Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Ohio
I have an apartment (duplex) lease which is in my name only. My boyfriend also lives with me but is not on the lease. His parents, brother and sister came to visit and have not left in over 6 months. I have told them they need to move out but the mother says "she knows her rights and because she has her welfare check mailed to this address she can not be evicted". I have given them a 3 day eviction notice, which they have ignored. I am now ready to file the eviction with the court for the 30 day eviction notice. Can you please give me any advise (other than getting a new boyfriend) on how to make this go as quickly as possible? It sounds as if it will take up to 3 months or more to make this work. My utilities have quadrupled in price since they moved in. They try to pay me "rent" of $400 a month but I have only received a $20 here and there. Nothing in writing. Please help. Thank you.
1 Answer from Attorneys
If you have an oral agreement for the payment of rent, then the 3 day notice process should work. You must be sure that the notice is in the proper form, and is served properly, then wait the correct amount of time before filing an eviction complaint (called a FED in Ohio for Forcible Entry Detainer action). If however, there was no oral agreement for rent, then you need to do a 30 day notice (and serve properly). If you don't do the notice correctly, then everything that follows can be deemed a nullity... In short, spend the money to get an attorney that is local to the court where you can file. The legal fees for evictions are usually very reasonable (attorneys here charge @ $350 for the entire case, and some charge much less than that). If your boyfriend's family is knowledgeable about the process, then not strictly complying with the law can result in your losing the case. This means you'd lose the filing fee, and have to start over. So, do it right the first time.
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