My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Texas
Please be prepared for a fairly long, detailed post. I have a confirmed eviction somewhere on my record, as told to me by several landlords with whom I've tried to rent. What is frustrating me is that I have never been served eviction papers and have never gone to court.
I lived in an apartment complex from January 2011 to April 2012. I was approved within hours and moved in within days. Unfortunately for me, I moved in two doors down from the complex's only maintanence man. At first my experience was fine, this apartment layout was spacious, my neighbors were generally nice. When I ran into the maintanence man the first time, I went out of my way to be polite so as not to start off on the wrong foot with him as I had read tons of negative reviews on the apartment all focused on this person... he was nothing short of rude and this attitude was predominantly on display at every single interaction or even passing in the parking lot from that point on.
While unpleasant, this wasn't the end of the world and I just chalked it up to him being a jerk. After a few months, my air conditioner went out. It took weeks to repair it. This happened every month or two (stretching on for weeks at a time) until I left, which was particularly brutal during the summer in Texas and even in the cooler seasons, my apartment rarely got below 85-90 degrees. Nearing the end of my time at the apartment, out of pure frustration, I called the after hours maintanence and demanded they come fix my air conditioner, because it had only been working for 4 days before going out again. When the after hours guy came, he told me something that I couldn't believe, his exact words were "Your air conditioning works just fine, it's just been turned off from the outside.
I've noticed that before, the maintanence man must be turning it off because he is planning to do some work on it." Which I suppose explains a lot, as the maintanence man is the one who has access to my air conditioner and apparently did not like me. Just frustrating that I paid $150 a month on electric to try to cool my apartment, when the outside unit was just shut off. In February, I got a letter (but no explanation) stating that I would not be able to renew my lease in April (just fine with me), that the letter was official notice to vacate at the end of my lease. I chose to leave on April 8th, due to being able to move into my new place early and only having enough money for that.
However, I wanted the rest of the month to be able to move all of my things and clean up after myself, so I left the utilities on, left my vacuum and cleaning supplies, locked the door and called the apartment to inform them that I was not abandoning the apartment and that I would be back periodically and intended to pay them money owed (which admittedly was the rent for April), clean and leave the keys to them by April 30th. I went to gather things at the apartment 3-4 times a week after the 8th, locking the door after myself after I left, each time. The final plan was to take my SUV on the weekend of April 28th 2012 and do a final gathering of my things and an official clean up. However, on April 27th (Friday), I received a bill in the mail (at my new address) for "trash removal" and "deep cleaning", with move-out reason listed as 'evicted' though there was never any paperwork served to me or posted anywhere. I was afraid that my possessions, most important being photos, teaching supplies and childhood memories, but also expensive appliances were going to be gone. I called the office that Saturday morning and was very rudely told that all of my personal belongings had been thrown out and that they were no longer in the dumpster either.
I was devastated but just had to drive by to see if there was anything left by the dumpster. When I drove by, I noticed some of my stuff on the balcony, so I went to try my key and realized that the lock had been removed, leaving the door wide open. I walked in to find my possessions torn apart, boxes gone through, my things lying everywhere, some broken and many things missing (including my vacuum, all of my husband's tools and work supplies, my soda machine, coffee maker, food processor, pots, pans and other items).
I immediately called the police and a lawyer friend. After my lawyer friend spent all of Monday morning arguing (in writing) with a non-cooperative and extremely rude and evasive office manager, I finally spoke to her myself and was allowed to come gather my personal belongings that still remained. The office manager went with me and when she opened the door, notices were prominently posted on the back stating that I had abandoned my apartment and they reserved the right to trash my stuff, but the annoying thing about this is that very clearly they were just posted prior to me arriving, because there was not one single notice posted on my door prior to that day, I had been in there probably 10-15 times since I officially moved. I assume this was just a way for the office manager to cover her --- legally.
In the days following, I went back in the office to collect copies of deposits made and the bill charged to me and after just a minute of sitting in the office managers office, I realize I'm staring at MY white board calendar on HER wall from MY apartment, with MY handwriting still on it! I took a photo of my stolen property and left while she verbally threatened me and told me that I shouldn't have left and left my door unlocked (which I didn't).
I have lived in the same property for the last 5.5 years since I moved out of this apartment with no issues at all. However, I am now (even 5.5 years later) having difficultly renting anywhere because there is an eviction listed in my records. My question is, since I was never taken to court, never forced to leave... wouldn't this at it's worst be a broken lease? How can I go about removing this from my record as it is false? I tried the fair housing department and was told they could not do anything since it is already on my record. Will I be able to fight this and have it removed while I'm living in another state?
Thank you for reading this very long-winded post.
