questions & answers

Question: I have had a friend that lost his home in 2007 and i allowed him to move in with me as long as he does repairs the mobile home and pays rent and utilities! He started out great fixing things around the house, but now is on disability and collects food stamps and eats all day and smokes pot, he has gotten fat and lazy and has brought a pitbull into the house that has bit a couple people and myself with my permission to have in the house and hasnt paid any pet fees and has become a bully and argues with me about heating and cooling the house He has no lease and want him out! Need help asap!

Answer: The fact that you and this individual have no formal written lease is not necessarily relevant to your current situation. Given that he was at one time living with you in exchange for paying rent and utilities and making repairs, he may be considered your tenant nevertheless. If an informal verbal tenancy arrangement does exist, then it would probably be a month-to-month rental agreement. (If the tenant paid rent on a different periodic basis, such as week-to-week, then it would be a week-to-week rental agreement.) When someone wishes to end a month-to-month rental agreement with a tenant, she simply needs to give that tenant 30 days written notice in the form of a signed and dated letter (keeping a copy for her own records). Assuming that you are either the owner or the sole renter of the mobile home, your month-to-month tenant would be required by law to move out by the end of next rental period at least 30 days after receiving your notice. (So, just to be on the safe side, a letter received in late February would have a move-out date of March 31st and a letter received in early March would have a move-out date of April 30, etc.)