Q: My (now ex) boyfriend allowed his mom and her boyfriend to stay temporarily at our rented house unauthorized.
This was 4 years ago and they are hostile and disrespectful. My former relationship was abusive and his mom is also abusive so I was always too afraid to speak up or confront them to leave sooner. They do not have a written or verbal contract to sublease nor do they pay rent but the mom claims she is a subtenant and refuses to leave, and always threatened to ruin my life if I evict her. Well I told her I would be looking into eviction so she placed a stalking order on me - I still have to pay the rent and bills but can’t be at my home. I finally was able to tell my landlord the situation, and he’s on my side but I’m unsure what we can do to have them removed. Since I legally can’t evict her due to stalking order until it hopefully gets dropped at my hearing can my landlord evict/eject her without evicting me too? If he can’t, could we mutually terminate the lease so that he can evict her, and then re sign a new lease? (He is the one kindly offering to have me re sign). Feeling stuck.
A: This is not a do-it-yourself project. Nor do you have to wait filing suit until the restraining order is dismissed. Much depends upon the exact facts but eviction and landlord-tenant matters only apply when there is a landlord-tenant relationship and if she does not pay rent, there may not be one in your case. You may need to ask a court to eject her rather than evict her. Or yes, your landlord could presumably evict both you and her. If desired, he could then re-rent to just you. If ex is still on your lease, that could really make removing her difficult. See a local landlord-tenant attorney to explore your options.
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