questions & answers

Question: I had a brief relationship with my neighbors son, beginning May 2016-June 2016, and I let him remain in my apartment until recent. We had a verbal agreement that we would split the 3 main bills, rent, electric and cable/internet, fifty fifty. I gave him a receipt for the months of June 2016-January 2017, he got the original and I have the carbon copy in an actual receipt book. I told my ex that he has until the end of February to find another place to live because he is no longer able to pay his share of the bills because they cut his SSI. Can I kick him out without going to court?

Answer: Assuming that you are the lawful tenant of the apartment and your ex was neither on the lease nor granted permission to dwell in the apartment by your landlord, then a formal eviction (for non-payment of rent) of your ex is not necessarily something that you yourself would need or could even request if you wanted to. Nevertheless, because it is possible that your verbal agreement with your ex did create a month-to-month sublease of sorts, you were wise to provide him 30 days notice, which should be sufficient. However, you may wish to restate that notice in writing – in a signed and dated letter (or email) – just to make sure that you have documentation in case he denies ever having received it.