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wifeof1motherof3 · Oct 29, 2007, 11:43 AM

My landlord just got married 6 weeks ago. In the original lease there was nothing about inspections. My landlord agreed to go through HUD because my husband and I are both going to school full time and working part time. My landlord agreed to take the money that HUD offered him for one year. There never was a problem until he got married. Now his new wife is sending threatening letter, stating that she was going to come in and do an inspection with or without us there at times we knew nothing about. And the rent was going to go up the first of December. Can they evict us in the middle of winter with 3 small children?

LisaB4657 · Oct 29, 2007, 11:48 AM

Yes, they can evict you in the middle of winter with small children. However, they cannot evict you unless you have violated the terms of your lease in some way, or if the term of your lease has expired.

When does the term of your lease end? The rent cannot be increased until the term of the lease is complete. They can make a rent increase a condition of a new lease.

Also, if the original lease did not provide for inspections then the landlord cannot make that a new requirement until the start of a new lease term.

Rockstar714 · Oct 29, 2007, 11:50 AM

I agree with LisaB, but depending on your state they may or may not be able to evict you for any reason. I dealt with a landlord that evicted us for no reason, and when I looked into the state housing laws the state said they could for any reason as long as we were given at least a 20 day notice. So you may want to look into that.

pluckyflamingo · Oct 29, 2007, 11:52 AM

Unfortunately they can if your lease is up and not abiding by their rules. When it comes around time to renew your lease landlords like to increase the fee. However if she is trying to raise your rent before your lease is finished she not aloud to. That's why signing those leases are so powerful. If there is not anything written in your lease about surprise inspections or revisions can be made to your lease than she is not aloud to just walk in your home any time she wants to. That starts gettings into legally actions so on and so forth. Have you tried to talk to the landlord without his wife around?

wifeof1motherof3 · Oct 29, 2007, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by LisaB4657

Yes, they can evict you in the middle of winter with small children. However, they cannot evict you unless you have violated the terms of your lease in some way, or if the term of your lease has expired.

When does the term of your lease end? The rent cannot be increased until the term of the lease is complete. They can make a rent increase a condition of a new lease.

Also, if the original lease did not provide for inspections then the landlord cannot make that a new requirement until the start of a new lease term.

My husband and I receive housing assistance because we both work part time and go to school full time and the lease with the housing is not up until March.

wifeof1motherof3 · Oct 29, 2007, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by pluckyflamingo

Unfortunately they can if your lease is up and not abiding by their rules. When it comes around time to renew your lease landlords like to increase the fee. However if she is trying to raise your rent before your lease is finished she not aloud to. Thats why signing those leases are so powerful. If there is not anything written in your lease about surprise inspections or revisions can be made to your lease than she is not aloud to just walk in your home any time she wants to. That starts gettings into legally actions so on and so forth. Have you tried to talk to the landlord without his wife around?

The only time that my husband and I can talk to him is whenever he is at work and the landlord and my husband and I have never had a problem in 13 months until he married her 6 weeks ago. I really hate to go to his place of employment and tell him that we are going to have to get a lawyer on this because we have done nothing to violate the terms of the lease. It states "6 months or more" Does this mean that the lease goes on indefinitely?

pluckyflamingo · Oct 29, 2007, 12:18 PM

Then she cannot evict you because you and your husband signed a lease stating that you will pay this amount of rent until your lease is do. She can try to evict you for other reasons however not paying increased rent is not one of them.

LisaB4657 · Oct 29, 2007, 12:23 PM

Ok. She can't raise the rent until April. She can't begin conducting unannounced random inspections until April. And she can't do either of those things until she has given you 30 days advance written notice.

I suggest that you write a letter to her and her husband informing them that your lease term does not end until March and she is not allowed by law to increase the rent or start conducting random unannounced inspections before the lease term ends. Make sure that you keep a copy of the letter and you should mail it by both regular mail and certified mail. You don't need an attorney (yet) but it would be a very good idea to start putting everything in writing.

ScottGem · Oct 29, 2007, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by Rockstar714

I agree with LisaB, but depending on your state they may or may not be able to evict you for any reason. I dealt with a landlord that evicted us for no reason, and when I looked into the state housing laws the state said they could for any reason as long as we were given at least a 20 day notice. So you may want to look into that.

A landlord cannot evict for no reason. However, expiration of a lease is a reason. It sounds like you were on a periodic lease where all they had to give you was sufficient notice.

ScottGem · Oct 29, 2007, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by wifeof1motherof3

My husband and I receive housing assistance due to the fact that we both work part time and go to school full time and the lease with the housing is not up until March.

The landlord cannot do anything that is not in the lease until March. However, many states have a provision in the law that permits a landlord to inspect the premises. Unless your lease sepcifically prohibits such inspections, they might be able to do that. I suggest you check the sticky at the top of this forum for links to local laws.

froggy7 · Oct 29, 2007, 06:34 PM

Doesn't HUD require periodic inspections of the premises to ensure that certain levels of habitability are being met? I've never had to deal with HUD, but understand that that's one of the reasons that some landlords don't get into the program.

wifeof1motherof3 · Oct 30, 2007, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by froggy7

Doesn't HUD require periodic inspections of the premises to ensure that certain levels of habitability are being met? I've never had to deal with HUD, but understand that that's one of the reasons that some landlords don't get into the program.

HUD requires an initial inspection before moving in, and one at each subsequent year at the end of each contract to continue into the next years contract. When I asked them to make a spot inspection, I was told that they did what was called and exit interview with the landlord, them and my husband there. The exit inspection is done at my request. Although, the HUD office said that if they evicted us or broke the contract before one year was up that the landlord was breaching a contract and that was illegal but my husband and I have a lawyers appointment 10-31-07 to have them backing us because we have the idea they will try to evict us.

Cvillecpm · Oct 30, 2007, 12:52 PM

Unless the "new wife" is on title to the property, she has no control over it and your attorney should write to your landlord/property owner that the contract for the stated rent is not subject to increase