We had an agreement to fix house for free rent

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MarcoR
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We had an agreement to fix house for free rent

Post by MarcoR »

We are contacting you about our landlord of the past five years. We had an agreement with this "gentleman", to fix, and remodel the residence in exchange for some rent, and the ability to stay as long as we wished, at the locked in rate. We have upheld our part, as did he for the past five years.
Now we did all this deal on fixing the property for free rent with a handshake, and his word. We were given a prefab lease blank never signed, for use for any programs and such. We were never given an EPA disclosure of lead paint, as this is a 1965 mobile home. He kept the utilities under his name, and we just paid him our rent, and utilities directly. This has been the norm, without conflict, or complaint for five years. He was so happy with what we had done with the upgrade to the house that he would tell us regularly to treat it as our own.
Now recently we heard from some people in the area that he was selling the entire property, which included our residence two apartments, and another mobile home. His brother was residing in the second mobile home. When we approached him about hearing this we were told that "it probably was not going to happen", and "not to worry about it".
Well, his brothers ex-wife, and her new husband purchased the property, and now his nephew is the property manager. He is charging us rent, or trying too, as he is not honoring our agremenet on the repairs we made to live rent free.
The new property manager, the nephew moved his father out and took up residence in the second mobile home. He made came, and collected rent. He spoke of keeping everything the same as it had been.
As of April first, 2022 the nephew came and picked up the rent, and returned with the receipt, and surprise an eviction notice. The notice stated that the new owners, had decided sight unseen that our residence was uninhabitable, and too much liability to insure. We were given sixty days to vacate. The following day the nephew returned to post another notice on the door. This time offering the mobile home to be given to us, If we would move it from the property by the vacate date of June first 2022.
We were in shock as to the eviction, as we are an extremely low income family, with two disabled members. Our daughter is eleven years old and legally blind, and myself, I have a brain tumor, and severe seizures, as well as cancer. We barely get bye, on our daughter SSDI. I have been fighting to get mine for six years.
Through research we found that the mobile home was title locked to the property, had no axles, or younger, and was not legal to be pulled on the road as per Department of Transportation, being it is over 20 years old. We passed this on to the nephew, which he was completely unaware of. He asserted that this was unfortunate, but we would still have to vacate by June first. He stated that the area where our residence is would be being bulldozed. This is when we questioned why he had stated that he would keep things the same, and why only our family were being evicted. The reply was it's not personal, and that the others would soon have to go as well
As the 60 days passed he came on May first and collected only half the rent. His uncle who still had our utilities in his name came and collected what was owed. The nephew informed us that if we were not out of the home by June first, we would owe the other half of Mays rent, and that our utilities would be turned off. The nephew came by on at least three other occasions in May, becoming more aggressive, and belligerent, and loud. He denied the deal of fixing the home.
He told my wife how he was an ex Marine with PTSD, and how he is listed as a Domestic Terrorist. He threatened to have sheriff's office come, and throw us out. My wife explained to him that with my condition, and in our financial situation, we were trying to find a way to move, and somewhere available. She explained to him, that shutting off our utilities would be an act of illegal eviction. That in fact with my health condition, turning off the electricity in the heat of June could quite possibly kill me. The former landlord, and his nephew then went to the provider and terminated our power. We were able to get it restored for a deposit, and we paid the prior owner the remaining months bill. The nephew collected the second half of the rent for May which we had set aside to give him should it become the issue he would try to use to continue evicting us.
When my stated to the nephew that turning off our power was illegal, and could have killed me, the man got upset and loud. Stated that if we wanted to do this the legal way he'd show us about the handshake deal we had on the free rent for the repairs to the property. He then sat in a common drive way in front of our house under a tree with his dog and son stalking us, and giving hard stares at anyone we had coming to see us for help in packing.

