State Specific Question About: KANSAS (KS)

The landlord just surprised us with the news of selling the house. It is a month to month contract and we are not asked to leave, nor is it clear if and how long we can stay. They didn't ask to vacate. So there was no 30 days notice. We're just confronted with unclear and unfair demends. Telling us what to do and what we can't do. No options or rights for us right now.

The realtor put a lockbox on our door last night without our knowledge.

We tried to talk to the landlord to let us out of the contract early, but he said no. 30 day notice.

If we would've a long term lease, we would be more protected it seems. This way around we just have to deal with the news and with what's going on. No option or anything. Online I can only find examples for tenants being asked to vacate. But we weren't. "We might stay..." is what it said.

I'm trying desperately to find a loophole to get out of here.

- The contract was only signed by my husband. No landlord signature.

- We never got the lead paint pamphlet.

- No walk through within the first 5 days of renting with the landlord to check the inventory.

- The last two letter we received don't have a date nor signature.

-I guess the gas/heater has to be maintained once a year, but wasn't done in the almost 12 month we live here.

-The water pressure sucks.

- Nothing about selling the house and who has which rights in the contract.

- Lockbox on the front door without notification.

That's all I can think of right now. Maybe something will help to move out. Maybe someone has an idea what we could do. I appreciate any advice and ideas. Thanks in advance.

Clementine, this is a land lord website, not a free legal advice for tenants site, so you'd probably do better to go elsewhere and/or speak to an attorney who specializes in land lord/tenant issues in your state (it's state specific law), but I'll give it a shot.

Generally speaking, the land lord has the right to sell the property whenever, wherever and to whomever. They are not obliged to ask your permission to put up a sign, a lock box, or conduct showings. Many LLs don't tell tenants when a property is being sold because they don't want the tenant panicking and moving out without giving proper notice. They don't owe you notice that they are selling. They only owe you notice if they are terminating your month to month rental agreement. Same as you owe them.

The Buyer will be bound to honor the terms of your existing agreement whether those are a lease or month to month. If it isn't in writing, it never happened...your word vs. LL's word.

You list of grievances have no bearing on the sale of the property. Work those out with your current or new land lord.

Tread carefully. Tenants sometimes decide that land lords owe them things that they never agreed to in writing, and then when their false expectations go unmet, they do something silly like move out without notice or try to withhold the rent, or they'll play games and try to prevent showing prospective buyers. Any/all of those acts can get you evicted. An eviction will stay on your record your entire life. They don't fall off your background report like bankruptcies fall off your credit report. Do not...I repeat...do NOT give your land lord any cause to evict you. Pay your rent. Give your 30 days notice if desired, and permit showings during reasonable hours (typically 7 am - 7 pm) in my state.

Well, get ready to move. You weren't asked to go, but you can see it's coming.

Your energy will be better spent on dusting off your "good tenant resume", saving a few bucks for a new security and rent and spending the evenings and weekends researching and viewing units so you

don't have to make a split second decision in a few weeks or months and end up moving into a unit you don't like.

Make the landlord an offer on the house if you like it that much.

Also, you will have better luck finding a new place by providing a provable employment history, rent payment history, landlord references and personal references. Be clean and respectful when viewing units. Don't make demands. If it's not what you're looking for, find another place.

Don't hide the fact that you have pets if you indeed have them.

No, you can't paint!

I didn't sleep much and posted it accidentally in the totally wrong forum.

I appreciate your responses. Not so much being treated like the typical problem renter.

Yes I panic right now, cause all of this is new to me and affects my life quite a bit.

No, I don't plan on painting. I didn't even put one nail in the wall the entire year.

I was busting my butt last week to make everything spotless when the landlord had the realtor over. We even left and took the dog with us for 40 minutes, even we were offered to stay if we wanted to.

I'm not going to bash the landlord infront of anyone. Those people have nothing to do with my current situation. They just want to look at a house.

Thanks for judging me and putting a lable on me.

I'm just really frightened right now and super tired.

Maybe someone could just delete my post. I didn't mean to start anything negative here.

You are on a Landlord sight, and live in Kansas, which is, I believe, a landlord friendly state. So, here is what you complained about and my responses, from another LL Friendly state:

The landlord just surprised us with the news of selling the house.

