Miami, Florida - My wife left the home I bought as a single man in 2002, she asked to come back in 2005 for the sake of our 16 year old son; I agreed provided she paid me a minimal rental fee. She was served with the divorce papers in Dec 2007. In April of 2008 she stopped paying rent I am in the process of evicting her. Today I received A letter from the court saying the Writ of Possession is herby stayed, and the matter is set for a report re: "LANLORD AND TENANT RELATIONSHIP". :mad: DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY INFO. ON THIS? WHAT ARE MY CHANCES OF A SUCCESSFUL EVICTION?

Was her name on the house loan or deed ?
They may actually turn this over to divorce court to decide. In fact my guess will be they will turn jurisdiction of this over to divorce court, since as your wife, she has some legal rights to live there.

I haven't had to deal with a situation exactly like this but I would guess your chances are not good. This is because when she came back into the house the two of you were still married and unless you reported your income from her the court will see it as a married couple living together rather than a landlord tenant relationship. This is especially true because it was two years before you filed for divorce. The house even though you purchased it as a single man became your family home so most likely you are just going to have to wait and see what happens in the divorce proceedings. It's worth a try but you may just be spining your wheels.

For starters what exactly does your written rental agreement say on it ? In some states it takes about 90 days for an eviction to go through the legal process and come to completion. What does your laywer say about who the house may belong to ?

Only my name is on the deed. I have a rental agreement from when I increased the rent and copies of checks she made for rent. No I did not report the income. My lawyer says it an emplied rental agreement.

Implied means I will guess that there is nothing in writing, no written rent agreement,

But I will still stand my my guess ( and often with what a judge will rule is always a guess) since you are in the middle of a divorce, I will guess the housing court will decide not to rule but pass it off to the divorce court. ** esp if the wife makes a motion to them for it to be decided there.

The rental agreement I have is from when I raised the monthly rent, which she refused to sign but verbally agreed to. My proof lies with her rent checks.

I believe all kinds of red flags pop up when one reads, "Husband evicting wife". It looks as though the judge wants to inquire into your relationship with your Wife/Tenant. This is the kind of hearing for which you could sell admission; I'ld like to be there!

"LANLORD AND TENANT RELATIONSHIP" simply means you cannot evict your own wife, lease agreement is void because you're still married.

Though the house was bought before marriage, but if she contributed to pay off the mortgage during the marriage, this house is no longer separate property.

George_1950 tThanks for lightening my load and making me smile. I too wish you could be there, to take my place.
FR_chuck thanks for your input I guess that is just what might happen.
Thanks to all, I really needed to get different points of view, this is a good web site and I will continue to use it.

She never contributed 1 red cent toward the mortgage, Insurance or Maint. etc.

Ok, we believe you rzbazan, but the issue is that what you call her "rent" checks can easily be seen as a wife giving her husband money to help with the house payment and the insurance and the taxes and so on.

Also there is some issues with the legality of a rental agreement between husband and wife while they are still married, being married gives her certain rights to enter her husbands home unless here is a legal separation.

So while this seems simple to you, it is the still married part that is going to cause a lot of trouble. And to be honest the housing court most likely will just not want to get invovled in a divorce matter, and normally one side getting ordered out of the house in a divorce is a issue done during the divorce. So since the housing court will not want to get involved with the laws of divorce ( which it does not have authority over) it will in my guess decide not to take the case.

She never contributed 1 red cent toward the mortgage, Insurance or Maint. etc.

She may have contributed much more then you think because your monies were co-mingled during marriage. /2 of what you made was hers and if any portion of that went to pay on the house then she did make a contribution. Be more careful and less spiteful in your wording or your going to get yourself in deep doo doo fast.

A judge doesn't like spiteful or hateful things in their courtroom.

If it would be that easy to "evict" a husband or a wife everybody would be doing this. The judge will not grant an eviction and defer the matter over to the divorce court judge. She will probably be ordered to move after the divorce and not before. You're just spinning your wheels here. Sorry.

You have two major problems here. 1) you were still married when she moved back in. Therefore her rights to occupy the property are something to be decided in Divorce court. 2) you didn't declare the rental income. This will make the IRS situp and take notice.

You have two major problems here. 1) you were still married when she moved back in. Therefore her rights to occupy the property are something to be decided in Divorce court. 2) you didn't declare the rental income. This will make the IRS situp and take notice.


Once again Scott beat me to it - the "this is rent" argument went out the window when the rent was not declared as income.

Sort of similar case I got involved in - man filing for bankruptcy, living with his mother, decided to claim he paid her rent to prove he couldn't pay any of his debts. I guess he gave her checks, she cashed them and gave the money back, whatever. And then Bankruptcy Court notified IRS and she ended up paying taxes, interest, fines... and lost all of her seniors with low incomes benefits!

Yours is a matter for the divorce Court.

Also have to agree that you will have to tread carefully in Court or else you will look petty - extremely petty.

Where is your son during all of this? With you? Part of the eviction?

It is true what they say about the IRS. I had to file papers for a guy who thought he was tricky enough to get a large sum of money from the government back from taxes a couple years ago... I had to be the "bad guy" and let him know he wouldn't. He did get a little money back but only $1,200 when he was expecting aroung $32,000. Which is why I asked in my first response if you reported the money as earned income.