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Help me cleanse this house in 30 days (Room mate assistance)
asparagus
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I live with a friend of mine, and a few weeks ago he came up to me and said , " I really freaking hate this guy, do you want his room? " Now, I had been on the couch prior to this, and welcome the idea of a door I can close quite well.
The guy, well, he is a mooching jerk, he plays rap music, pop techno, and well, that is it, incredibly loudly. He steals cigarettes if you leave a pack anywhere, he steals food. He has friends of his over constantly. Loud obnoxious friends. The owner, who is my main buddy, really dislikes this, as it draws attention to his condo, and he doesnt like the idea that his property is the " White trash haven "
The guy is also addicted to opiates, painkillers, meth, cigarettes, smokes pot CONSTANTLY so the entire place reaks.
The issue now, is that he gave him 30 days notice a few days ago. He flipped out, screaming and crying, a friend of his, who was a stripper, threatened to have her brother come and wreck the place, and beat main buddy up. Before that, his friends were annoying. Now all they do is make snide comments.
We are a bit concerned, as we have a lot of technology here, giant tv, 2 computers, 2 xboxes, laptops, and lots of other things that can either be stolen, or damaged fairly quick. What can be done about the friends?
Basically, this is the checklist I need to figure out.
- Verbal declaration of 30 days is enough? Or do we need to get police out here to verify it?
- No contract was ever made to live here, aside from verbal.
- He owes August, and now into September rent, and about 200 more dollars in loans, any idea? Total of $690 I believe.
- He put a lock on his door, but is not very handy, it has to be slammed and is probably damaging the frame.
- His friends. Can the owner of the property, IE mortgage holder, throw these guys out and stop them from coming back? Unless they are moving his stuff that is? I am concerned about that the sooner he gets to moving out, the more they are going to generally fuck with things.
The guy, well, he is a mooching jerk, he plays rap music, pop techno, and well, that is it, incredibly loudly. He steals cigarettes if you leave a pack anywhere, he steals food. He has friends of his over constantly. Loud obnoxious friends. The owner, who is my main buddy, really dislikes this, as it draws attention to his condo, and he doesnt like the idea that his property is the " White trash haven "
The guy is also addicted to opiates, painkillers, meth, cigarettes, smokes pot CONSTANTLY so the entire place reaks.
The issue now, is that he gave him 30 days notice a few days ago. He flipped out, screaming and crying, a friend of his, who was a stripper, threatened to have her brother come and wreck the place, and beat main buddy up. Before that, his friends were annoying. Now all they do is make snide comments.
We are a bit concerned, as we have a lot of technology here, giant tv, 2 computers, 2 xboxes, laptops, and lots of other things that can either be stolen, or damaged fairly quick. What can be done about the friends?
Basically, this is the checklist I need to figure out.
- Verbal declaration of 30 days is enough? Or do we need to get police out here to verify it?
- No contract was ever made to live here, aside from verbal.
- He owes August, and now into September rent, and about 200 more dollars in loans, any idea? Total of $690 I believe.
- He put a lock on his door, but is not very handy, it has to be slammed and is probably damaging the frame.
- His friends. Can the owner of the property, IE mortgage holder, throw these guys out and stop them from coming back? Unless they are moving his stuff that is? I am concerned about that the sooner he gets to moving out, the more they are going to generally fuck with things.
asparagus on
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Get all the locks changed. Maybe you could call the non-emergency number for the police and inform them of the situation on "move-out day".
I don't believe it - I'm on my THIRD PS3, and my FIRST XBOX360. What the heck?
Depending on the laws in your state, you could very well be in the wrong if you just kick him out. No declaration, verbal or otherwise, by you starts the eviction clock because you are not the owner.
He is behind on the rent, you can serve him with a 3 day notice to pay or quit the premise. You could possibly take him to small claims court and pursue the matter, but unless you have a written contract, good luck.
but if he is a boarder, not a renter as Thanatos pointed out (meaning there is no written contract), I would give him 24 hours to move his stuff, then change all the locks and put his shit out on the sidewalk. This should be legally acceptable, but I would call the non-emergency line for the local police to be certain. If you do that, make sure someone can be at the house for a while, or have trustworthy neigbors watching. If he does any damage he can get busted for vandalism, melicious mischief, and I am sure several others. You just have to have eye witnesses to prove it was him or his buddies.
I had a similiar problem with a roommate who was living with me. When he played his music too loud, after having several conversations with him about it, I started flipping the breaker and killing the power in his room. He didn't live with me very long after that.
I am failing to see how something like this would be possible. Unless there was some sort of verbal contract to substitute.
Which is why we did it, I just dont know if a verbal notice of this is enough, or if he has to sign anything, which might be a problem.
So the owner can ask any of his friends to leave and not come here correct?
Seriously. What is $200 + deductible ($250-$500) compared to all the stuff you guys have. Just write down all the serial numbers of your electronics, take pictures of everything, and let whatever happens, happen. Make sure you keep yourself and your irreplaceable items in a safe spot and replace the locks as soon as the guy moves out.
The situation might suck, but at least you can make it less worrisome situation by taking a few precautions. Just keep in mind that once the crazy guy is out, he is out for good and you can move on in your life and even have a door to close to block out the rest of the drama out there.
Good luck to you!
Makes you a tenant in most places.
Completely agreed.
