My fiancé, self and 2 small children have been living in a basement apartment for aprox 9 months. The apartment was unfinished, without a kitchen or bathroom. (many other issues) We made a verbal agreement with the homeowner (lives upstairs) to build the apartment ourselves.The rent was to be what social services pays 400.00 and my fiancŽ was to be her live in handyman. Since then she is now evicting us after an argument about her wanting more money. There has been much work done on the home, french drains, a new porch, electrical, yard work etc. The work has not met her standards (my fiancŽ has many repeat customers) and she refuses to apply the work to rent. She has not allowed us to complete the apartment even at our own expense. She has gone so far as to call the building inspector to halt our efforts of creating a suitable home for children. I have no recipts and the 400. From social services comes to me and then I directly give it to the homowner. She claims that she has not been paid since June, (thats 7 months!) and that WE owe her 3000.00. She has been harassing me, saying things like, "you think your going to save up money to move out and pay me nothing" "if you take the toilet and sink ill take action against you" (toilet and sink belong to us). She is absolutely insane. I am becoming afraid of her and her 2 adult children. What to do? What to do?

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Originally Posted by twelvestringz

... (toilet and sink belong to us). ...

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No. If they were installed they are fixtures and they belong to her.

You don't have a very believable story. You say she agreed to let you fix up the place in return for rent, yet you failed to get anything in writing. You say you bought materials and yet you failed to keep your receipts. If you intended to set yourself up to loose, you did a good job of it.

Prepare to be evicted.

Actually I have many pictures, before and after, even pictures of us doing the work. I have the signature saying she would take what social services pays. Your response to the problem my family is having was not only unhelpful it was ignorant. I suppose you have nothing better to say. Ill bet you are not a lawer at all... if you are your legal aid!

Sorry, the answer given was according to your story, now you change it, you said nothing in writing, now you have her signature making it a written agreement.

You still have no reciepts, so you can't prove what you did. That is how it works, you produce receipts for toilet for tile or 2X4 for anything you bought and used.
How were you going to bill her or apply to rent if you can't prove what you did.

Next you mean you paid her cash ? Perhaps if you withdrew 400 each month from your bank, you can show a trail of the money.

But I agree, you have little proof you paid her, I think you and her both agree you where to pay 400 dollars, she is saying you did not pay, you are saying you paid, so now you have to prove you paid.

You do not own the toilet and the sink, once you put those in, they became part of the house.
Next did you get building permits to do any of this.

The issue I see that without bath, and many 100's of rules, this may not even be a legal apartment. I know where I am at, a basement apartment has to have a window large enough to crawl out of. But if you installed an entire bath without permits there are all sorts of issues.

Thank you so much for your time. I believe it is an illegal apartment. She wouldn't get permits for anything and we were already here, so we had to make it livable. There was a bathroom, just no fixtures. The toilet and sink really don't matter, Im just worried she believes our appliances now belong to her. Do they?
I recorded her saying she would not give us receipts and how she would be tossing us out in 24 hours. She is furious because I didn't give her the $ from social services this month but she won't give me a recipt for it! She asks me for money EVERY day and I try and work it out with her but she won't stop the eviction And she wants money. What would happen if I gave it to her? I'm in ny thanks