Q: Tenant agreed to move out April 30, now refuses to; can I evict for cause?
I'm the landlord, tenant and I came to an agreement she'd be out by May, as I had people scheduled to move in. I had a new lease drawn up stating the end of her tenancy to be April 30th. Come May, she tells me she won't move out, citing difficulties related to COVID-19. I told her that I understood but to keep my posted. This was done in good faith and I was waiting on her to update me.
Since the new tenants moved in on May 5th (to a different room), the old tenant has stopped spending any time at my house, has taken her son and most of her things to her boyfriend's house, but all of her furniture is still here. Additionally, she has also not paid me rent for this month and is now ghosting me when asked for it.
I know there's a moratorium on evictions for non-payment of rent and those not for cause, but she is clearly in violation of her own agreement to move out when she was supposed to, right? I have our agreement and lease in writing. Can I pursue eviction?
A:
IF you have a written notice from the tenant that she is terminating her tenancy as of a specific date and she fails to leave, then you likely can proceed to evict subject to the courts being open and handling eviction matters so long as you have not accepted any rent from the tenant for past the promised termination date.
IF you have a fixed term lease that expired on April 30th and the tenant is still there, you may have a peck of problems given the notice requirements and obligations to renew leases unless you provided at least 90 days advanced written notice of your intent not to renew and you have a permitted reason for not renewing. If the rental dwelling is within the City of Portland's boundaries, you may have even more problems, given its additional requirements with both State and Portland laws providing monetary penalties against the landlord for any procedural or legal violations.
It is not clear whether the tenant has vacated and simply not yet come back to claim her personal property or if she retains possession and is just temporarily staying elsewhere. IF she has vacated and technically restored possession to you, then she likely owes no rent past her vacating date and you have to deal with her remaining personal property according to ORS 90.425 and then move on.
All in all, you may wish to review everything with a local landlord-tenant attorney with the hope of either minimizing or avoiding any potential liability to the tenant, as well as getting her out if that is actually necessary. Good luck.
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