Ask Me Help Desk - No lease -- Tenants' Rights

I have a very horrible landlord situation and am having a hard time ascertaining what my rights are. Here are the facts:
[LIST][*]I moved to Virginia in January 2009 and found housing in a single family home with no lease[*]I never signed anything or filled out any forms[*]the owner of the house lives overseas[*]No one has ever met, talked to or corresponded in any way with the owner[*]all communications with the owner are via his girlfriend who lives in the area. She is NOT a paid property manager.[*]There was a sewage flood in our basement which took an excessive amount of time to fix (it happened in April and is still undergoing construction in July)[*]We were without running water for a few weeks and in unlivable conditions. None of us had other housing options, however, and the owner's girlfriend refused to put us up in a hotel or other lodging. She told us to use the showers at the local gyms.[*]Because our house was basically unlivable for two months, the owner's girlfriend told all of us--all five renters--that she would not be collecting rent for the months of May and June. Nothing was put into writing. No one spoke with the owner, who remained overseas.[*]In July, the girlfriend asked for the rent plus a $50 increase across the board. This was two hours before she was to come over and collect rent. We said we needed more notice before rent was raised.[*]We were also concerned that the construction wasn't completed yet and the two roommates who inhabited the basement were without a room.[*]The girlfriend then said that the owner--who no one has heard from, met or spoke to--wanted to evict us and was going to serve us a 5 day notice.[*]At this time the girlfriend stopped answering or returning our phone calls.[*]We heard of the eviction notice through a previous tenant who still spoke with the girlfriend at times.[*]We tried to contact the owner via email (the only information we had for him) and he refused to respond.[*]The girlfriend finally answered a phone call from me today and said that the owner will also be suing us for the rent that she told us we didn't have to pay as well as any unpaid rent that he failed to collect from tenants who lived there before we even moved in.

My question is: what rights do we have without a lease. Also, these issues revolve around heresy between us, the tenants, and the owner's girlfriend. No one has EVER been able to contact or speak with the owner directly and he has NEVER attempted to contact us. He has purposefully declined to respond to our attempts on numerous occasions.

If anyone has any help or advice that they can give for this situation, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Who collects the rent? Where do you send it?

You ARE a tenant, of course, just month to month, because there is no lease. That does not mean you have to live in substandard housing.

It's not heresy, it's hearsay - but I think you could make a valid argument that the girlfriend IS the landlord's representative because she apparently manages things, takes phone calls, whatever else is going on.

I'm not sure otherwise what you are asking - ?

Sorry about the incorrect spelling--yes, I meant hearsay.

I guess what I'm asking is do they have the legal grounds to sue us?

The girlfriend collects the rent, though it often takes her weeks to deposit it which has caused some of us to overdraft our accounts.

I think they have legal grounds to file suit. I doubt if they can win.

As Judy said, even without a lease you are a month to month tenant with all the rights of a tenant. But because you are month to month, your tenancy can be terminated with one month's notice.

They cannot raise the rent without at least one months notice.

As for the months she told you were free. Since you have receipts that you paid faithfully until that point, that you have proof there was work going on that interfered with the livability of the property, and you have the tenants testimony that rent was being suspended during that period, I can't see them winning. On the other hand, if they have to sue you and you win, its not going to be comfortable living there any longer.

Thank you, Scott. We absolutely have proof that we've paid our rent faithfully until that time. The roommate who dealt with the girlfriend the most frequently also is documenting her phone calls to the girlfriend. We also have pictures of the damage done during the flood.

Its just frustrating because we were great tenants who took care of the house better than the owner. They refused to pay for things such as the heating and plumbing to get fixed which we ended up being responsible for.

Also, the girlfriend is claiming that we're responsible for the unpaid rent for rooms that were empty (not being rented) during our time here, however renting to more than four people is illegal in the county we live in (they want us to be responsible for paying the rent on the fifth room). These people are slumlords.

Thank you so much for your time and help, I greatly appreciate it.

It's going to be your word against hers/theirs. The best you can do is bring your documentation and any witnesses and see what the Court decides.

"She" CANNOT keep changing the rules as she goes along, of course, and that is going to hurt her credibility.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDinVA6371

Sorry about the incorrect spelling--yes, I meant hearsay.

I guess what I'm asking is do they have the legal grounds to sue us?

The girlfriend collects the rent, though it often takes her weeks to deposit it which has caused some of us to overdraft our accounts.

Fyi, a lot of banks these days have free bill pay. I use it to pay my rent (and just about everything else). I love it because the money is taken from my account the day I set the payment up for and I don't have to worry about waiting for anyone to cash a check I wrote. You might want to look into it so that at least you have one less worry in the future. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDinVA6371

Also, the girlfriend is claiming that we're responsible for the unpaid rent for rooms that were empty (not being rented) during our time here, however renting to more than four people is illegal in the county we live in (they want us to be responsible for paying the rent on the fifth room). These people are slumlords.

Thank you so much for your time and help, I greatly appreciate it.

Normally, you might have a situation where all the tenants are on a single lease and responsible for the total rent. But that doesn't appear to be your situation. I doubt if they will even file suit since it would open up a whol can of worms for them (like illegally renting to 5 people).

By the way, as far as the overdraft is concerned, that really is not their fault. In fact, delaying depositing the checks is to your advantage since you get the "float". But if you are having over drafts because you think you have more money than you do, that's a budget management issue on your part.

Quote:

Originally Posted by justcurious55

fyi, a lot of banks these days have free bill pay. i use it to pay my rent (and just about everything else). i love it because the money is taken from my account the day i set the payment up for and i don't have to worry about waiting for anyone to cash a check i wrote. you might want to look into it so that at least you have one less worry in the future. :)

I don't understand how a delayed deposit would cause an account to be overdrawn. I am aware of checks I have written which simply haven't "hit" yet and I take them into account when I balance my account.

I don't think that just because there's money in the account it's not spoken for.

Or am I missing something here?

You might want to make sure you are not cought up in a scam