I am a tenant in a two-apartment, owner-occupied building. The owner lives in the first-floor apartment and I live on the second floor. I have been having financial problems and some months have not been able to pay the rent on the first of the month. To date, I am paid up, but I will not be able to pay the entire rent on the first of September (2007) -- barring a miracle. I reached out to my rabbi, and he can write me a check for $300, payable to the landlady. I need $750 more to pay the rent.

I am unemployed, and receive unemployment payments from the state. The problem right now is that legitimate unexpected expenses have left me overdrawn in my checking account, so that my next unemployment check (tomorrow) will only clear out most of the overdraft (not even all of it). I could give the landlady another check in mid-September, but not for the full amount of the rent.

I explained all this so you understand the background to my question. If I approach the landlady now (Aug. 22), and tell her I can give her $300 immediately, and the rest as I get it from unemployment, and she knows that I have always been honest and responsible with her about either paying on time or making arrangements for late payments, but she tells me this time that the rent is due on the first of the month and she is going to have to ask me to leave if I don't get her the rest of the rent immediately, what are my legal rights?

I already know, from doing some initial research, that owner-occupied buildings where there are 3 or fewer units, and the landlord actually lives in one of the apartments, are exempted from the "Anti-Eviction Act" (not sure if this is exact name) that states landlords can only evict tenant for highly specific reasons, meaning that I can be evicted for any reason as long as notice is given. I also know that nonpayment of rent is the only time a landlord can sue for eviction in court without giving notice to the tenant. My question is: What constitutes, legally, "nonpayment of rent"? Does it have to be that the tenant directly refuses to pay, or hasn't paid for several months? Or can the landlord start eviction proceedings even if, as in my case, I've always paid either on time or slightly late but never missed a month, and have always tried to work things out with the landlord?

You might also need to know that I have an oral, not a written, lease -- which means in my understanding that the lease is month-to-month.

Any help you can give me will be appreciated.

Kathy Kattenburg

If it's month to month, she doesn't need to evict you. She can just give you 30 days notice that she is not renewing the rental with you. And she can do that for any reason. However, if you have not paid the rent, she may be able to evict you, which might be slightly faster than having to wait the 30 days.

That's what I have learned from reading this board. There may be nuances to your particular situation that would change the answer.

Kathy, if you have no written lease with your landlord then your lease, essentially, becomes whatever your state's landlord/tenant laws are. You can find a link to them in the first post on this forum.

From your description of the situation I believe your landlord could start eviction proceedings against you on the 2nd of September, if you don't pay her the entire $1050 (? ) on or before the 1st. What that generally entails is something like this(lengths of notices and some details vary state to state):

1. Landlord gives you notice to vacate. The notice will tell you that you have a set period to pay in full or move out. If you haven't done either of those things within the specified time...

2. Landlord goes to local Justice of Peace or equivalent to file a motion for an eviction hearing. Court date will be set.

3. You will be served with notice of when the court date is.

4. On court date you can each appear before judge to state your case. From what you've said in your post I can't see any reason the judge wouldn't grant the eviction. If you don't show up to court the landlord will likely receive a default judgement for eviction.

5. You'll be ordered to vacate the property within a specified period. If you don't do so...

6. After that time is past the landlord can go back to the JP and pay to have the Sherriff forcibly evict you. This can consist of them showing up, escorting you out and waiting while the landlord changes the locks all the way to them bringing moving people who will load up your stuff and move it in to storage, or somewhere in between.

There are various appeals and other filings you and/or she can do throughout this process but most cost money and delay the inevitable.

A couple of thoughts I had while reading your post:

-Why not take the $300 from your rabbi and use that to try to secure a less expensive place to live.
-As you are not working, see if the landlady is willing to let you work off some of the rent. Is there any lawn work, painting, cleaning, etc that needs to be done? Do you "do" anything else that could be of value to her?

Hope something in there helped you...
Karla in TX