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aquarian57 · Aug 13, 2009, 06:25 PM

There is a family living in my Mom's house (she passed away in July) who are not paying. They had a verbal agreement with my Mom to pay rent and utilities, but are $3,600+ behind. My Mom was going to tell them to leave but died before she got the chance. The house is now part of her estate and we need to sell it, as we are now stuck paying the bills. The people agreed to be out tomorrow at noon. We had even given them a week extension at their request - just to be nice. They signed and dated a paper stating that they would be out tomorrow at noon, and that they owed us $3,600. Now they are saying that they can't be out at noon tomorrow. Can we have the police make them leave or do we have to go through the time an expense of the formal eviction process? The house is located in York County, Virginia. Any help/advice will be greatly appreciated.

N0help4u · Aug 13, 2009, 06:33 PM

Did you give them anything in writing that they had to be out by a certain date?

Every tenant has the legal right to live in rental housing unless and until the landlord follows the legal process for eviction.

If a landlord wants to evict you for not paying rent, the landlord must give you a written notice to either move or pay rent in 5 days. If you pay the rent in 5 days, you get to stay. If you do not pay, the landlord can start an eviction in General District Court ( GDC ).

Then you have to take it to court
8.01 - 470 & 472 code of Virginia) The Writ of Possession in Unlawful Detainer (Eviction) is a court order authorizing the Sheriff to physically remove a person and his belongings from a premises and to return possession to the landlord. Usually the court will not issue the Writ of Possession until the appeal period has lapsed. The appeal period is ten (10) days.

ScottGem · Aug 13, 2009, 07:08 PM

Also, only the executor of mom's estate can take action against them.

ballengerb1 · Aug 13, 2009, 07:16 PM

Both excellent and accurate posts. Their agreement may not be worth the paper its printed on. You can evict and then take them to court to collect the debt. Even with a judgement collection may be difficult if they want it that way. Try to negotiate something they can really live with.