Q: I broke up with my boyfriend. He won’t move out of the apartment we’ve been sharing for 6 years. How to I get him out?
He says I have no legal right to kick him out. His name is on the electric and internet bill as that was what agreed on when we moved in. We don’t have a lease with the landlord, we pay month to month. She doesn’t want me to leave but I can’t live with him anymore. He also cannot afford the rent on his own but I can. How do I do this legally?
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A:
This question belongs on a bar examination because there is no solution in the real world.
First and foremost, there is no such thing as longevity-equity in housing. Tenants and owners are here today and gone tomorrow. Housing is as provisional and fleeting as are interpersonal relationships.
This question involves a box nobody owns and the question is can one non-owning, provisional, month-to-month stakeholder remove another provisional, month-to-month stakeholder. The answer is there is no statute and no case law that governs this situation.
Landlord/tenant law, whether summary or ejectment in nature depends on an owner and a non-owner. One side must have a superior right to the premises to make claims to remove the lesser party. Here, neither tenant has any right at all except to the extent to maintain residence until the owner gets rid of both people at any time.
This means neither party has a right that is superior to the other and neither can remove the other. Perhaps one solution is for the asker to vacate, but then she loses the deal she has with the premises. Another variation is to have the owner remove both, but then reinstate the asker, which would run against the interests of the owner who can rent the premises for a far higher price.
There is no answer to this question.
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