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DLDDLD · Jul 5, 2008, 06:14 PM

I sublet my co-op to a family for three months, who now I want out after two. I am asking them to leave at the end of the month which they are paid through. They have virtually destroyed my house. The agreement between us was sent via emails and never signed. They also never provided the security deposit asked for in the agreement so I believe the contract is invalid to begin with. Please let me know if I am within my rights to terminate a contract that I don't believe was ever validated

Fr_Chuck · Jul 5, 2008, 06:42 PM

Sounds like you can go to evict them, bad news, it could take over 30 days to do it, depending on where you are at. Notice to evict, then having them served notice by the housing court, a court date, the time the court gives them to move and so on. Plus normally more damage during that period.

Wish I had better news. They should have never walked into the door if you did not have that deposit, now there is no money to fix anything

ScottGem · Jul 5, 2008, 06:50 PM

Chuck is correct. Once they moved in you have to formally evict them.

Once you have gotten them out, you can try suing them for the damages but the likelihood of you collecting is not good.

rockinmommy · Jul 5, 2008, 06:54 PM

If the lease was never signed, then you have no contract with them. They are month-to-month tenants and you and they would be governed by your state's landlord/tenant property code. Whatever agreement/lease/contract was emailed back and forth is like it doesn't even exist. (I guess you could try to claim it is a binding contract if you have emails from them stating that they agree to it... would depend on the judge).

You could go two ways...
1. Give them the amount of notice the law requires and hope they'll follow it and get out.

2. Find some part of the law that they're in violation of (it should say something about using customary diligence in caring for the property and not destroying or littering the premesis... some kind of legal jargon.) If you can prove they're in violation of their lease (which again, at this point is the property code of your state), you could file an eviction suit against them.

Do you have reason to believe that they still view this as a temporary arrangement and plan to leave after the 3 months? Are they paying the rent? If those are both yeses, it might be the least of the evils to just let them stay the 3 months, collect the rent, and then file a suit against them for damages once they're gone. In some states it takes a month or more to evict someone anyway (which is what you'll have to do if they don't comply with your notice and move on their own.) And then you face the possibility that they'll retaliate and do even more damage.

Keep us posted.