September 7, 2010          Login  
   
Renter's ToolkitAfter You Sign a Lease     
After You Sign the Lease Minimize
 

Tenant Obligations
Landlord Obligations
Getting Your Security Deposit Back
Breaking Your Lease
When You Face Eviction

Landlords and tenants are opposite sides of the same coin. Each accepts certain obligations either stipulated by law or specified by lease. Whether you are a landlord or a tenant, you should know your responsibilities and those of your lessor or lessee.
 
  1. Maintain the premises in a safe and sanitary condition. 
  2. Dispose of trash in the proper manner. 
  3. Keep plumbing fixtures as clean as possible. 
  4. Use electrical and plumbing fixtures properly. 
  5. Comply with housing, health, and safety codes that apply to tenants. 
  6. Do not damage the premises or permit guests to damage the premises. 
  7. Keep all landlord-supplied appliances in good working order. 
  8. Conduct yourself so that you and your guests do not disturb your neighbors. 
  9. Permit the landlord to enter your apartment if the request is reasonable and proper notice is given. 
  10. Comply with state or municipal drug laws in connection with the apartment and require other household members and guests to do likewise. 
 
  1. Maintain the premises in a fit and habitable condition. 
  2. Keep all common areas in a safe and sanitary condition. 
  3. Comply with building, housing, health, and safety codes. 
  4. Keep electrical, plumbing, heating, and ventilation systems and fixtures in good working condition. 
  5. Provide running water and reasonably hot water and heat, unless the hot water and/or heat are supplied by a direct public utility hook-up under contract or agreement with the tenant. 
  6. Give 24 hours notice, unless in an emergency, before entering a tenant's unit, and enter only at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner. 
  7. Evict the tenant if informed by law-enforcement officers of drug activity by the tenant or a guest of the tenant in or otherwise connected with the tenant's premises. 

 

  1. Return your keys by the date your lease ends
  2. Provide your forwarding address in writing
  3. Remove all personal belongings
  4. Clean the apartment
  5. Dispose of all trash properly
  6. Follow any special cleaning instructions in the lease
  7. Inspect the apartment with the landlord if possible

 Breaking Your Lease
Breaking a lease is slang for violating the terms of a lease.   The usual ways that a tenant breaks a lease are as follows.  

If a landlord still disagrees and/or fails to correct the problem, the tenant should consider whether to undertake legal action or contact the appropriate governmental agency (e.g., county health department, city bureau of building inspections, city police, fire department).   In deciding to seek legal action, a tenant should consider whether the issue is serious enough to commit the time, effort, and money to the action.   Tenants also should decide what they want to happen and whether a court can order it.   The tenant should determine (perhaps seeking legal advice) what evidence is needed to document the problem and whether the tenant has such evidence.   Lastly, the tenant should consider the possible consequences of bringing the action, especially if he or she fails to win a judgment.
 

 

When you Face Eviction
Whether a landlord has mentioned the possibility in passing, told you to get out by sundown, or served you legal notice to quit (leave) the premises, you need to pay attention. Eviction is the last resort of a landlord to recover control of his or her property from someone who is not authorized to continue possession.

Get the idea? Follow the rules spelled out by the lease and for as long as the lease runs—you will have the right to retain possession of the property. In fact, by law, you have the right to quiet enjoyment of the property you leased. This means that the landlord is not allowed to kick you out without reason, threaten or harass you regarding your possession of the property, shut off the electricity or water to force you to leave, or change the locks to keep you out of the apartment. It also means that a landlord cannot threaten, harass, or intimidate you or your guests to force you to leave the apartment. Of course, if your conduct, or that of your guests, violates the lease or the law, a landlord is allowed to complain and confront you and your guests and may try to evict you for that conduct.
All right, so this is getting serious. A landlord has given you a written notice of eviction—it looks like a legal document—that orders you to move out of your apartment by the 15th of the month. If you accept the notice and move out, you have been evicted. Do you get your security deposit back? What about the rent you already paid for the rest of the month? If you simply move out, you may need to take legal action to get your money back, unless you simply give up and walk away poorer and not much smarter. If you do not want to move out, you are not required to unless a court of law, after a hearing of the facts, orders your eviction. If the court orders you evicted, you must be gone by the date specified in the court order, or a deputy sheriff will arrive and physically place you and your belongings into the street. That is the ultimate eviction.
If a landlord wants you leave, he or she must either convince you to leave voluntarily—without threat, harassment, or intimidation—or ask a local court to hear the case and decide whether you must leave involuntarily.  Going to court is troublesome, irritating, and inconvenient for pretty much everybody involved except the judge or magistrate, who gets paid to be there and will not tolerate foolishness or obstruction from you or a landlord.  What happens is that a landlord must go to the court and file a request for a hearing asking the judge to order your eviction.  The court prepares a notice of the date and place of the hearing and what the hearing is about and sends you notice. If you ignore the notice and the hearing date, the court almost certainly will decide the issue in favor of the landlord and issue a court notice ordering you to leave the premises by a specific date.  That notice usually assigns to you the responsibility of paying the court costs and legal expenses of the hearing that you ignored.  It may assign all or part of your security deposit, the rental balance, and even future rent payments to the landlord.  If you ignore this notice from the court, the deputy shows up and you are evicted.
Don’t think you did anything wrong?  Want to fight the eviction?  First, find out what has caused the landlord to want you out.  Loud parties; cars parked on the lawn; beer cans in the hall; unpaid rent; nerf balls in the toilet; an arrest for drug possession; false information on the rental application; panhandlers sleeping on the porch; a business being run out of the apartment; rent checks bouncing; your own locks on the door; a puppy; garbage dumping in the alley; threatening, harassing, or intimidating your neighbors—these are behaviors for which a landlord may try to evict you.  If you are doing any of these things, talk to the landlord, ask forgiveness, promise not to do it again, get rid of the puppy, clean the garbage, pay the rent, etc., and agree to resume the positive relationship that should exist between landlord and tenant. This may work the first time, but subsequent problems are less likely to end as happily.
Fine, if you are going to be like that ... let’s go to court! The landlord is required to give you a notice to quit before filing with the court unless you waived that right in your lease.  Read the lease carefully.  Ten to 30 days after the notice to quit, a request for a hearing can be filed with the court and a date set.  If you waived your right to notice, the hearing notice could be the first document you receive. You must receive notice of the hearing and should attend.  Do you need an attorney?  No, but it is a good idea to talk to one about your problem and how to proceed.  At a minimum, you should have a copy of your lease (carefully note and read the relevant sections), your notice from the court, and any correspondence or notes relevant to your relationship with the landlord. 
A judge can order a landlord’s request to evict to be ignored or followed.  A judge can assign court costs and legal expenses, if any, to be paid by one or both of the parties. The judge can order you to pay rent, penalties, or even the entire amount of rent due for the entire term of your lease.  The judge may order any, or any combination of, penalties he sees fit.  It is important to understand that the worst case may include lost of deposit, loss of apartment, immediate payment of the entire amount due under the lease agreement, costs, and expenses.  You do not want to experience that level of retribution for violating the lease or the law.  Nor is it unreasonable to expect that by following the lease and the law, you will be free from harassment, threat, intimidation, or legal action.  You may choose (or an attorney might recommend) to file a counter-claim against your landlord to be adjudicated simultaneously with the eviction hearing.  Your claim might include court costs, legal expenses, recovery of security deposit and rent payments, termination of the lease, and penalties and would be based on the landlord’s failure to honor the terms of the lease or the law.
  
 
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