My landlord would not accept my rent after I gave her our notice to vacate

Question

Our landlord came by for the rent and our notice to vacate. I told her we were only paying half the rent and she could keep our damage deposit for the other half and that the house would be clean and ready for next tenants to move in. She looked at cheque and said I cannot accept this, I need all the rent and then she tossed my rent cheque on my floor. She came back 15 minutes later with an eviction notice for non-payment of rent. I offered her the cheque again, she said no. She then came back 2 hours later with a notice that she would be showing the place the next day from 11:28am-5:30pm. This is a long weekend to boot. I took it and then I went out to her car and told her and her husband she could not come tomorrow and go in the basement suite( we rent the whole house and sublet the basement suite), due to the fact that the tenants were camping for the weekend. Her husband said we will do as we choose, we have the keys. The notice says we have 5 days to pay the rent, or move out in 10 days. Please anyone who knows what sort of action we should take, I would greatly appreicate. I plan on sitting in front of basement entrance to make sure that they do not enter. And I will charge them should either of them touch me. Please help, we do not know what we should do to protect ourselves.

thank you so much in advance for any tips.

Answer 1

Check your lease on how much notice to show the apartment, it is usually 24 hours. Other than that, she is in her rights and can have the sheriff back her up. And they can haul you to jail for obstruction. Better make sure the sublet is legal too.

Answer 2

talk to an attorney--if they try to force there way in call the police

Answer 3

Technically it's your house.

The only way they can do anything is

1) eviction

2) you move

Evictions can take up to 30 days here.A wriiten "right to cure" which is usually 3 days then they can take you to court for possesion of property.Then once they recieve the judgement it still lingers untill they get the sherrifs dept to serve a 24 hr notice,then owner brings in people to move you out.This is the process I had to use on my rentals in Co.

You may wish to poise this question in "Law and ethics" section.Be sure to give city/state in your question.Different states have different laws.

My Best

PS: If it was me I would ride that horse till it dropped.Put as much in storage as possible and make them go thru the whole process.I can be a B sometimes.

Answer 4

Landlord/tenant laws in the U.S. are local, at the city/municipality level.  I don't know what they are elsewhere.  Sorry.

Answer 5

Well I dont really know you, but I say you should simply pay the full rent. The damage deposit is there in case you leave the house damaged in any way. So if she were to take your half check and counted the damage as the other half and something happens and you leave the place damaged, then she is screwed. Im not saying you would do that to her, but its just reality. I understand why she is refusing to take the check you offered, although I dont see why she is being so rude to you. Check your lese for details of when the house can be shown. If it says she can, she can, and if you wont let her through then she can have the police come and arrest you for obstruction, and I doubt you would want that.