MUCH not safe to rely on your landlord to tell you what is legal and what is not. At the very least, make the landlord change the locks. Don’t do it yourself.

IA(definitely)NAL. Perhaps if you’re lucky, someone who is actually qualified will come along and correct me.)

4

You’re giving them 30 days to the minute? Doesn’t seem like it has been that long, given the dates of your posts in the other thread? :confused:

5

Well, I’m male, but yes, I have other roommates, and yes, we are all in agreement over this. I have no objections to calling the police, I just wonder if it’s in our best interest to call them first, before the actual day, to let them now that odds are the douchebags will be calling them try to tell them they’re locked out of their own apartment or something.

Our landlord said he can take care of it, but it’s generally easier for us. He said her backs us up 100% with what we’re doing, and if the cops talk to him, or he has to go to court, he’s completely on our side. If things get too out of hand, then yes, we’ll have him take over.

As far as an agreement between the landlord and them goes, there is none. Actually, if anything, he has denied them the right to live there because they refused to fill out an application when he asked them to. AFAIK, I don’t have the legal right to let them live here in exchange for money (of course, since there hasn’t BEEN any exchange of money for a month and a half, what right they had is now gone, if you ask me.)

My roommate has talked to a friend who work’s for some kind of legal entity that deals with housing in this town, so come Wednesday, we’ll have a legal answer as to what we can and can’t do.

6

We told them on the 7th that it was their last month, so technically 30 days from then is Feb.6th. I’d be willing to wait two extra days if the law demanded it.

7

I’m not sure this kind of informal advice will help you in a court of law. If the roomate in question has ever paid any rent at any time, it is likely the state considers him a legal tenant, and you must abide by the laws regarding eviction, even if he has missed recent rent payments. In my state (NH), if you violate those laws, he can get a restraining order against you, and sue you for $1000 for each violation. Tread lightly.

8

Please get this in writing from your landlord. Just have him write a note to this effect and sign and date it. It can’t hurt and it might be immensely helpful.

9

Translation: We’re sure as hell not going to stick our neck out there, but we’re behind you 100%!

Yeah, my ex-landlord lied MULTIPLE times to my roommates and I when i was in college (cost us over a thousand bucks). They’re one and only priority is getting their money. Not you. I’d make sure to take FULL ADVANTAGE of that legal help you say you can get cause I wouldn’t believe your landlord for a second.

10

I am not a lawyer.

I did work for a nonprofit that fought evictions, and I can tell you that it is very easy to fight an eviction and very easy to convince a court NOT to kick someone out into the street. That is not legal advice, however, as I am not a lawyer and even if I were, you would not be my client.

My advice to you is, however, SEE A LAWYER. This is a very murky area of law characterized by a desire on the part of the state not to see people without homes.

You need a lawyer. Very much.

11

My apologies, Mr. Bouv. :slight_smile:

Okay, this is what I would do as my second choice.

Call the police ahead of time and tell them the situation. Ask if they would be willing to be there.

Make your landlord be there in person when this goes down. That way, it looks more “official” and not just some pissed off roommate fight.

That is my second choice. My first choice would be to take myself out of the situation. Let your landlord deal with non-paying squatters. It might be worth it to lose a deposit to get out of the headache of dealing with this yourself.

12

You might be surprised at what the police will do in this situation. If you or your landlord do not have a writ from the court ordering the eviction, you and/or the landlord may be the ones subject to arrest by the police if you try to bodily remove this roomate.

13

Am I the only person still in favor of hacking them up and tossing them out in little plastic bags?

14

This sounds like a really bad idea. It sounds like you don’t actually know the law, and are just relying on some people who say they know how it works. I don’t know the law in VT, and I’m not a lawyer, but I have a passing familiarity with CA law from reading the renters rights publications. A few places where I think you’re going wrong:

  1. If someone lives in a place, and pays rent for it, he is a tenant. It doesn’t matter if he has an agreement with the landlord. You can kick guests out without evicting them, but these aren’t guests; they’re roommates.

  2. You have to give someone written notice of eviction. Telling them a month ago “this is your last month” probably doesn’t cut it.

  3. The law will so require you to wait exactly 30 days (if that’s the limit). 28 days is not 30 days. If you change the locks and kick them out before then, they’ll be within their rights to bring the police with them when they come back. Generally, you need a court eviction order to get someone out, and that process involves the sheriff watching while they leave. Then you can change the locks.

Those are just off the top of my head. You should not be dealing with this at all. The landlord should deal with it. Not be behind you 100%, but be actually handling it. Everything should be written down, and witnessed, if possible. If you get arrested for changing the locks, the landlord could easily say something like “I thought he was just having the roommates move out. I had no idea he was going to illegally evict them.”

ETA: Get a lawyer

15

PLEASE see a lawyer or at least review that statute in your area.

A few years ago, a good friend of mine got himself into a worse mess. He had a one night stand that he “allowed” to stay for a couple of weeks. When he no longer desired her company, he asked her politely to leave. She called the sheriff who informed him that she has no other residence, HIS home was now her residence and he must evict her.

Yes, true story.

He saw an attorney who served her a notice to vacate, packed up his valuables and left for a month. Fortunately, she didn’t do damage to his furniture but she did get a free home for 30 days. Turned out she played this system with a few other men in the past.

Your “friend” might just know more than you do so I suggest you not take the landlords word because you could be on the wrong side of the law when you make that phone call to the police.

16

No, but I feel that way about everybody.

17

I’m just a little concerned that the landlord is not willing to do this for you. I fear things may get very ugly.

I’m leaning toward my first choice…pack your bags and get the hell out of Dodge. This wasn’t your mess, why should you have to be the one to clean it up?

18

Ever had a year-long lease? I can’t just pack and leave. I have to give (I think) at least 30 days notice. Even then, unless I find someone to replace me, I still have to pay for HALF of the remaining rent on the lease. I’m not saying I won’t think about doing it anyway, but it’s not just as simple as leaving.

Even after these people get out of here I am still bitter towards the landlord for basically lying to us (he claims he never got their original applications, which would have avoided this whole thing in the first place because he probably would have denied them (neither has a bank account and one is getting sued by an old landlord.)) However, I DID turn them in to someone in his office, and when I went to check on them, I was told it was ok. My mistake for not getting anything in writing.

This experience has taught me a lot about this sort of thing, so at least there’s that.

19

How do you know it’s not as simple as that?

Don’t make assumptions about “half the remaining rent on the lease” until you look up “duty to mitigate.”
Get a lawyer, dude. In the time it takes to post here, you could actually know what to do and be prepared to do it.

20

Just wondering, how hard would it be for the lanslord to remove their bedroom windows? Perhaps take the bedroom door and replace it with two sheets of heavy plastic on each side of the doorway? I mean, they have no lease, and didn’t fill out an application. If their bedrooms are unlivable, they have little recourse (especially since they’re not paying).