We were told by our landlord that he sold the property and we have to be out by November I st. We were told on September I st. We are both on social security disability and have been looking for other apartments in the Boston area. We have housing and have been here for 8+yrs. We have yet to receive an eviction notice and it's getting cold. What are our rights for the winter months?

You haven't received an eviction notice. Your landlord was courteous enough to give you plenty of notice to vacate.

I'm going to guess that since your landlord gave you an official 60 days notice to vacate, that he knows what he's doing within the legal timelines and that you need to do so.

An actual eviction will most likely follow if you don't vacate. This could cause you to lose your housing voucher.

I'm sure a MA landlord will come on and advise you 'better' but I'm thinking they gave you 2 months notice. You need to find something fast.

I'm not sure where you are thinking that you need to be "evicted" - that's typically a landlords "last effort" ... they are giving you notice that your tenancy is being terminated now.

If they "evict" you - that goes on your record - you get to go to court and STILL get to leave - but now you have an eviction on your record.

I guess it's YOUR CHOICE. Leave on time, return the apartment and grounds in good, clean condition (as good as it was when you first rented it) and most likely receive your Security Deposit back OR stay, "fight" and lose everything. Don't think that because you are on SSI and "can't be evicted in the winter" and that you weren't given an "eviction" notice that you won't be.

Your landlord/owner does not have to advise your housing people ANYTHING. Here - I can't even TALK to them (well, I can try but usually they won't deal with me due to "privacy").

It sounds like you are looking to stay and "play the system" and see how long you can actually live there until you are FORCED out.

Well - I don't know about MA but in NY I would state that come Nov 1st I find that you are still in the property - we would be going to court in November (most likely the week of the 14th - depending on your court systems) and you could be evicted within 72 hours. That then means you become HOMELESS.

Now you "could" try to play the "but Judge - we can't find anything" card - and MAYBE they will allow it but don't count on that. PLUS - the landlord would have to "agree" to anything longer.

So MAYBE you would be able to stay until the end of November (granted that you are paying for November). So you COULD get another 30 days.

However - if the landlord did sell and the sale won't go through until you are out - oh boy - guess who is going to be paying for that? YOU!

My advice? FIND SOMETHING NOW. Hopefully you aren't advising any of the "landlords or Property managers" that you are moving because you are being evicted - because not only are you not (yet) but I know of NO ONE that will take a tenant that was or is in the process of being evicted.

So drop that word from your vocabulary NOW.

If rents are too high where you currently live you will have have to look further away. Like everyone else.

You say you will have a goid reference from your current landlord but not if he is forced to evict you. Do you want to foce him to evict you? If so, this is how the story ends: you will still have to move, but now it will be later into winter AND you will now have an eviction which for some landlords is the kiss of death and they will not rent to you no matter what the reason was.

Get with your housing office and get a new roof over your head while this is easy.

Or don't and be forced to move in the snow with no place to go.

Right to move. Perhaps put your things in storage and stay with family.

Really pretty simple

Fact that its winter doesn't matter.

Fact that you are on disability doesn't matter

Sorry to ask this but you say you got screwed by the system-- do you mean by doing what was right in the first place and reporting- what legally you should report- that you got married? I'm not getting this entitlement thought?

The old "the judge won't evict me in winter" rule went out the window 20 years ago.

Now Winter doesn't matter. I've had a MA judge order tenants OUT the day before Christmas! I've had several others order tenants OUT in January and February.

The landlord sounds like he knows what he's doing. So you have more to lose by fighting against him. Start packing ASAP.

The landlord has given you proper notice to vacate his property. If you stay beyond that and force him to evict you, then you ARE "playing the system" and that is NOT what an "honest" person does.

Your landlord has done nothing wrong here. They have given you proper notice. They have even an excellent reference so that you can find something else. But it is NOT HIS FAULT that rentals are expensive in Boston or that you can't find anything else. It is still his property and you need to leave by the date given.

Again, if you stay beyond that, then you are hurting your landlord that has done nothing wrong. That is not "honest." That is you "screwing your landlord" when he has done nothing wrong -- not the "system" screwing you.

- John...

Adding to what John [MI] said, not only will you be screwing the landlord, but you'll also be screwing yourself by becoming an evicted tenant. No good landlord will trust you. Nor should they.

He gave notice, he's selling the house, your lease is up, proper notice given, and the new owner doesn't want you as a tenant or wants to live in it themselves.

You're going to leave no matter what. Do you want to prolong it, lose money, and harm your reputation, the reputation you'll need to pass screening on a new place?

Read the lease. There may be a clause in there allowing for the lease to be dissolved with a 60 day notice from either party.

It still sounds like a legal notice. My guess, without seeing your lease or talking to your landlord, is that he's doing what's in line with the law/lease. If he wasn't and didn't know what to do, he would be giving you no notice to several days notice and hoping for the best.

