Is this legal? landlord stuff...

[sharinbo]

We are in the process of moving out of that house in the ghetto area of town, and into my mom's. We never had a formal rental agreement with the landlord, but lived there for several months. We are behind on the rent and told him we would finish getting things out today. He just left a message on hubby's phone saying he is inside the house, bagging up our belongings. He gave us no notice that he was going to enter the house, and he has not given us an eviction notice. Can he legally be in the house messing with our things?
HELP!
Shari

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[Bud_Girl76]

We are in the process of moving out of that house in the ghetto area of town, and into my mom's. We never had a formal rental agreement with the landlord, but lived there for several months. We are behind on the rent and told him we would finish getting things out today. He just left a message on hubby's phone saying he is inside the house, bagging up our belongings. He gave us no notice that he was going to enter the house, and he has not given us an eviction notice. Can he legally be in the house messing with our things?
HELP!
Shari

I don't think he can do that without telling you first but I'm not quite sure.. I would be calling the police and letting them know becuase what if stuff is missing.. I hope things work out for you.. Keep us informed..

[MamaFairal]

i would also be calling the poilce and asking them to meet you at the house as a stand-by so you know for sure thelandlord doesnt mess with your stuff.

Act fast!

[janelle]

ABSOLUTELY NOT. We had so called renters in our house but they only paid the first months rent. Our lawyer told us we could not go into the house, change locks, or anything. This has to be handled by the courts. He would be charged with trasspassing I would think. Call the police. He can't touch your belongings.

[*lilo*]

even though you had no formal lease with him, you would fall under the month to month type of a renter. however, i do believe that he must go through an eviction process before being able to take control of your house and the possessions therein. each state has different laws though, so you might want to check those for your state. as others have said call the cops and have them escort you to the house.

[buttrfli]

ABSOLUTELY NOT. We had so called renters in our house but they only paid the first months rent. Our lawyer told us we could not go into the house, change locks, or anything. This has to be handled by the courts. He would be charged with trasspassing I would think. Call the police. He can't touch your belongings.

Yep, what she said.

[Eyore]

He must give 24 hours notice if he wants to enter the house. He must give 30 days notice for you to be out and you are suppose to give 30 days notice that your moving out.
My sister in law has some rental property and there is a legal way for evication and what he is doing is not it.

[Katt]

It's not legal, but without a formal agreement, good luck on getting the police to do anything about it. We just went through this 2 months ago. They came in at 3 am and put our stuff out in the rain. Ruined baby books, kids pictures etc. The cops wouldn't do anything because we didn't have a lease, and it was our word against his on when we would be out, even though our rent was paid for a month.

[ahippiechic]

Where I work, if there month to month or week to week rental agreement has expired, (technecally, no lease...) if they have lived there longer than 28 days, we have to give them 10 days notice to vacate. If they don't, then on the 11th day, we have to file in court. We can't touch any of there belonging until we have the court oder to do so.

If it's during the 1st 28 days, they fall under hotel / motel and we can just change the locks.

[one_angel]

I am like the others in the fact that I'm pretty sure it isn't legal for him to go into the house and remove your property, but since there is no formal lease or other agreement it might be difficult to get law enforcement or anyone else to do anything. The landlord probably feels he has the right to do this since you are behind on rent and there is no formal contract but that still doesn't make it right. Get your stuff and get out of there as soon as possible!

I really hope you get things squared away and it all works out well for you.

[vicky122]

No he can't. We had renters that were going month to month and they moved out not on good terms. But the moved in the middle of the month and I couldn't go into the apt until the rent was up nor did they have to return the keys.They paid for the month.
So come the first we changed the locks. I do a month to month lease and I make sure everything is covered. Like if you are late 2 weeks then I have the right to change the locks and your deposit is lost. I do a walk through and write the way each room is the screens if I have blinds up and they have to sign the papers.
No move ins only 4 people allowed if you move someone in you are out. I am not a mean person but the income from my apt. is my income nd it is a business. You pay a deposit and if the apt. is given back to me in the same condition I rented out deposit is givan back.
We have a family now thats been there for 3 years and always pays on the first very clean so once a month I have given back 50.00 on there deposit. I will do this untill there is just 100.00 left and thats for juust in case.