Rent

[Tater Tot]

Laws concerning landlord/tenant vary from state to state but the consistent theme is that tenants have certain rights and there is a legal process that must be followed in order to evict them. Consequently, collecting rent from your adult children may not be in your best interest because you can't force them to leave immediately for not following your rules. In the eyes of the law in most states, they are seen as tenants because they pay rent. What I was told is under no circumstances allow your adult children living with you to pay rent of any kind. Tell them you expect them to contribute to household expenses. You can give them certain bills to pay like the electric or phone bill. It is better if they pay you the amount and you pay the bill so if/when your child's check bounces it isn't on your credit history. Or you can tell your child you expect a certain dollar amount each week or month toward household expenses.

Following this advice will allow you to maintain control of your household with the option of immediate consequences for not following your rules.

It makes me very sad we have to know these things.

 

[helpangel]

In Michigan there are squatters rights also so rent isn't even a factor; there have been people who bought houses to discover people living in them that had to go thru 90day eviction thru the courts to get them out of there (even when they had no right to be there to begin with).

All I know is if I had deed to the house I would be in there, squatters move over cause me, my gun and a couple big dogs are here to stay and the minute they leave the locks are getting changed.

In Michigan if someone gets mail there it establishes residency, even with no mail can have problems. I let a homeless woman and her kid stay with me in for 2 weeks in 2002 and in 2006 saw in CPS paperwork they had my address still listed as her current address.

Here if you need someone out of your house and the cops are there remember these words "they threatened me and I fear for my life if they stay here" it's the only way I know of to get them out without them going to jail for assault.

What really gets me is when someone has clearly flipped their lid unless they assault someone the cops do nothing here. Cops looking at hundreds/thousands worth of property damage and they do nothing here - unless they assaulted someone then they go to jail even if the person they assaulted states they need psychiatric hospital - first they go to jail.

Nancy

 

[DammitJanet]

This is something I really looked into hard because of Tony's brother landing on our doorstep with all of his belongings. I didnt give my consent to him living with us but I was overruled. I did make sure he didnt pay us rent...well he had no money to do that anyway. We did take a lot of his back food stamps when he finally got them because we had been feeding him for 4 months by the time he got them. I always made him list our address as a mailing address. I do know he put our address on his driver's license but I couldnt do anything about that.

I talked to a cop and they told me that as long as it was understood between both of us that this was not his permanent residence then I could get him out with a 3 day notice and I immediately gave him one. I gave him one that said as soon as he got his disability...or got the denial notice....he had to leave within 3 days. I actually gave him 5 days in the end. He really didnt want to leave but every day after he got his disability I wouldnt get off his case by asking him daily if he had his stuff packed up. The day it was all packed and he was supposed to leave, I went out to the family room every hour and asked why he was still here? It actually got somewhat amusing as each time I went out there I asked this. By about 5 pm I asked him if I needed to call someone to come get him because I would call the law at 7.

 

[Kathy813]

Georgia is another state that honors squatter's rights. My difficult child has never paid us any rent and when we tried to kick her out she announced that we couldn't do that without going through the eviction process (she had heard this from other drug using difficult children). We didn't believe her and called the police and to our utter astonishment we were told she was right.

Even though she had never paid rent and was stealing from us and bringing drugs into our home, we would have had to go to the court system and go through the formal eviction process to make her leave. In Georgia, it is 30 days notice. The only way that we were finally able to make her leave immediately was to go to the court and get a temporary protection order. The judge said that bringing heroin into our house was reason enough for him to grant the order and send deputies to our house to make her leave.

It varies from state to state so it really pays to get informed before you get to that point.

~Kathy

 

[CrazyinVA]

Rent doesn't matter in VA, either. Learned that when I tried to kick Oldest out years ago. I was told by the police and the magistrate's office that since she had been living there and and basically "established residency," I would have to go through a formal eviction process to get her out. In my case, it finally came to a head when she started raging and throwing furniture at me one night -- I called 911, they came, she tried to run/fight them, and they cuffed her right on my utility room floor. No charges pressed, and she voluntarily moved out that night.

I'd definitely double-check laws in your state.