Your landlord cannot end your tenancy without a good cause and especially without the blessing of the court. If you have received a notice of termination even before the due date of the rent, you must have violated some serious policies on the tenancy agreements. Else your landlord might be harassing you. Either way, you need to know the cause of the action.
Below are some of the specific reasons why you can legally be terminated even before the closing date of the rent agreement.
- You have been caught of drug activities within and around the rented unit.
- You have caused serious damage on the rented unit and on the neighboring property.
- You have caused injury to the landlord, to the agent, or on one of the neighbors.
- You have threatened, abuse, intimidated, or harassed the landlord.
- The landlord has undue problems.
- You have occupied the same unit for 20 years and more.
- The property is no longer legally defined “usable for residence”.
- The property was acquired by a compulsory process.
If you have received a notice of termination for reasons not mentioned above, you can file a complaint against your landlord for harassment or threats, which you can raise to the court. Your landlord is clearly violating your divine right for enjoyment. Hence, he or she is in violation of Federal and statutory laws. With luck he may think you’re not aware of your rights. To crucify him legally, what you need to do are the following:
- Hire a lawyer immediately. Specifically hire an attorney who specializes in landlord-tenant laws.
- Document the harassment. Produce pictures and videos of the forms of harassment that your landlord is doing to you.
- Take note of the manner to which the notice of termination was served. A landlord must follow specific process of serving the notice.
- If the landlord is already threatening to change the locks, call the police.
