Alright, folks. I am a single mom who was renting a townhouse apartment in Beaverton, Oregon. Trying to cut costs a bit, I decided to get a roommate. I posted an ad on Craigslist and got a hit from a woman (let's call her Ally) who came over to view the place. She seemed relatively normal, passed a criminal background check, and was able to provide me with recent pay stubs. I agreed to let her move in and told her that she just needed to get her name on the lease within two weeks (per my lease agreement).
A week after moving in, I received a call from Child Protective Services, stating that they were concerned for the safety and well being of my three year old daughter. Obviously, I was super confused, so the caseworker explained that she had been informed by Ally's mom that Ally had moved into an apartment providing childcare in exchange for rent and that Ally has a long history with DHS due to child abuse and neglect charges against her own two children that have been removed from her custody. I immediately explained that a) my daughter comes to work with me everyday (I work at a preschool), b) I had NO idea that Ally had that type of history (Ally has never been arrested for the abuse and neglect, so it didn't show up on a background check), and c) that I was under the impression that Ally had a job and could pay rent that way.
Right after that phone call, I sent a text to Ally telling her that she needed to find a new place to live in the next two weeks. In the meantime, my daughter and I stayed with family. Ally wasn't happy about it, but she agreed. The night before Ally was supposed to be out of the apartment, she sent me a text stating that she had rights and that she wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon. I called the police, but they told me that even though she wasn't on the lease, she had "established residence" and that I would have to file for a legal eviction notice with the courts (and pay the hefty filing fees).
I called my apartment manager and explained the situation to her as well, but she told me that since I had an "unauthorized tenant" living in the apartment, I was going to receive a 72-hour eviction notice, but if I broke my lease ($1600 fee), I could save myself from having an eviction on my record and the complex would handle the eviction process of Ally. So, that's what I did and I terminated my lease on April 1st by handing in my keys and giving a written notice of my intent to terminate the lease.
Meanwhile, after I moved my daughter and I out, Ally moved in her boyfriend (whom she has a no-contact order with due to prior domestic abuse issues), her two dogs, a parrot, and her 3 adult bunnies (who quickly multiplied).
Well, after eviction notices, court appearances, and finally changed locks, Ally and her boyfriend moved out on June 30th... nearly 3 months after I moved out. I am now being footed the bill for those three months of rent (1150/month), the apartment's electricity (even though I turned off the electricity from the electric company), storage fees (due to the things that they left behind when they finally moved out), and an estimated $8000 in damages (upstairs carpeting and downstairs kitchen linoleum has to be completely replaced, due to massive amounts of bunny feces and urine, several doors and walls need to be replaced/repaired due to holes, plumbing repair due to them flushing something down the toilet that busted a pipe, and a new refrigerator, since the door was broken off) because she was not on the lease.
I have spoken briefly with an attorney, but he said that since it was my name and I "violated the lease agreement" by moving someone in that wasn't on the lease (even though she was supposed to get on it within the two weeks), I probably don't have much of a chance against the apartment complex. He suggested that I could sue Ally, but she doesn't have any money to speak of (apparently she forged the pay stubs she gave me and hasn't worked in over three years) and I don't want to dig my hole deeper by adding on a bunch of court and attorney costs.
What do I do...???
Submitted July 15, 2017 at 08:52AM by k-eats-cake http://ift.tt/2ujMvSQ legaladvice
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