I'm wondering if you owning a house and a friend asked to stay for a few months to get back on their feet, do you still have to give them notice? Are they considered tenants just because they paid you a small amount for a couch to sleep on? Or can you simply say "look you can't stay here anymore" and kick them out and change the locks?
I'd like to know, just from my own knowledge.
I'd put it in writing, and explain in writing why he is being kicked out. He doesnt' have to sign it, but you do have to give him a copy of it, also record the date you give him a copy of the notice in writing.
Essentially in most places 30 days notice is sufficient, and if they have it in writing, with all the details, you have a very good argument if it should ever come to legal matters.
I'm the dude, quoting the dude, pretending to quote the other dude! anyway.....to the business at hand.
This is true, HOWEVER, you only get the rights that you DO in fact enforce. If this guy is threatening, or having his friends threaten to do illegal stuff, I doubt that he will take you to court. Just because it's not "Legal" doesn't mean that they wouldn't get away with it. Sad, but true fact of Landlord/Tenent relations. Also, verbal contracts are very hard to enforce, unless both parties agree on what was agreed upon, which rarely happens.
My advice is to call and talk to the police (non-emergency#) and ask them about your rights. If the cops tell you that they won't do anything if you throw him out, then it doesn't matter what his rights are in court. Toss him out on the street. I think you guys are bening over backward by giving him 30 days. If you are going to go with the 30 days, I would give him written notice, and make sure that there is a witness to his recieving this notice. I don't think verbally telling him he has 30 days would hold up in court. Most states require written notice.
If all else fails, contact Judge Judy. She is a bastion of righteous justice.
IANAL
Verbal declaration should be fine, but give it to him writing why not?
As others have pointed out, the fact that the property owner has been accepting money on a regular basis in exchange for board probably automatically gives the guy some legal protection.
However, the fact that he hasn't paid for over a month probably gives your friend ample grounds to evict him. Maybe check the tenancy laws for your state to see specifically how long you have to give a non-paying tenant to pay up before you can legally evict him.
The money he owes, and the costs of damages he's done are probably a loss. I'd focus on getting the guy out at this point, getting the money off him is going to be more effort than it's worth. Normally a landlord would take a months rent or so as deposit at the beginning of a tenancy that the tenant only gets back if he's paid all his rent up to that point and hasn't done any damage to the property. Presumably your friend didn't take this measure.
As the house owner, I would imagine your friend can ban anyone he wishes except paying tenants from the property. I'd advise him to do this, especially if they have threatened violence and damage to his property. If it comes down to it, I'd imagine your friend can be the one to move the guy's crap out of the apartment. Him and his friends can collect it off the sidewalk. Definitely have the non-emergency number for your local police department on hand for eviction day and ideally seek legal advice in the matter.
This all depends very much on the state (and possibly municipality) that you're in. Probably the deliquent rent is sufficient to evict either immediately or within a short time if he doesn't pay, but I can't be specific.
I'm inclined to say that you should get the police involved, as well; if nothing else, call the city or whatever local authority and find out exactly what the regulations are WRT eviction.
Because of the drugs and your longstanding awareness of the drugs, contacting law enforcement directly could lead to a bunch of awkward questions. Still, if you think the threats they're making are serious, it'd be better to contact law enforcement now.
After he is evicted, you could probably pursue damages and back rent in small claims court. If you're willing to spend the time doing it, you can probably recover some or all of what you're owed. I was in a similar situation as a fellow tenant rather than as a landlord, and what I did was get all the paperwork ready, and notify my roommate that I was pursuing the debt in small claims basically the moment we were evicted.
There are enough strange circumstances here that I would consider seeking professional legal advice.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Eviction. Keyword. Use it on the bastard!
If he and his friends have made threats, I'd contact the police to get some feedback/lodge a complaint after you have served him the written notice. This is all really just covering the owner's ass in the case that this blows up, and if it doesn't then you can just move on with your life.
As was said, change the locks as soon as he's out and make sure to document all of your expensive belongings. Assuring that the insurance (homeowners and renters) is up to date is a great precaution if you're worried about damages or theft, and it will greatly compensate you in the case that something does happen.
This guy is a user of multiple drugs, one of which is meth? Cover your bases and assure that if he flips out and does something terrible you'll end up on your feet without a messy law enforcement complaint. It's really the meth use that makes me most insistent on insuring all the angles get covered as he's obviously someone that could cause a huge headache.
I'd stop loaning him anything, though, and I'd try to get the personal loans on paper. I'd also stop letting him borrow anything. If he takes food that isn't his, take that food away from him and throw it in the trash. If he takes cigarrettes that aren't his, spray them with a water bottle.
What your friend can probably do, in most cases, even if the guy WAS a legal tenet, would be to amend the terms of the rental with reasonable notice - in other words, give him notice, in writing, that guests will now have to be approved by all housemates.
Failing that, you can also just increase his rent, but again, if he's inclined to fight you using your state or communities tenancy laws, this can require anything from 30 days notice up. In any case, he did you a tremendous favor, actually, by not paying rent, because that nullifies almost any tacit agreement you might have had, especially if he paid rent in the past - no judge is going to believe you let him stop paying rent out of the goodness of your hearts, then took him to court over it.
I host a podcast about movies.
I'd say set up a hidden camera, to either catch him breaking/stealing shit or doing something else illegal (which you'd confront him with while asking him to leave) but the fact that there's a guy doing meth and painkillers in the house leads me to believe you don't want video evidence of any goings-on.