It is the property owners choice to sell. He or she doesn't need permission.

It is a month to month contract and we are not asked to leave, nor is it clear if and how long we can stay. They didn't ask to vacate. So there was no 30 days notice.

So, it sounds as though you are welcome to stay while the home is for sale. If you'd like to move, then give notice now that on May 31 by the end of the day, you'll be out of the home. Then start looking.

We're just confronted with unclear and unfair demends. Telling us what to do and what we can't do. No options or rights for us right now.

Like what?

The realtor put a lockbox on our door last night without our knowledge.

And? The property owner decided to allow it. They have the right to sell the home, and a lockbox is standard. The real estate agent may ask you not to be in the home when it is being shown, but they probably cannot require this. You do have to allow showings with notifications, though. 24hours is customary.

We tried to talk to the landlord to let us out of the contract early, but he said no. 30 day notice.

So? You need to live somewhere. You can give notice now that you are moving out at the end of May. It is highly unlikely that the home will sell and close before May 31.

If we would've a long term lease, we would be more protected it seems.

Nothing would change if you had a long term lease. The lease would just go to the new owner. The current owner still has the right to sell, and you are likely required to allow a showing.

This way around we just have to deal with the news and with what's going on. No option or anything. Online I can only find examples for tenants being asked to vacate. But we weren't. "We might stay..." is what it said.

And you might get a 30 day notice to move out on May 1 or June 1 or August 1, if the house sells and the new owners want to move in. The purchase agreement may include that the home be turned over vacant. And? Nothing wrong with that. Or, an investor may purchase it and you may get a request to re-apply, and find out that 30 days later you get a notice to move out, or a notice your rent is going up $100 a month. That is all legal.

I'm trying desperately to find a loophole to get out of here.

There are not any.

- The contract was only signed by my husband. No landlord signature.

On the copy you have, maybe. I'm sure the LL has a copy with your husband's signature and his own.

- We never got the lead paint pamphlet.

Was your home built after 1978? If it was built after 1978, you do not need a lead paint pamphlet. Were you asked to sign something saying you given a lead paint pamphlet?

- No walk through within the first 5 days of renting with the landlord to check the inventory.

This is not always a standard. Were you given a document to record problems on? Did you send it in? Or, might your LL have taken 200 photos of the home?

- The last two letter we received don't have a date nor signature.

So? What does that matter?

-I guess the gas/heater has to be maintained once a year, but wasn't done in the almost 12 month we live here.

Not everyone has a furnace serviced every year. My parents never did in the home they owned. I cannot remember any time in my life they did. Don't like it? Give notice and move out.

-The water pressure sucks.

So? Give notice and move out.

- Nothing about selling the house and who has which rights in the contract.

You have no rights here other than what the law provides. The law allows the LL to sell the home. He doesn't need your permission. You have the right to live there until you are given notice, after which you have the right to move out or be forcibly moved out.

- Lockbox on the front door without notification.

And? So what?

You're in a month-to-month situation. 99 times out of 100, it works out in the tenant's favor-- being able to pull up stakes and get on with where life takes you, with just 30 days' notice. But then there's that 1 time out of 100 when it works in the landlord's favor-- when they, for some mysterious reason, decide to up and sell a perfectly good house with perfectly good tenants for $x, rather than enjoying a steady stream of $y per month.

So--- you're in a house, and now you're looking for things wrong to find a loophole. Rather than putting your energy into constructing an argument that basically says, "You're a terrible landlord, not giving us a lead certificate and not doing an annual maintenance on the hot water heater, with terrible water pressure, and you don't sign your correspondence--- we want to keep staying here!", you ought to take your money and go put it somewhere more deserving.

So, look at what your finances can support. If you want 100% control, you might consider buying a place. Is your credit in a good enough situation where you can get a mortgage? Do you have enough in savings where you can put together a down payment?

Otherwise, you'll need to look at switching one rental for another. And, as you see, rentals have varying levels of protection. You can go for a big commercial apartment complex with year-long leases... but you also know that commercial places aren't timid about huge rent hikes at the lease renewal. Likewise, you can go for a small mom-and-pop place... but the mom-and-pop places also come with landlords who don't have the most professional business practices, who are a toss-up when it comes to their responsiveness, and who sometimes get wild ideas that affect your life.

