[paulsgirl64]

My family and I recently moved into our 1st apartment. The landlord was very nice so it seemed. It is a 1/2 double and her daughter lives in the other side. When my husband first spoke to her she asked if we smoked, he told her yes we are both smokers but we don't smoke in the house because we have small children,she said " that's fine" so in we move. One week before we moved in we paid her 1,000,we moved in on Nov. 10th. We then gave her the rent ( 500.00 dollars) on Nov.23rd. It is now Dec.1st and she said we violated the lease by smoking in the house, which we haven't. She is giving us 5 days to move out or raise the rent 200.00 a month and give her another 1,000 to 2,000 security. A few questions come out of this can she legally give us only 5 days to move out when we did nothing wrong? can we stay in the house legally if she doesn't reimburse us for the Dec. rent? Is she violating the lease by evicting us for no reason? She also stated there was no smoking on the property but there is an ashtray on her daughters side. What can we do about this situation?

[ScottGem]

The thing you don't say is whether you have a written lease. If you do, then there is little she can do. She can try to evict but to do so she will have to take you to court. At the hearing she will have to prove that the lease prohibited smoking and that you did smoke inside. It will be difficult forher toprove that you did. If you show that she was trying to extort more money from you, she will be in big trouble.