I am purchasing my mother in-laws home. I am closing in three weeks.
If I close on Feb 28th, is it possible for me to evict my mother in-law's current roommate? She has no lease and has been living there since Nov.-05.
Can I kick her out on Feb. 28th?

You should send them a letter now, stating they will have to vacate the home.Have the attorney closing the settlement also send them a letter to the same.

You have to give a tenant a minimum of 30 days written notice to vacate. If she hasn't left after the 30 days then you have to file a lawsuit for eviction. Go to http://realestate.findlaw.com/landlord to read about evictions in general and then click on the Resources link to get the specifics for your state.

Agreed, you have to give them a 30 day notice. And if they still don't leave you will have to file for eviction in court. They will set a court date, and then serve her eviction papers.

Hopefully she will move in the 30 day notice, evictions always get nasty.

I am not sure about this... and I do know it varies by state, but if there is no written lease I do believe (depending on the state that is) you can actually give them a 10 day notice to vacate the premises.

A friend of mine ran into a sticky wicket with this several months back. She had been renting a house for several years and they were actually in the process of doing a rent to own. Instead of telling them he changed his mind and was selling the house out from under them, the landlord had their water turned off etc. then they were served a notice that they had 10 days to vacate. These poor people had no clue anything was going on behind the scenes either. As far as they knew they were getting ready to agree on a rent to own situation, then he sells the house right out from under them. She had checked it out and apparently in the state of Pennsylvania, since the lease had actually expired years ago, apparently it was perfectly legal to give 10 days notice. Something about he had the right to reclaim the property? I suppose if you wanted to be ignorant to the woman you could check it out lol.


I would hope your mothers roommate would have the foresight to look for housing elsewhere but you never know <shrugs>. I guess that's where meaningful communication comes in to disclose intent. Good Luck!