What to do about landlord harassment and false accusations?
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What to do about landlord harassment and false accusations?
I am renting a house; it’s a written lease and the lease is for 1 year. The house is owned by a church located right next door. They are threatening to evict me and my boyfriend whose names are on the lease. We have only lived here for 3 months. We have people over pretty often, maybe 2-3 at least once a day sometimes and we usually stay up until around 2-3 am. They sent us a 10 day comply notice for eviction today and claim we are doing drugs, having pets in the house, parking in their parking lot (which we were doing but only 1 car a few days) and disturbing the peace. We haven’t had the police called about any noise related or drug issues so they have no proof as far as I’m concerned. They watch us 24/7 and drive by just to take down license plates and write down what time people arrive and leave. I feel like I’m being harassed and an invasion of my privacy. I don’t feel comfortable here. I don’t understand if they can legally do this?
Asked on September 3, 2011 under Real Estate Law, Washington
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
You need to read your written lease concerning the unit you are renting from the church in that its terms control the obligations you owe the landlord and vice versa in the absence of conflicting state law. If you are current in your lease's rent, you need to read other provisions in the lease that would allow the church landlord to send you an eviction notice.
If you believe that the eviction notice that you received is unwarranted, you need to speak to the person who you leased the unit from about the eviction notice and follow that conversation up with a written letter keeping a copy of such for future reference.
If you feel that you are being harassed by certain people, you need to take the offensive and seek a restraining order against them. Before you do so, you should consult with a landlord tenant attorney regarding the best way to resolve the problem.
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