Please be prepared for a fairly long, detailed post. I have a confirmed eviction somewhere on my record, as told to me by several landlords with whom I've tried to rent. What is frustrating me is that I have never been served eviction papers and have never gone to court.
I lived in an apartment complex from January 2011 to April 2012. I was approved within hours and moved in within days. Unfortunately for me, I moved in two doors down from the complex's only maintanence man. At first my experience was fine, this apartment layout was spacious, my neighbors were generally nice. When I ran into the maintanence man the first time, I went out of my way to be polite so as not to start off on the wrong foot with him as I had read tons of negative reviews on the apartment all focused on this person... he was nothing short of rude and this attitude was predominantly on display at every single interaction or even passing in the parking lot from that point on.
While unpleasant, this wasn't the end of the world and I just chalked it up to him being a jerk. After a few months, my air conditioner went out. It took weeks to repair it. This happened every month or two (stretching on for weeks at a time) until I left, which was particularly brutal during the summer in Texas and even in the cooler seasons, my apartment rarely got below 85-90 degrees. Nearing the end of my time at the apartment, out of pure frustration, I called the after hours maintanence and demanded they come fix my air conditioner, because it had only been working for 4 days before going out again. When the after hours guy came, he told me something that I couldn't believe, his exact words were "Your air conditioning works just fine, it's just been turned off from the outside.
I've noticed that before, the maintanence man must be turning it off because he is planning to do some work on it." Which I suppose explains a lot, as the maintanence man is the one who has access to my air conditioner and apparently did not like me. Just frustrating that I paid $150 a month on electric to try to cool my apartment, when the outside unit was just shut off. In February, I got a letter (but no explanation) stating that I would not be able to renew my lease in April (just fine with me), that the letter was official notice to vacate at the end of my lease. I chose to leave on April 8th, due to being able to move into my new place early and only having enough money for that.
However, I wanted the rest of the month to be able to move all of my things and clean up after myself, so I left the utilities on, left my vacuum and cleaning supplies, locked the door and called the apartment to inform them that I was not abandoning the apartment and that I would be back periodically and intended to pay them money owed (which admittedly was the rent for April), clean and leave the keys to them by April 30th. I went to gather things at the apartment 3-4 times a week after the 8th, locking the door after myself after I left, each time. The final plan was to take my SUV on the weekend of April 28th 2012 and do a final gathering of my things and an official clean up. However, on April 27th (Friday), I received a bill in the mail (at my new address) for "trash removal" and "deep cleaning", with move-out reason listed as 'evicted' though there was never any paperwork served to me or posted anywhere. I was afraid that my possessions, most important being photos, teaching supplies and childhood memories, but also expensive appliances were going to be gone. I called the office that Saturday morning and was very rudely told that all of my personal belongings had been thrown out and that they were no longer in the dumpster either.
I was devastated but just had to drive by to see if there was anything left by the dumpster. When I drove by, I noticed some of my stuff on the balcony, so I went to try my key and realized that the lock had been removed, leaving the door wide open. I walked in to find my possessions torn apart, boxes gone through, my things lying everywhere, some broken and many things missing (including my vacuum, all of my husband's tools and work supplies, my soda machine, coffee maker, food processor, pots, pans and other items).
I immediately called the police and a lawyer friend. After my lawyer friend spent all of Monday morning arguing (in writing) with a non-cooperative and extremely rude and evasive office manager, I finally spoke to her myself and was allowed to come gather my personal belongings that still remained. The office manager went with me and when she opened the door, notices were prominently posted on the back stating that I had abandoned my apartment and they reserved the right to trash my stuff, but the annoying thing about this is that very clearly they were just posted prior to me arriving, because there was not one single notice posted on my door prior to that day, I had been in there probably 10-15 times since I officially moved. I assume this was just a way for the office manager to cover her --- legally.
In the days following, I went back in the office to collect copies of deposits made and the bill charged to me and after just a minute of sitting in the office managers office, I realize I'm staring at MY white board calendar on HER wall from MY apartment, with MY handwriting still on it! I took a photo of my stolen property and left while she verbally threatened me and told me that I shouldn't have left and left my door unlocked (which I didn't).
I have lived in the same property for the last 5.5 years since I moved out of this apartment with no issues at all. However, I am now (even 5.5 years later) having difficultly renting anywhere because there is an eviction listed in my records. My question is, since I was never taken to court, never forced to leave... wouldn't this at it's worst be a broken lease? How can I go about removing this from my record as it is false? I tried the fair housing department and was told they could not do anything since it is already on my record. Will I be able to fight this and have it removed while I'm living in another state?
Thank you for reading this very long-winded post.
Unlawful Eviction: What Can You Do About a Bogus Eviction
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire