I really hope someone can answer my question for me. I am having issues with my landlord. He has broken into our house, turned off our heat and power, as well as threatened us. We are still in the process of getting things started to take him to court, but we are supposed to be getting evicted for late rent. We already went to court and had the judgment. We are just waiting for the sheriff to show up and kick us out. We had fallen on hard times with losing our jobs, and have just started our new ones. We just don't get paid before the sheriff is due to remove us. I am also 13 weeks pregnant, and we have an 11month old son as well. The weather has been so cold there's frost everywhere as well. We don't have the money to go anywhere or have any where to move to before we get removed by the sheriff. I had heard quite a bit recently during the winter months in the state of Missouri if you have a child under a certain age, the sheriff is not allowed to remove you, your child, or your things from the home. I was wondering if this is true or not. Please don't judge everyone goes threw bad times. I am just merely trying to find out the truth. Thank you for your respectful responses.

I doubt if there are any laws to this effect. You could file a hardship stay with the court that issued the eviction order to give you more time.

Also, I don't understand, if the landlord shut off heat and power before filing for eviction that is an illegal eviction. Did you countersue him for an illegal eviction? What happened in court? Did you explain to the judge what the landlord did? That he broke in and turned off the utilities?

But if the judge issued the order, then the law doesn't provide for an exemption other than hardship which you have to apply for.

We are in the process of counter sueing him. We could not make it to court for the hearing due to no child care and 1st day of job. He was trying to force evict us before he ever filed, during the filing of and after judgment had pass. This is why we are counter sueing. We got him arrested for what he did and have a hearing for that on the 2nd of jan, but still by then we will already be evicted. We don't have any time to file for hardship or the money to do so at the moment.

I'm not sure what he can do between the court judgment and the day the sheriff shows up at your door, if the landlord did all those things after the judgment.

I can't find anything about children in winter in MO.

All I can find is this:
"To legally evict you, your landlord must file a lawsuit in court. If sued, you should receive a Petition and Summons, telling you when and where to appear in court, and what your landlord is demanding. Do not ignore the lawsuit. If you do nothing, a default judgment may be entered against you.
Usually the judge will hear your case on the first court date and not continue it. If you have a claim against your landlord, you must file it in writing with the court by the court date.
If the summons was only posted on your property (not hand-delivered to you or your family by a process server), your landlord may only be able to get a judgment for "possession," but no rent. Possession means possession of the apartment or house, not your property.
A landlord is prohibited from illegally evicting you without a court order, i.e., by locking you out, removing doors to your home, shutting off your utilities, or removing you or your property."

There are 10 days between judgment and the earliest the sheriff can remove you. Has it been 10 days?

We are already counter sewing him for everything since its considered force eviction even after judgment, but will that effect the sheriff evicting us in any way?

Hello S:

Given your situation, I do NOT believe the sheriff will evict you. But, DON'T surprise him. Send him a letter outlining the problem you're having and give him dates and times when hearings will take place... Send your letter CERTIFIED, return receipt requested... I'd also send a copy to the judge, to the landlord, and to your local TV station.

excon

excon:
Why would I need to send it to my local TV station?

Hello again, S:

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Why would I need to send it to my local TV station?

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Hopefully, the sheriff would REFUSE to evict you on his own motion... But, KNOWING the TV cameras are going to be turned on him WHILE he throws a pregnant mother and her children OUT onto the streets - in the dead of winter, while the evil landlord looks on, MIGHT convince him to wait.

Excon

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Originally Posted by excon

Hello again, S:

Hopefully, the sheriff would REFUSE to evict you on his own motion... But, KNOWING the TV cameras are going to be turned on him WHILE he throws a pregnant mother and her children OUT onto the streets - in the dead of winter, while the evil landlord looks on, MIGHT convince him to wait.

excon

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Oooh, I never thought of it that way. I will have to look into that, thank you so much.

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Originally Posted by S3XYEYES

We could not make it to court for the hearing due to no child care and 1st day of job.

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There is NO way you should have missed this hearing. Had you shown up or even sent a representative, your case would have been heard and I doubt if a judgement would have been issued. By not showing up you handed him a default judgment which is why you are in this mess. You had the upper hand with his arrest and forcible eviction and you and you handed it back to him by not showing up.

