Q: No Lease agreement, been doing auto month to month without any lease for 14months. Do I have a lease? Can I be evicted?

A: If you feel the landlord has no cause for eviction, you must be paying rent on time. In that case, it sounds as if you are able to afford rent at a new location. One month is normally plenty of time to find a new location.

If you are unable to pay rent, contact United Way: (801) 374-2588. There are several resources designed to keep you from being homeless if you choose not to be. If you need help to move in Utah, you will discover that every neighborhood has been divided into "Wards" with a Bishop assigned to each ward. Each Bishop is a leader of a congregation of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They help people move all the time, even when they aren't members of the faith. If you haven't made contact with them before, now may be a good time. All of your neighbors will know who the Bishop is in your neighborhood.

A lease allows you the right to pay rent and stay for the full length of the lease. Once the lease has ended, you only have the right to stay there until the end of the month. Month to month rentals can be terminated by the landlord with only two weeks notice before the end of a given month.

If you choose to stay after being given notice, the Landlord has the right to sue you for an eviction. The state is not friendly to tenants that overstay their agreed upon date in the lease.

In the lawsuit, the Landlord does not need a reason to evict you. The lease is over and you had notice. The eviction will keep track of the time you stay beyond the date given in the notice to terminate. Those extra days past the date can be billed at triple the normal rent rate. Court filing fees ($100-200) and attorney's fees (usually around $1000 or less, but there is no maximum) will be added to this bill.

If you lose the case, which is expected, the landlord will get a judgment against you for the total amount, and an order that allows a policeman or constable to enter your home and physically escort you out of the home. The locks will be changed and you will not be allowed back in the home. Your property that has value will be stored for 30 days and then sold in a public auction to help pay the amounts due. You can get the property back if you pay for the cost of storage.

The total judgment amount will remain until the full amount is paid. Your landlord can apply to the courts to have the money garnished from your wages, or attach a lien to any property you own. Liens allow someone to collect money you owe them when you sell the property.

It's always better to negotiate your exit date with the landlord to avoid these costs and situations. Don't put off dealing with the situation, as you only give yourself less time to move and figure out how to deal with the changes in your life.

This is a truly stressful situation, so don't hesitate to talk to others about it to deal with the stress.

Good luck!