With 60 days notice and his lease, he is building his foundation to a case against you , f it comes to that.

All the energy youre putting into fighting to stay could be better spent looking for a new place. If you fight it, you will undoubtedly sour the relationship, make things worse and end up moving anyway.

Elizabeth, it appears that your landlord has given you proper notice to vacate. You must vacate by Nov 1st. The fact that on your welfare housing voucher and budget you "can't find anything" in Boston is irrelevant. Your being one of the most honest people in the world (by your definition meaning not committing disability fraud) is irrelevant. The season of the year is irrelevant.

You say you have a good relationship with your landlord. That will change fast if he needs to evict you, which he will be forced to do.

Life dealt you a crummy hand, I'm sorry. Don't rob from your landlord. Your problems are not his problems.

Can the folks at "housing" help you?

Be realistic, welfare housing tenants, on permanent disability, who are being asked by their landlord to vacate their current situation under any circumstances are extremely unattractive to 90% of landlords. Add in an eviction, even the start of one, and you will become virtually un-rentable.

Elizabeth - sorry to hear about your situation. If you just signed a new 1-year lease in June, you should get some legal advice. There should be some no-cost or low-cost legal aid in your area that can read over your lease for you.

As NE [PA] said, your legal help should check the lease to see if there is a clause allowing your landlord to terminate the lease. If so, and if the landlord gives you the proper notice as specified in the lease, then there isn't much you can do. He is not evicting you, he is simply terminating the lease, and the new owner does not want to sign a new lease with you. If the landlord knew that he was going to sell the house, he may well have put that clause in there.

If there is NO clause in the lease allowing him to terminate, then the landlord cannot terminate the lease, and the new owner is legally required to follow the terms of the lease until it expires, meaning that you can stay there until June of next year.

While your situation is unfortunate for you, you need to keep in mind that this is a business for your landlord, and he has determined that the rental isn't a good business for him any longer. He isn't doing this to be mean to you, and if you have been great tenants, he would likely do what he can to help (recommendations, perhaps telling you of other rentals or landlords that he knows).

You mentioned that if he doesn't want you there, you don't want to stay. That isn't really the issue any more. He is no longer the owner. The new owner is the one who doesn't want you to stay, and he doesn't know you at all. He probably has other plans for the property, and isn't interested in renting it to you. It is not because he doesn't like you, or because you aren't a good tenant. It is because he just spent a lot of money buying the house, and wants to do something else with it (probably wants to live in it himself).

Unfortunately, I was forced to do a similar thing recently. I had a great tenant, who had been there for 5 years. He had never been late on a payment. But I was losing money on the house each month, and was having problems with my property manager to the point that I could not continue to rent to him, and had to sell the house. To make it worse, his wife had passed away a few years earlier, and he had a couple of high school aged boys. I told him that he had to be out in 6 weeks (I only need to give him 30 days notice). He asked if he could stay until the school year ended, but I was unable to do that for several reasons. It was nothing personal against him. But this was my business, and it was losing money. I had no choice but to sell the home immediately. He was disappointed, but he did move out and left the home in great condition, so that I gave him back almost the entire security deposit.

If I were you, I would do the following:

1 - Find some legal aid clinic to review the lease. Tell them that you just signed in it June, but now you are being asked to leave.

2 - If there is no clause in the lease allowing the former or current owner to terminate the lease, then inform both owners that the lease protects you until its legal termination, and you will make plans to leave at that point. But that you will not be leaving now. If the legal clinic will write a letter confirming this, that you can send to the owners, it will help.

3 - If the lease does allow the landlord to terminate it, and if the landlord has given you the proper notice per the terms of the lease -- if the lease says that the notification has to be in writing, then it should be in writing. If it says you must be given 60 days notice, then make sure the notice was given 60 days prior to the termination date -- then I suggest that you prepare to move by November 1. To be quite blunt, the owner (especially the new one) doesn't care if it is cold, or if other places are more expensive. He has given you proper legal notice and expects you to leave. If your current town is too expensive, then you will need to find a cheaper place to live, even if it means moving away. Even to another state. It sounds like money is tight for you, so you should do all you can to keep the property clean and in good shape. Clean it thoroughly when you leave. That way, the landlord will not be forced to take money out of your security deposit to fix or clean the home, and you can receive back the maximum amount.

Elizabeth - your first question in the post was this:

"What are our rights for the winter months?"

We answered it MANY times for you (you don't have one for your situation).

I'm sorry you don't like that answer - but you just don't.

Now it seems that you are coming up with "the rest of the story" ... and asking more questions based on that.

I apologize if I (we) are sounding "rude" and that you are taking offense to this but we are trying to advise you on what to do.

