Under what circumstances can a tenant be evicted if they have a lease?
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Under what circumstances can a tenant be evicted if they have a lease?
We were 3 friends who roomed together. 2 are 17 years old; I am 21. One of my roommates is my girlfriend and the other is our friend whose grandfather passed and left him a 2 bedroom house (which os where we all live). He asked us to move in a month ago. I had to get the lights in my name. He just did a lease last week for residency proof for me for foodstamps and to register my daughter in school. However, he isn’t on it as a tenant. He’s listed as a landlord only. Now he wants us out for no reason. I feel he used us for beneficial purposes until he was about to make 18 which is next week.
Asked on July 21, 2010 under Real Estate Law, Louisiana
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
A tenant cannot "make himself" a landlord just be writing a lease to that effect, so the key issue is, is he in fact the person you rent from? If he is, he's the landlord and he *may* be able to evict you; if he's not in fact the landlord, he can't evict you--one tenant cannot evict another. (Though note: if he's a tenant but you're subletting from him, he's effectively your landlord for this purpose.)
If he is your landlord, you may only be evicted during a lease's term for (1) nonpayment of rent; (2) breach of some other material or important lease term; or (3) disturbing other tenants or damaging the property excessively or willfully. Landlords cannot simply arbitrarily evict tenants.
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