A friend

P

Paul

New Member
Location
Marble,N.C.
I have a beautiful elderly lady friend who owns her first home and rented it out to a tenant. The tenant has been late twice. My friend now has a month to month verbal arrangement with the tenant for payment every month. This lady went to court as to hopefully evict the tenant. The court said no, as long as the tenant gave her the rent plus late fees. We want to buy this house from our friend, but as long as the tenant pays the rent late or not the tenant can still live in the house. The tenant was under a written and signed contract now the tenant is on a verbal contract.

My friend just lost her husband and her mother and is under a lot of stress now with this tenant. I understand written contracts to a point but verbal contracts I do not. With this known how can my friend evict the tenant who is not a very good tenant? My friend is being used. Paul :mad:

P.S. Why cannot my lady friend change her mind from a verbal contract to a written contract? It's her (my friends house).

 

Seems to me that the original written contract should hold as law. Does the contract state exactly what day the rent is due? Did the tenant sign a written contract that's still in her possession? :confused: She can't evict without good reason.
 

That would be one for a lawyer, I'd think. I tend to agree that she should be able to give her tenant notice especially since she wants to sell, unless
it is/was written for a set amount of months or years...then she would have to wait until that time was up.
Just guessing, and don't know if it varies by state. There might be somewhere on the internet where she can find that out, or get free legal advice.
 
Paul, not a lawyer and a lot depends on state laws, but generally speaking if it is a month to month verbal contract your friend is free to put the house on the market and sell it. If it is a lease situation, and the property goes up for sale, the owner of the house would likely have a clause addressing this condition in the contract, usually at least a 30 day notice to vacate upon closing of the sale.

If it's just a verbal contract to rent the house from month to month, I see no reason why she can't give the tenant a 30 day notice to vacate as she is selling the house and needs to get it ready to sell.

Not sure why she would want to change from a verbal to written contract if she wants to sell it. It's always a good thing to have an attorney involved when selling or buying a property.
 
You should be able to look up the landlord/tenant act for your state, which will give you the exact information to evict a tenant. However, as a generl rule, a month-to-month contract can be ended by simply giving the tenant a written 30-day notice. You dont have to give any reason, as long as you give a proper notice, and the tenant does not have a specific lease.
The landlord/tenant law will tell you what the law requires for your state.

There should also be an elder-law attorney that can advise her on this, probably free if she is also low income.
As long as the tenant is paying, and she is accepting the rent, she can't just make him move because he was late paying, but if she gives him a proper notice, then he has to move out, or the sheriff will come and make him leave at the end of the specified time, which is usually 30 days.
 
The tenancy laws are a minefield everywhere, from what I've read even more so in the US. I got out of the leasing game when the laws tipped more and more towards the tenants until it got to the stage where they were doing the owner a favour by occupying their house and we'd be better be damned grateful for them doing it however they damned well pleased.

I'm a bit gobsmacked that a verbal agreement holds any sway at all. Who witnessed the agreement? As I think Sam Goldwyn said, "a verbal agreement ain't worth the paper it's written on". Can't she get a justice of the peace or whatever notary to go with and witness her withdrawing the agreement verbally? Seems it would be as much value. ... but then again, logic doesn't live in the justice system does it?

Confuses me, and a different set of laws and regs here anyway. Even here each State has it's own leasing booby traps so I can imagine the complexity of having 50 state's worth of them. Selling a house with even a long term lease on it is not a real problem here. (Not 'verbal' ones though.)
The lease goes along with the house but that can be a good selling point to another investor, many house sales are advertised bragging about long leases. Depends on the market.
 
I don't think she needs to evict them. I think all she has to do is give them a 30 day notice with a certified letter,they need to move because she is selling the house. She doesn't have grounds for eviction, but a verbal monthly contract should be able to be terminated with 30 day notice. This should be able to be verified with legal aid in your state.

Hope things work out for you and your friend.
 
I would think the same as 30 days verbal agreement means 30 days.. agree with Judi and others need a lawyer.. usually you sign up for a certain lease time and after that its what ever time 3 months or 30 days or what ever to vacate .. thats what it says here in Oz but America might have different laws... but get a lawyer to help or go to the local council if there is one there.. not fair for your poor friend .. if its stressing her out that should hold some grounds to help her.. will be interested to hear how your friend gets on with this.. some tenants are really bad they have no considerations at all..
 

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