After being laid off from my job, our bills started to slip. I made arrangements with our landlord to pay off rent a bit at a time until caught up. So, caught up last months rent, but now am 2 weeks late on the current month's rent and am getting phone calls every half hour. I've even gotten called around midnight twice now. I've tried explaining that I'm doing everything I can to catch up and should have their money in another week and a half, but the calls continue. On top of this, the calls are very nasty and threatening in manner. I get messages telling me to pay up or I'll be evicted immediately, get a 15 day or quit notice, on and on. It's gotten to the point that I don't answer the phone now because my answer is still the same, I just don't have any way to get the money to them for another 10 days! My questions are these: what can I do about the harassing phone calls? How late does my rent have to be before eviction proceedings can start? Being that I'm only 2 weeks late, it seems a bit early for that particular threat, but am having a hard time getting exact info. Also, from what I've found, the 15 day or quit notice is usually about a violation of the lease OTHER than non payment of rent, is that accurate?

Thanks for any help and info!

Hello c:

They can begin to evict you the minute your rent is late. No, they aren't allowed to threaten you, but that's not something you're going to stop.

At the rate they're going, it'll be a few weeks before you actually have to vacate, and you can get caught up anytime before that.

But, given the lousy landlord you've got, maybe you should be saving your money for a new place.

excon