U.S. - &quot;tough love&quot; eviction of child (non-minor, not paying rent) I have a 22-year-old son living at home. My wife and I presented him with a contract to sign; the contract communicated &ndash; and we also communicated this verbally &ndash; that his continued residence was contingent on his signing the contract and abiding by its terms &ndash; otherwise he had 30 days to vacate the premises. He refused to sign the contract. It has been more than 30 days; I told him three days ago that he had three days to vacate (if we rounded to the nearest day that grace period would be up tonight at midnight). He is not paying rent. (In fact, one of the stipulations on the contract was that he should kick in some money for food/household expenses on a regular basis.) What are my rights / responsibilities in this situation? Since there is no rental agreement in place ... do I need to serve written notice? ... would I need to file court paperwork? I am not looking for specific legal advice, more for a general outline of what (not) to do. We reside in Ohio if that helps.
Before you go changing locks, you might want to hire an attorney. There is law in Ohio that governs "such" relationship, which are typically landlord-tenant relationships, but might not be strictly construed the way you'd prefer. In a classic landlord-tenant relationship, it is illegal to change locks on a tenant, and if you want a tenant booted out, you have to go through the court process and get the court to order an eviction (carried out by the sheriff). A landlord-tenant relationship need not involve a written lease, all that matters is having an agreement. On the face of it, it looks to me as though you agreed to let your son live there, and his attorney would no doubt point to whatever benefit you received from allowing your son to live there as "consideration" in this verbal (vague) contract. The exact terms of that contract don't matter: what matters is that state law limits what you can do. You can read ORC here on the topic of evictions. Actually physically removing a person is a crime (battery), so definitely don't do that. Lockouts have been illegal since 1973. You no doubt can show the court that your son is now effectively a trespasser, but he clearly did not break in without permission, so the bottom line is probably a visit to the court (unless a letter from the attorney resolves the matter). Alternatively, it could be simpler and cheaper to just go directly for the court process. There are professionally-written manuals for about $20 that spell out the procedures, and an attorney is not actually required to evict someone. You can just treat the situation as a standard landlord-tenant process, give the required notices (using legalese in a notice may well be sufficient). If you do have to file in court, there are a couple hundred bucks of fees associated with filing. It takes time. There is a 3 day notice requirement on your notice, after that you can file the complaint and a hearing is scheduled after that (county dependent: I hear it's about 3 weeks in Franklin). Defendant can stretch that out for a week or so by asking for a continuance to seek legal counsel, but eventually you will prevail unless the judge is too warm-hearted and orders family counseling (you never know, these days). They you apply for the "red tag", the bailiff posts it within a few days, and that gives him 5 days to leave. If that doesn't work, you call the bailiff for the physical removal, and they probably respond within a couple of business days.
Short Answer Typically, about four weeks in an uncontested case and six weeks in a contested case, although this depends to some extent upon how business the relevant courts are at the time. Long Answer The time limits break down as follows into different parts of the process: Minimum time from formally demanding possession to being legally allowed to bring suit in this situation. This is almost certainly set by statute. In Georgia, there is no waiting period for this part of the process when rent is not paid as agreed. A lawsuit can be filed the same day that a demand for possession is made by the landlord. OCGA § 44-7-50. The time from serving a lawsuit on the tenant to the time that the tenant is required to respond in court. This is almost certainly set by statute or court rule. In Georgia this is seven days from service of process. OCGA § 44-7-51. Georgia, like most states, allows "nail and mail" service by posting a notice on the premises and mailing a notice to the last known address of the tenant, after some reasonable effort has been made to personally service the tenant or any other adult resident, so this step will typically take about seven to ten days. The time from an appearance in court or court filing by the tenant objecting to the eviction to the time that a hearing is scheduled, in the event that the tenant raises an objection (which is easily done, even if there isn't ultimately a legally valid defense to raise). There may be a legal deadline for this in the statute or court rules, although it can usually be waived. This can also vary based on how many cases are pending relative to the number of available judges, something that usually varies seasonally. Georgia does not have a fixed time period for this step, but "Every effort should be made by the trial court to expedite a trial of the issues." OCGA § 44-7-53. The time from an order of eviction as the conclusion of an eviction hearing until the sheriff or marshall actually carries out the eviction that has been ordered by the court. This is almost never a matter of public record or a legal mandate, and it would typically vary seasonally and over the course of a month as the staff available to carry out evictions is pretty constant, but the demand for evictions has monthly peaks that flow from month end leases and rental payment due dates, and seasonally with the end of school years and the end of calendar years being particularly busy times when delays are greater. Sheriffs have also been known to intentionally stall in holiday seasons. This part of the process in Fulton County is set forth here. The total time is the sum of these four times. Most evictions lawyers in the area would know what is typical for (3) and (4) and would also have a good grasp of how likely it is for a tenant to assert a defense (if the tenant does not, part (3) is skipped and a default judgment for eviction is entered on the appearance date). In my area (in Colorado), (1) is three days, (3) is usually about two weeks and (4) is usually about one to three weeks, but as noted above, your experience in Atlanta, Georgia could easily vary based upon how busy the courts and the marshall are at that time. According to this website, in Georgia, it is customary to allow 3-10 days for step 1 even though it is not legally required, step 3 is typically one to two weeks, and step 4 is typically about two weeks. It is also possible to extent step 2 by one week from one week to two weeks with a procedural tool that most lawyers are aware of in Georgia. So, you are typically looking at about four weeks in an uncontested case and about six in a contested case from notice to actually having people removed.
