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Neighborhood
Legal Services, Inc.
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TENANT TIPS
© 1991-2000 by Neighborhood Legal
Services, Inc.
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- If you have a written lease with your landlord, read it to find out what your rights and
responsibilities are in addition to what your landlord must do to evict you.
- Always get a receipt from your landlord when you pay your rent or pay a security
deposit.
- Ask your landlord to put any changes in the terms of your tenancy in writing.
- If you can't pay your rent, tell your landlord and try to work something out.
- When you don't pay your rent and you are a month to month tenant, your landlord must
either ask you for the rent or give you written notice asking you to "either pay the
rent or move in 3 days" before you can be evicted. You must receive a written notice
by regular mail AND certified mail AND one
must be left at your apartment.
- You are not evicted until:
- you receive proper notice from your landlord AND
- you receive court papers from your landlord called A Notice of Petition
telling you when to go to court AND
- a judge grants your landlord an order of eviction AND
- you receive a warrant of eviction from the Marshal or Sheriff's office telling you to
leave the apartment in 72 hours.
- If you have a month to month tenancy, your landlord must give you one full month's
notice if he wants to raise your rent or have you move out of the apartment.
- Before your landlord raises your rent, you must receive one month's notice of this no
later than the day before your rent is normally due.
- If you don't want to pay the rent increase, offer to pay your landlord the original
amount of rent. Should your landlord refuse the rent, hold onto the money! DON'T
SPEND IT!
- Only the Marshal or Sheriff can remove a tenant after the eviction proceedings. It is
illegal for a landlord to remove the tenant even after the warrant of eviction is served
on the tenant.
- Should you receive court papers, a notice to move, a rent increase notice, or have any
questions about housing law, you can contact the Housing Unit of Neighborhood
Legal Services, Inc. at 847-0650. The Housing Unit accepts a
limited number of calls every day Monday through Friday between the hours of 9:00 a.m. -
12:00 p.m. You may be eligible for free legal assistance.
- If you believe your apartment is unsafe, call the Health Department at 881-4052 and/or
the Building Inspector at 851-4949 to do an inspection of your apartment for housing code
violations. Contact the inspector's office after they come out to find out if they are
filing court papers against your landlord to repair any housing code violations.