The problem with excon's suggestions (which I agree with) is making sure you contact the right sheriff. In my neck of the woods, there are different people appointed as sheriffs to handle tasks like this. They work independently, so you may need to cover all of them. But yes get the media involved.

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

There is NO way you should have missed this hearing. Had you shown up or even sent a representative, your case would have been heard and I doubt if a judgement would have been issued. By not showing up you handed him a default judgment which is why you are in this mess. You had the upper hand with his arrest and forcible eviction and you and you handed it back to him by not showing up.

The problem with excon's suggestions (which I agree with) is making sure you contact the right sheriff. In my neck of the woods, there are different people appointed as sheriffs to handle tasks like this. They work independently, so you may need to cover all of them. But yes get the media involved.

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Well if my fiancé had shown up he would have lost his job that he just started, which is the check we are waiting to receive and we would have had no money coming in. If I had gone our son would have been left home alone. Our attorney was out of country, meaning out of reach by phone and email dealing with another case, so he couldn't go or call. I tried to get the hearing pushed back another month but they refused.

Another thing he wasn't arrested until after the judgment was passed.
I already know who the sheriff is that will be delivering it.
Thank you so much though for jumping to conclusions of me not trying everything in my power to get this resolved before it got this far. Maybe next time you should make sure you have all your ducks in a row. Please and Thank you.

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Originally Posted by S3XYEYES

Thank you so much though for jumping to conclusions of me not trying everything in my power to get this resolved before it got this far. Maybe next time you should make sure you have all your ducks in a row. Please and Thank you.

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There's no jumping to conclusions here... Scott is right. Neither of you showed up so there was a default judgement against you. You could have avoided it by having someone there.

I don't see where ScottGem jumped to any conclusions at all. I too had the very same thought, but didn't say it, because you made it sort of clear that you couldn't go. It doesn't CHANGE the fact that had you gone, a lot of this wouldn't be happening, and you didn't arrange for a babysitter, or even mention that your lawyer was unavailable, or why another lawyer wasn't found.

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Originally Posted by S3XYEYES

Thank you so much though for jumping to conclusions of me not trying everything in my power to get this resolved before it got this far. Maybe next time you should make sure you have all your ducks in a row. Please and Thank you.

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I didn't jump to any conclusions. I based my response on the information YOU provided. So you take your son with you into court. That would actually have been a smart thing to do, show the judge what this dirtbag of a landlord was trying to put out on the street.

You really failed to understand what I was saying. I've actually been supportive of you and have been offering good advice, but the fact remains you NEVER fail to show in court. If you can't make it you ask for a continuance or have your attorney's office ask for one. That you would not be in the position you are in had you shown up at the hearing. And you need to understand that going forward.

If you know what sheriff will handle the case, then you have a point of contact. So you send him copies of everything you have that shows the landlord will be in trouble for a forcible eviction and send copies to the judge, the landlord and the media. Then pray for the best. If the sheriff gives you a notice of when he will be there, contact the media and ask for someone to show up.

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Originally Posted by odinn7

There's no jumping to conclusions here....Scott is right. Neither of you showed up so there was a default judgement against you. You could have avoided it by having someone there.

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I understand Scott is right about it, but what scott didn't do was ask for more information, and like I clearly stated after there was no one who could.

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Originally Posted by S3XYEYES

I understand Scott is right about it, but what scott didnt do was ask for more information, and like I clearly stated after there was no one who could.

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No one who could what? Show up at the hearing? I'm sorry, but, like I said, you could have taken your child with you. Showing up at that hearing was of such extreme importance you needed to find a way. There was nothing more to ask. Also, as I said, you need to understand how not showing up has put you in the position you are in so you can deal with it going forward. That's why I made the point I did.

In Missouri they sheriff will sit your belongings to the curb if there is a foot of snow, failure to do so would be a violation of the court order, and they would be improper in their duties.
The officer will not know if that is your child or someone else's. Or he can just call children services to come get the child, so they child will not be living on the street.

At the hearing you did not go to, was the time to ask for another week or two.