eviction update
We've looked up residency laws and talked to the lawyer in charge of our case.
good news: the letter we received was not legally an eviction notice; it was a request to vacate. An eviction notice can only be delivered by a court. So if we say no, they have to go through a bunch of legal hoops and we can drag it out by contesting just about everything along the way. Then when they actually give us an eviction notice, we can say we've got no place to go and can get up to six months to look for a new place. They want us out in two months, so we only need to extend it another three before we'll be ready to move anyway.
but: we may need to hire a lawyer and that may cost more than we can really afford to spend. If we say we can't afford to move, they can't us out easily, but Ron has to keep trying to make payments so that it doesn't ruin his credit and says they'll try to report him anyway and he'll have to clean it up with a big hassle to fix his credit again. If we do decide to move, it would benefit Remax to place us with one of their other clients, and we may not have to pay first and last months rent when we move in.
the lawyer said that the bank is not interested in being a landlord and dealing with tenants, so they absolutely want the house emptied. Ron told him that we only want to stay until august and will fight eviction until then, so it's less of a headache for the bank just to let us stay. He said he'll tell his clients that.
the main question is if we'll need a lawyer, how much it will cost, and if we can really afford to pay for it.
good news: the letter we received was not legally an eviction notice; it was a request to vacate. An eviction notice can only be delivered by a court. So if we say no, they have to go through a bunch of legal hoops and we can drag it out by contesting just about everything along the way. Then when they actually give us an eviction notice, we can say we've got no place to go and can get up to six months to look for a new place. They want us out in two months, so we only need to extend it another three before we'll be ready to move anyway.
but: we may need to hire a lawyer and that may cost more than we can really afford to spend. If we say we can't afford to move, they can't us out easily, but Ron has to keep trying to make payments so that it doesn't ruin his credit and says they'll try to report him anyway and he'll have to clean it up with a big hassle to fix his credit again. If we do decide to move, it would benefit Remax to place us with one of their other clients, and we may not have to pay first and last months rent when we move in.
the lawyer said that the bank is not interested in being a landlord and dealing with tenants, so they absolutely want the house emptied. Ron told him that we only want to stay until august and will fight eviction until then, so it's less of a headache for the bank just to let us stay. He said he'll tell his clients that.
the main question is if we'll need a lawyer, how much it will cost, and if we can really afford to pay for it.