If you have a LEASE and it truly ends in June, 2017 and it DOES NOT have any clauses in it stating that the owner can cancel the lease if sold (or something/anything to that affect) then I would say you would need to leave. Winter has NO BEARING on what is going on.

Get your lease and read it. If you don't understand or have questions regarding your lease - then bring it to an attorney (and since you don't have one on speed dial - I don't either :) - then find one. If you can't afford one and you can use Legal Aid - then show them your lease AND the notice that you were provided about moving by November 1st. GET THEIR OPINION.

Sorry ... that last part should be if it DOES state something to that affect - not DOES NOT.

If it DOES NOT and it truly is a 1 year lease then they can ASK you to leave and you can if you want but they can't FORCE you to leave - as long as you are abiding by the lease. That means: DON'T SCREW UP because they will be waiting for it.

You will be very uncomfortable in this situation if you stay and even though "you are in the right" (maybe) - what's the point? I still would suggest that you keep looking.

I would highly recommend you stop asking us and see a lawyer on Tuesday. They will be better. Bring your lease and the notice.

This isn't personal - so stop thinking it is. It has nothing to do with you, your disability, your marital status or anything. It has to do with the fact that the current owner is selling and the buyer (probably) doesn't want tenants (for whatever reason).

I, personally - WANT tenants (usually) when I purchase a property - because then it is "immediate cash flow". Then again - it depends on many things. We won't get into that here since it really doesn't matter.

Everyone has their own "thoughts" on purchasing investment properties. Some like tenants in place. Some don't.

Hi Elizabeth, you have a few options as others have said. Your best option that will do no damage to your credit and rental history( and will benefit you )is to either continue looking in the Boston area or a cheaper suburb, spend the next week or so looking until you have found a place. Spend a week packing up your items, and the last week moving and cleaning. You can get your deposit back.

Another option is to stay. That is guaranteed to be costly, not only monetarily, but your reputation as a good renter is at stake.

Landlords hate hearing there has been an eviction. That word means there has been defiance, lack of cooperation and resistance towards your landlord. Most won't rent to you for at least 2 years if not longer, so that would make your situation that much worse.

Unfortunately, your landlord needs to sell and 60 days is a VERY good amount of time to give to move, although I'm sure moving must be stressful.

There are many landlords who have been burned by their tenants in similar situations and hopefully you can understand that their comments aren't really personal.

God has a plan for you. Try to look at this as an opportunity to see it.

Hi Elizabeth, I just read your post. First thing is to read your lease and see if there is a clause that says he can just end the year lease with 60 days notice or some other wacky way. If you just signed a year lease in June he cannot just evict you with some sort of notice. Read your lease and then read it 10 more times. If you don't understand it find free legal aid. That would be easy to find with a quick Google search.

Eliz, I am a LL who had to do this too once. I needed the condo for my daughter to live in out by the university. I gave my tenant almost 3 months notice that by 1 Sep she had to be in place to start college, and I needed time to move her in before classes started. My tenant had no service like a housing office to help her--but you do! Make them help you--you are their client! Finding housing for people is what they do. They don't like doing it, but they will if you insist. Also there are "apartment finders services" in every city that does this for a small fee, sometimes it can be paid by the new LL.

Elizabeth,

Ask your Sec8 office about transferring your voucher to a less expensive area.

Make a notebook with nice photos showing how you keep a clean house and yard, with a great letter of reference from your current landlord, a print out of your good payment history, and a copy of your letter to vacate, to prove you are not being evicted.

BRAD

These situations never are easy. No one wants to have to move. But start the process now, save your reputation as a model tenant and don't make it harder on yourself by waiting until the cold winter when it is raining and freezing. Seek legal help for advice to go over your lease. You have received a lot of good advice from all the

Now that it's clear you have a Lease-- well all old bets are off.

My thought has always been-- you can put whatever you want in a lease-- ANYTHING. When you go to court if it's contrary to local law it will be thrown out and you will lose credibility with the court-- not good.

Point being this isn't a happy clause you refer to. I, as a tenant with a lease and voucher or not, would not move until the lease is done.

Why is your residence "cold"? Does it have gas furnaces? The gas company usually comes round to light those upon request.

RIGHT NOW get a letter from the current landlord citing your excellence, if so. you can create a tenant resume. copies of your timely rent checks are a good idea. have the resume ready to deliver instantly in an easy to send email with a legibly completed rental application. go read some of the thread on this site...the recurring theme is we seek solid, long term, rent paying folks that keep the home well. prove you are that and you'll be in good shape.

we will presume that the rental agreement is a month to month...otherwise the lease controls. if you do have a lease that is still in effect the needs of the landlord are immaterial. the lease survive s sale and the new owner is bound. this is one reason my tenants are all month to month.

and DON'T use the word evicted. YOU ARE NOT BEING EVICTED, you were terminated on a sale transfer...VERY different.