After we restored the power he visited again stopping to request one of our neighbors girlfriends to watch his back, as he had to knock on our door. He came to our house in a bulletproof vest. Spoke to my wife and explained how he was armed and could provide a protected storage in a shed in the back of the property to store our belongings if we could just get out now. All this before ever having us served by the court.
Now that we have been served, they have shut off our gas, without any notice. We have paid to have it reinstated in our name. The nephew has come bye on one final time telling my sixteen year old son that he didn't need to get his mom, just to let her know that he was going to begin removing the fence around our yard, and tearing out all the plant life that my wife has spent the last five years cultivating. Making a very nice yard.
All this time my wife has been cordial and professional. She has delt with them solely and directly in person on our front porch. My son usually is right beside her and I am able to see and hear what is happening via a security camera. We do not record on the camera system they are mostly so I can view what is going on. As I have not left the premisis in just over four years, my condition is such that travel in a vehicle or even walking for more than a very short distance is not possible without severe consequences. This is the other reason for having not vacated the residence as of yet.
Now, during our research into the residence, for purposes of moving the mobile home, we discovered that all four of the rental residences on the property are listed as owner occupied. The apartments are not described properly, the values are a very strange anomaly as well, and through public records it shows that the selling price paid to the Uncle was extremely low for a property with four residences.
This property we repaired is directly adjacent to the public middle school sharing a fence down the entire length separating the parking area from our common driveway. It so happens the the school has construction happening, and several of the workers have been indicating, and observing our yard. They have been overheard discussing the need to get to work on our side of the fence.
I believe that would be why we are being removed from our home. We have spoken to one of the other tenants as to if they were being evicted as well. They replied that they are not. I believe this is a discrimination against us of sorts. We have been in touch with Legal Aid, as well as a few other attorneys, which have barley even looked at the situation. They tell us we were month to month tenants, and to just move out. We would gladly leave if there was anywhere else to go. We have not been able to find housing available in our area, and definitely not in our price range. We have filed for emergency assistance with housing, and finance, but there are waiting lists, and lots of hoops to jump through.
We have spent countless hours on the phone and internet, applying and researching everything that we can. We are not lawyers but we have found what seams to be breaches in the law by the prior owner, as well the new owners as to how we were rented the residence, and how this eviction process has been handled. We seek only what can be legally done to extend us the time, and funds to acquire a place to go to. We only wish to see that If they have committed criminal or civil infractions, that we be reimbursed, and they answer for them. So, that they will not do this to another family at a later time.
Please, look into what I have written here about the landlord not honor the deal on the rent for repairs to the home. With as much detail and accuracy as I could, without naming names, or numbers as intend to send this to all that will take the time to read it.
My contact information should anyone wish to inquire the involved parties or amounts, locations, etc.
Cassie_Smith
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Re: We had an agreement to fix house for free rent

Post by Cassie_Smith »

Hello,
My name is Michael. I am in Louisville Kentucky. A tree fell on our home - completely into our home. I had rented this home for 15 years and now the landlord isn't going to rebuild so we are left homeless. I offered to fix it for free rent but the landlord passed after several months.
I have renters insurance but that is now exhausted I have had to pay put of pocket for hotel stays for me and my family. Getting an apartment is no easy task as I am semi Retired and have an issue with my leg that the doctors are trying to help me with. I live off my inheritance that my mother left me when she passed last October and my wife passed right before her in August.
I have been running through this inheritance with hotel stays and we need a home to live in. I have told apartment managers I am willing to pay 6mths lease in advance but I still have to have income proof for 2xs to 3xs the rent even with paying 6m ahead. I plan on getting back to work once we can get a place and things get settled my daughter in law goes to school fulltime so her income is financial aid 3 times a year and it's barely anything to speak of after books and supplies. My grandson is 4 years old and my everything and my son is in a half way house until we have a suitable home he can come to. He owns his own car detailing business but hasn't been able to do that for months because of our situation. So I guess you can see why I can't find a place to house us with no income to show them. But that will change once we have a home and I am still willing to fix it to live rent free or with a discount. I am reaching out to you to see if I can get some help in getting us a place to live the holidays are coming and we don't have a place to call home and live separately in hotel rooms. If you would please email me or give me a call if you can help out situation at all and I am willing to sign an agreement to do this. Thank you for everything have a nice evening!
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