My apartment is threatening to throw me out because of one missed payment! What can I do?

Question

My roommates and I were late paying our rent this month, and I came home yesterday to find a notice posted on the door that we had 48 hours to vacate. This is the first time we've ever been late paying our rent, and the new management refused to take my debit card as payment, which is why it was late in the first place. 

On the day we were going to pay our rent, I gave my roommate my debit card and asked him to go pay since I was leaving before the office opened. He said he had work and would have to get in and get out quick, and I told him that should be fine. When I get out of city limits, he calls me and tells me they refused to take my card since that's the new management's policy. He has to go to work and my other roommate is already at work, and I can't turn around and go home, so we end up being charged a late fee.

Now on top of all this mess, they're telling us we have two days to get out. This is the first time we've been late paying, and this can't be right. I've considered that it may just be their policy to post such notices on late-payer's doors to prompt them to pay faster, but if they're serious, what can I do? How am I protected? How can I defend myself from this?

loanmasterone · Accepted Answer

You or your and your roommates signed  a rental or lease agreement to pay the rent on a certain date of each month. This is  what is legally expected by the landlord, even if the property is sold to another investor. 

The new buyer should have posted or informed all tenants of the change in the method of payment that would be accepted. This, however, is not sufficient excuse for you not to pay your rent on time.

You have used every non acceptable excuse for not paying  your rent in a timely manner.

The notice to move might or might not be legal in your state. You would have to check with the laws of your state to see if this 48 hour notice is legal. Normally a landlord would be required to give you a 3-5 day notice to vacate the rental unit.

Even then if you fail to vacate the property after receiving the 3-5 day notice the landlord would still be required to obtain a legal eviction signed by a judge or commissioner of the court. You would be served with the eviction notice which would give you a date you must absolutely vacate the rental unit. Failure to vacate based on the court order would cause the local law enforcement that take care of evictions to show up at your rental unit and set your household items on the curb.


See if you are able to resolve this before the eviction notice is obtained.

I hope this has been of some benefit to you, good luck.

"FIGHT ON"

Anonymous · Answer

The only relevant facts in your query are 1) you have not paid rent and 2) you have been provided notice to cure or vacate.

The only remedy is to pay rent in full (including the late fee) ASAP, before the notice expires, after which point they don't have to accept anything from you and can proceed with the eviction.

No state that I am aware of requires as little as 48 hours notice; usually it is 3-5 days. You may be able to buy an extra day, but that's about it.

I'm not sure what dream world you're living in that makes you think you somehow get excused for paying rent late. Never is it ok to pay rent late, and you can certainly be evicted the very first time it happens. Your landlord is completely within his rights to disallow debit card payments. You need to be an adult, go to the bank and get cash (if that is the only payment your landlord accepts, which I certainly would after a tenant has been late), and offer your sincerest apologies to your landlord.

M W · Answer

It sounds like there is more going on than just one late rent payment.  There are eviction procedures that have to be followed and surely your landlord knows what they are.

They can evict you for reasons other than late payments,or non-payment.  

If your landlord gave you a 30 day notice a while back and you ignored it, then he went to court and you ignored that also, the 48 hour notice could be the culmination of the eviction process and now you have to pack up and move.

Talk to the landlord and find out what's going on.  We have no idea what you may or may not have done to cause a 48 hour notice.

acermill · Answer

YOU need to understand that your assorted excuses for late payment won't hold up.  As a tenant, you are responsible to have the rents due paid as agreed.  For some odd reason, you seem to think that you should be granted 'a late payment exclusion'  That is not the way it works.

Your landlords are NOT required to accept your debit card offering as payment.  The management can set its own criteria for the form of payment accepted.

You need to find a way to offer immediate and FULL payment to the landlords, hoping that they will drop the eviction process.  Be prepared to bring CASH, and hope that they let you slide.

anonimitie · Answer

Once is enough.  Forty-eight hours to get out is probably not legal.  No one cares what your reasons for being late are.

Read up on the eviction laws for your area.  You are likely being evicted but, probably have more like thirty days to vacate.

castano · Answer

How did she get into your house once you weren't there? If she has a key then she wasn't trespassing. by using the way, i'm tremendously confident she's no longer likely your female buddy anymore in case you slapped her around and he or she called the police.

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My apartment is threatening to throw me out because of one missed payment! What can I do?

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