You can try for a place that requires a year-long lease... unless your situation is such where you prefer having that month-to-month, so that, say, if you get that job offer you've been trying for in that other city, you'd be able to accept and relocate with 30 days' notice to your current ll.

Clementine of KS, IF you want more control over the house. Apply for a loan at your local bank. Now if you have all your loan documents and supporting documents in order and qualify for the purchase price of the house. Put your offer in writing, if it's accepted then you will have several things to do between now and closing. Once closing occurs welcome to homeownership!

HOWEVER, if you can not afford to purchase the home then you are a renter. AND you have several choices: 1st is give 30 day notice and move to a new house. However, I highly suggest you keep the house clean and in showing condition during the time the house is on the market. Make the house available to the real estate agents and I highly suggest you don't tell the owner and agent to not show the house while you are living there. IF you decide to do this then the new owner may not decide to continue your lease. You can ask the realtor questions about the showings and showing time frame. IF you have any valuables hide them.

Another option is you could move out immediately and this will look bad IF your new prospective landlord calls your present landlord.

If the contract was not signed by both parties, then it is not likely to be recognized as a lease contract. If the landlord exhibits a copy signed by both parties, then a court would have to decide if it is binding on the parties. If it can be shown that the landlord never gave you a copy of the federally required pamphlet, then that could be used against him in the argument over a lease contract. If you have copies of letters from him also unsigned, then a judge might rule against him over having signed/not signed the lease.

If there is no lease contract, the tenancy is month-to-month and YOU can give 30 days notice and then leave, which you say is what you want to do.

I would think that putting a lockbox on your door without your consent would constitute a violation of your right to quiet enjoyment of the dwelling, but I don;t know about any law precedents, KS or CA. CA law DOES require a deadbolt on the door. Although the law does not say that landlord cannot give a key to some potential buyer, I would expect that a judge would read some expectation of privacy into the law. Actually, the CA Constitution promises privacy, so that a judge could use that to find the landlord guilty of breach of privacy for passing around a key to your dwelling.

As JR points out, check KS law to see exactly under what conditions a landlord may enter a tenant's dwelling.

So they put a lockbox on your front door so that anyone can come in and look at the place with your possessions in it. Right now today, take all of your valuables out and lock them in your car. People who come to look at places for sale will try to find your purse or wallet and will take small items. I had two of them when I sold my house myself try to look under my bed and were looking around in an odd way and I figured out what they were doing. Take any small items like vases, figurines etc and get them in a box under your bed or back of a closet.

If this is a month to month lease maybe you want to give 30 days notice and move yourself. So sorry this happened to you. They didn't give you enough notice because they did not want you to move out. Do you have relatives nearby that you could stay with? They should have to give you 24 hours notice before entering and then hopefully you can have an adult there when they come in.

Clem, a lot of this unknown stuff looks scary--BUT--a lot of it may not even happen. Personally I would never put a lock box on an occupied property because I would treat others the way I would want to be treated. So since I would never want the possibility of a stranger entering while I was living there and paying rent, I would not do it to someone else. It may be legal and covered in the rental agreement, but *I* wouldn't do it.

However, just because the lockbox is there doesn't mean it is going to be abused. Realtors require certification and have a code of ethics, and seldom do anything that will get reported badly to their management. They KNOW that a 24 notice is required.

There may be very few showings, and there may be no sale! Just because the LL wants to sell doesn't mean a buyer wants to buy. If the house doesn't sell, he will be glad he still has tenants.

Another thought, maybe the buyers are investors that will be happy for a paying tenant already in the property, and you won't move at all.

I think the LL didn't give you much information because he just doesn't have anything concrete to say at this point. He does not want you to vacate. That's all you need to know for right now, so just stay there till more information is forthcoming. Poor communication on his part has created panic on your part--but that panic is not called for at this point.

Be cooperative, secure your valuables, and at some point you may need a 'good-tenant letter' from him. Or the new owners may ask you to either stay or vacate and give you the same 30 days required in your rental agreement.