Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Kansas

Okay now my mother inlaw is mine and my wifes landlord. She has served us a order to quit the residents. She has done this while going through a divorce with her husband. The husband is the original signer of the property. But since the divorce started, she has hax controll of it. My wife than leaves me and the mother in inlaw has my wife deliver the paper. Ok,her reason for the order to quit is on the grounds that the home is unlivable. She says it's unlivable because for 1 there is no running water. But we have not had running water sin fall of 2014. Becuase another trailer was on my water meter. My brother in law,his girlfriend,and their 2 daughters. The land lord expected us to pay the water bill from the leak andfor me to go fix it so as not to leak anymore. Free of charge because it is our home. Then she alsohas me cap off the water going to her sons house. She also says we do not pay rent. But i know for a fact that we agreed on $100.00 a month. Then my father in law wanted to get on our cell phone plan. As part of our of rent we agreed to pay his part of the cell phone bill instead. Also we agreed to pay or had to pay the brother in laws portion of the water bill. So we agreed on $45 a month would be his portion of the warer bill. But we agreed that we would pay his portion of that ter bill as part of our $100 rent. So thats $105 we are paying towards rent. Also the landlord had a tree that fell and busted our power pole during a storm. We were without electricity in the middle of july 2015 for ten days in wich the landlord did nothing to repair and replace it so we had to pwy for the things that needed put onto the new power pole. Also had to do all of the work to have the power pole to specifications of and place pole the land lord had another power pole on the property not being used. So i removed the pole from the ground and transfer it over to where it would sit on my property. And connect evaerything too it at no charge because we were out of electricity for two weeks before the power company would c9me reconnect my power. She also say it is unlivable because of trash all over yard. The trash is coming from my brother in laws home because he doesnt take his trash down to the dumster. Cps had come and told him his home is unfit for children becauase of trash everywhere staring from inside his chain link fence. And he is told to move by cps for no running water and all of the human feces in buckets in the front yard and lawn un kept. My yard is cluttered by branches a tools and crafts and scrap. My wifecdecides to leave me and my landlord serves us the order to quit. In the previous years we have had to pay off water bills that reached as much as $795 due to water leaks from her sons trailer. Is she allowed to kick me off the property? And is there a chance for a counter suit under a slumlord law in wich she did nothing to keep our property livable but in which my wife and i havepaid for and did labor for? And she coersed her daughter to put a restraining order against me so as i could not pack any of my things during the time of the 30 day notice. And she told me that i could not take anything down on the property that i had put up with my own materials. Is she allowed to keep the fence which I built out of supplies that i had been given or purchased? And my chicken coop and duck house i had built with my own supplies and my tin shed with was given to me by a neighbor. And can i counter sue for her not keeping the house livable. Unless i an unlicensed plumber or electrition to take care of.


Asked on 9/22/15, 10:24 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Anthony Smith LawSmith

If the landlord ( your mother-in-law) owns the property, she can terminate the leasehold based upon the rental agreement. It sounds like there is no written lease agreement, and you've been paying others' bills in lieu of paying rent. Under that circumstance, you were given a thirty day notice to vacate. You can take all the things you've added to the property, that haven't become fixtures. That probably means that you can take the tin shed, chicken coop and Duck house. If the fence connects to the side of the house, it probably stays, but you can deduct the value from rent owed. You no.longer have to pay the father-in-law's phone bill, and can bill him for his pirtuobln. The same with the Sun's water bil

If the mother-in-law doesn't own, the property she can only evict you as part of a restraining order, or upon the demand if the landowner. Either way, they'll have to file suit, if you don't leave voluntarily. That is when you can raise the inhabitability as a defense. With no written lease agreement, you probably cannot succeed in bringing it as a Counterclaim.

Good luck

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Answered on 9/24/15, 3:53 am


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