Questions about roommate

tk was me!

I am about to tell my roommate to move out after living together for little over 5 years. Things got very weird over a past year and I hardly communicate with her anymore. She has a tendency to attract guys with no apartment so they end up living here or spend way too much time here. I wanted to be reasonable since I bring my boyfriend here too but I go and spend night at his place but my roommate and her boyfriend don't. We never really made a rule about that situation and I have told her a few times about the issue but she got really upset and told me that she doesn't think they are invading my privacy since they stay her room all the time. I am tired of this situation so I am going to tell her to move out. Lease in in my name but after living over 5 years together with no contract or anything in writing, would she have any right to say no?

apollonia666

I think since the lease is in your name you're fine legally. As far as keeping this civil until she's gone, though, you're going to have to tread carefully, and it's possible that she's going to be nasty and angry no matter what you do. I'd try to approach her at a time when she's not terribly stressed out and do it as calmly as possible, and perhaps tell her you'd like to work together to set a date for her to be out that gives her time to find another place.


You don't say whether you have another new roommate in mind, but if you have a firm move-in date for the new person that creates a deadline she can't weasel out of. Do you know her financial situation and whether she can afford to move soon? I'd say a month's notice is reasonable, and beyond that is being generous -- which may be for the best to keep things peaceful. Just depends on how tense the situation is and how much you can stand.

Ugh, this sounds like such an unpleasant situation. Sorry you're going through this.

sje

Appollonia is giving good advice. Your roommate has to go if you ask her to, if the lease is in your name. That being said, I also would do it as calmly and smoothly as possible, yet stick up for yourself. Maybe tell her that your boyfriend is moving in and you need the room {whether true or not}, and a deadline is also key.

Good luck!

paraderest

She doesn't have to go. She has lived there for more than 30 days and now you will have to go to landlord/tenant court to evict her. The Kings County landlord/tenant court is located at 141 Livingston Street.

tk was me!

Thanks for your advices. I was going to give her until June 1st, if she needed more time, I would discuss with her. I want to be civil and reasonable. I really want to avoid going to court..

apollonia666

ParadeRest wrote: She doesn't have to go. She has lived there for more than 30 days and now you will have to go to landlord/tenant court to evict her. The Kings County landlord/tenant court is located at 141 Livingston Street.

ParadeRest is right that she doesn't have to go, but you don't have to go to court if she agrees to move out voluntarily. Check this out (I added boldface to the paragraph below):

http://www.tenant.net/alerts/articles/roommates.html

If you are the tenant of record and your roommate is not, and you would like your roommate to leave, and your roommate has been in the apartment for more than 30 days, and your roommate refuses to leave voluntarily, then, unfortunately, you have only one recourse -- a formal eviction proceeding. This writer does not prosecute (only defends) eviction proceedings. The law does not require that you be represented by a lawyer in Housing Court, and the Court provides assistance to parties without lawyers. However, without a lawyer it may be more difficult to get the results you want. There are many lawyers in the City of New York who make their living prosecuting eviction proceedings.

I'd suggest not filing formal eviction proceedings immediately. See if you can work it out amicably first. If it were me, I wouldn't even bring up the possibility of going to court with her at all at first -- that might just escalate things WAY farther than they might otherwise go. And I think June 1 is really generous and gives her plenty of time to get her act together to move, so maybe that'll make this go a little easier.

You might also look at the Tenant's Rights Guide the NY Attorney General's office publishes:
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/realestate/tenants_rights_guide.html

sje

Really? If a roommate has no lease and just lives there for more than 30 days they don't HAVE to go? I question that. Because if you have no lease on an apartment, your landlord can give you a 30 days notice, so why should a roommate has more rights than a primary renter? Of course, a lawyer can tell you difinitively. Hope you don't have to go to court, that's a long, miserable drawn out process, not to mention the tension in the apartment while it's going on.

idlewild

If she payed any rent, any at all to the landlord the court may see her as an equal and legal tenant of your apartment. The link Apollonia has posted is pretty good.

sje

Idlewild wrote: If she payed any rent, any at all to the landlord the court may see her as an equal and legal tenant of your apartment. The link Apollonia has posted is pretty good.

Roommates sublease from the primary tenant, if she's not on the original lease, she's not an equal tenant. I would love to know the actual reality of the law on this one, just out of curiousity. Please keep us up to date, tk.

paraderest

People refuse to leave all the time. >30 days = LLT court if she refuses to go. Lets suppose a person has no lease and the landlord gives them 30 days notice to leave. They can refuse to leave and force the lanlord to file a formal eviction and that takes months. The lease only stops the landlord from forcing you out early and from increasing the rent. Nowadays, a lease doesn't mean much. Alot of people end up in court.

idlewild

sje wrote: [quote=Idlewild]If she payed any rent, any at all to the landlord the court may see her as an equal and legal tenant of your apartment. The link Apollonia has posted is pretty good.

Roommates sublease from the primary tenant, if she's not on the original lease, she's not an equal tenant. I would love to know the actual reality of the law on this one, just out of curiousity. Please keep us up to date, tk.

Doesn't matter. If the roommate pays rent to the landlord instead of the roommate as agreed upon, and the landlord accepts the rent and the signatory on the lease also accepts that the roommate made the direct payment to the landlord then the roommate can make the argument that she is now of equal status to the signatory.

anfield

wow, 5 years is a long time. Just tell her the truth... you're sick of the sight of her... and him and him and him...

livetotravel

Make sure to view Single White Female before making any final decisions!

The 30 day notice rule definitely applies here.

brooklynpotter

ok, most people don't know these laws. likely, the roommate doesn't. she'll assume, as most people would, that if the leaseholder/roommate wants her to go she should go. so before getting into a tizzy, why not wait and see what happens? personally, i wouldn't want to live someplace where i wasn't wanted... (though it seems i already do, but i own this place, dammit)

back to point, tk., where are you on this?