Alternate Title: How to Evict Someone the Faux Legal Way
The facts are these:
- I have paid my rent in full and on time each and every month for the entire 29 months I have resided in my current apartment. You know, the one that I had to call Code Enforcement to get them to fix my collapsing ceiling in
- More times than I can count my landlady has stated that I have NOT paid her rent for a given month. Always, no matter what this is my fault.
- Aside from the initial time she claimed this (see below) I have had the ability to prove that a payment has been made — and often that it has even been cashed. (Initially I was using bank checks and sending them certified and for the last year or more I’ve had a bill pay account set up where I can print out the confirmation of the payment which shows with dates, the debit from my checking account, the USPS tracking the mailed check and (if cashed) a copy of the check).
- The first time she claimed my payment was missing she had in fact cashed it and attributed the payment (allegedly by accident) to another tenant’s account. During this time I was switching banks and had no ability to provide proof the payment had cleared and ended up going to court over the matter because I refused to pay her for the same rent twice.
- The several times beyond this basically fall into the pattern of me sending the payment (via verifiable means) and her calling me anywhere from a week to a month later to claim she hasn’t received it. I send her the proof and do a stop payment (which thankfully my bank doesn’t charge a fee for) and meanwhile she’ll petition me for a court appearance.
- If she hasn’t received the second payment in sufficient enough time, she’ll petition me to appear in court whereupon I get to embarrass her in front of a judge by providing proof I’ve paid her and thus getting the fees waived. I end up losing a day of pay, but mostly I feel smug.
- Rinse and repeat ad nauseum.
So, back in June I get the inevitable “haven’t got a payment for this month’s rent” call. I fax off the bill pay confirmation. She in turn sends me a three day present (which has the wrong amount listed as past due) and while the reissuing of the payment is going through the mail I’m petitioned for court in the beginning of July. I present to her lawyer both the proof of the original payment, the proof of the stop payment and the reissuing of the check AND an authorization for the payment to draft from my account along with August’s rent if she STILL hasn’t received it. In the middle of July she calls and wants confirmation her payment was sent, which I fax over. I catch her receptionist in the apartment building the next day who confirms they got said fax.
Three weeks go by.
This morning the receptionist calls me and is obviously being fed lines by the landlady because she keeps having to put me on hold after every sentence. Anyway, she says that they need a payment for the missing rent (which by the way is a slightly lower amount than the payment I actually sent and supposedly owed – if you’re keeping track this is the third amount quoted to me as owed). In fact, they need this payment by tomorrow morning in the form of a money order because they will be going to the sheriff to file for an evicition.
And the only way I can fight this is by waiting for the evicition notice and bring her to court. At my own cost.
Guess what! It’s all totally legal. Here’s how it works:
The payment is made and sent off. (I can prove this.) Maybe it gets lost in the mail; maybe it’s sitting on my landlady’s desk. Either way the payment isn’t cashed, which means my landlady can claim she has not received it. Without having the payment in their account she can then go to the sheriff and get a Warrant of Eviction on the grounds of non-payment of rent. Once the sheriff hands me that evicition, I can then go off to the town hall and file a court petition of my own and during that court date I can present the judge with my proof of payment.
Or, and this is seeming the less evil of my choices, I can let the bitch evict me and have my lease broken and move out. Given that my lease doesn’t expire until APRIL, I’m giving this option serious thought. Of course, I need an alternate place to live — and so far my only option is my mother’s, which is its own kettle of crazy and somehow looking like it would still be a better option. (Well aside from the actual moving, which I detest.) [EDIT: To clarify, I'm talking about moving back into my previous living situation wherein I rented half of my mother's two-family house. There's a whole story behind that but basically I moved because it was a pita getting back and forth to work.]
So, in short: No, I don’t know what I will do. Mostly, I want to cry at the injustice that is my life. Also, I want to punch people.
