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dxclark · Aug 10, 2006, 03:05 PM

No lease between landlord and myself. Landlord refuses to make repairs. I have not paid rent. Have only been in house for 2months Landlord send a typed letter stating he wants me out in 6days. Is that legal in Indiana?

RickJ · Aug 10, 2006, 03:21 PM

Very probably. IN does poorly in having the laws online, but here's the scoop: 1. It does not matter that you don't have a lease. That only makes things worse for you. You're still a "tenant" of his place.

Lacking paper, you're considered in an oral lease.

2. You probably can't not pay rent because of the repairs that need done. What you need to do instead is pay the rent and report him to the local Housing and Code enforcement people.

In some states they allow you to pay your money to the court and they won't give it to the landlord until he makes the repairs... and he cannot evict you if you're paying rent into escrow.

Bottom line: You can be evicted for not paying the rent. It is not likely that you will win if you say you didn't pay because he did not make the repairs.

Do you have the money to pay? If you do, then pay it and report him to the City. Document the previous and any further efforts you make to get him to fix the stuff.

If you don't have the money, then that's another story.

Fr_Chuck · Aug 10, 2006, 03:44 PM

Sorry Rick, said to spread the rep,

But Rick is right, if you don't have a written lease, you merely are just on a month to month rental,

And yes he can write you that letter, you don't have to leave yet, you can stay, he will then go to court and get a hearing set to evict you. But it will be for not paying, there are a lot of specific rules to withhold money for not fixing items, normally it requires setting up an account, putting the money in that account where the account is held by a independent party and so on.

If it is that bad, why not just move?

If not, as Rick said, pay your rent then start getting the city after him.

Cvillecpm · Aug 10, 2006, 04:15 PM

You don't indicate what KIND of repairs are necessary so unless they rise to a violation of the "warrenty of habitability" you will certainly be evicted.

You SHOULD have documented the repairs with photos and provided a written list to your landlord and come to an agreement when the REQUIRED ones were to be done.