Assuming you have an assured shorthold tenancy, it's not the landlord himself that can evict you. The process is that he serves you notice, and if you don't move by the time the notice period ends, then he has to go to court in order to obtain a court order to end the tenancy. The landlord must demonstrate to the court that he has properly served notice to the tenant. This is a bit of a grey area, but this article suggests that, to avoid ambiguity, the landlord should either use recorded delivery (which would provide proof as to whether or not the tenant received it), or deliver it by hand with an independent witness present. In the case of a section 21 "no fault" eviction, the only defence a tenant has is that the correct procedure has not been followed. So it is in the landlord's interest to ensure that notice has been received beyond any doubt.
Is a text message legally binding? Yes, but the terms of the message need to be clear enough to ascertain the parties' intent at the formation of that contract or agreement. A contract does not even need to be in writing. There are also oral contracts and implied contracts, the latter referring to contracts which are inferred from the parties' conduct. A contract such as the agreement you describe here is binding regardless of its form. It is just easier to prove the existence of a contract if it is in writing. You did not specify your jurisdiction. If it is in the US, the price tag --rather than the downpayment-- of the object of the contract (i.e., the puppy you intend to buy) determines whether your complaint would need to be filed in Small Claims court. Generally speaking, parties to a dispute in Small Claims court have to represent themselves. Two remarks are pertinent. First, developing writing skills is utmost important not only for litigating a dispute, but also during the process of formulating the terms and conditions of a contract/agreement. Your post indicates that you seriously need to work on that. Second, the end of your post reflects that one of your managers violated labor law(s), which to most of us would be more worrisome than the controversy about the puppy. Legislation in most or all jurisdictions outlaws the act of withholding an employee's compensation regardless of its form (salary, commissions, and so forth). You might want to gain acquaintance with the labor laws of your jurisdiction so you can assess whether or how to proceed (does legislation require the employee to "exhaust administrative remedies" prior to filing in court? are administrative remedies optional? do these exist at all?), even if only to ascertain whether the deadline for filing the corresponding claim has elapsed.
The first question would be whether those papers are indeed "legit", and we don't do product reviews. Assuming the company didn't mess up and she was legally served, the next question would be whether she responded (in the legal sense) or not. If she failed to respond at all within 21 days (add 9 days if she is out of state), then your next step would be to file default divorce paperwork (presumably that's covered in the service you paid for). If she agreed to the divorce and the courts knows that, then you file some more paperwork and she doesn't have to show up to anything. If she disagreed, there will be an "answer" and possibly a counterpetition. There is an exchange of paperwork w.r.t. assets, a mandatory mediation stage, more paperwork, disclosures etc. and a pre-trial conference, followed by a trial. If you are at this stage, attendance is mandatory. As long as you have proof of service, nobody requested a postponement, and there is some evidence to support your claim, a default judgment can be issued. It's not clear what "divorce proceeding" you are referring to that involves her attendance. However, you can file divorce paperwork yourself or using an online service, and using an online service does not render the paperwork illegitimate. It's not guaranteed that the service did what would be necessary for you to get the outcome you desire, but that's beyond the scope of what we can tell you.
Your question is not particularly clear, but it sounds like you're describing a situation where: The tenant doesn't pay the rent The landlord files an action to evict the tenant, and The tenant files a request for a jury trial. The act of filing for a jury trial doesn't guarantee that the tenant won't be evicted, but it will likely make the eviction process more time-consuming and expensive for the landlord. I'm assuming the tenant is entitled to a jury trial--otherwise this would be useless as a stalling tactic. In that case, the question you really want answered is, can the landlord force the tenant to waive any right to a jury trial by contract, for example in the lease? In California, the answer is no. The linked document suggests that you may be able to specify some form of ADR, which would avoid the expense of a jury trial, but the California courts won't let you get away with a straight jury trial waiver.
Can the seller enter a formal agreement with the tenants in which the seller pays a sum of money and in return the tenants vacate the premises before the closing date, and would such agreement hold over the tenants legal right to remain on premises past the closing date? Maybe. It depends on tenancy law in Nova Scotia. Notwithstanding, given that the tenants are “difficult”, what are your plans if they take the cash and don’t move out? What happens if the sale goes though under the assumption that the tenants have left, and in fact the tenants are still occupying the premises? Why would the buyer settle under an “assumption”? At the time of settlement either the tenants have left (so settlement happens) or the haven’t (so the vendor is in breach, settlement doesn’t happen and the buyer decides whether to rescind the contract and claim damages or affirm the contract and claim damages). What guarantees and proofs can the buyer demand as to the vacant status of the property? They take the keys and walk into it. What other questions should the buyer be asking? They should be asking: “Will you be in a position to fulfil your obligations under the contract?”
Yes; While contracts can be made in written and oral form bigger acquisitions normally are in written form. Also consider this: They can't prove that they told you that the balcony is not usable. Thats a big negative in buying a property and they would need to have it documented. If they still refuse consider seeking professional help. In my country lawyers offer "fast help" that isn't legally binding but costs you only 10$ and helps you finding out if your case has any possibility to get accepted/if you're right. EDIT: Regarding the reservation fee: You can dismiss that. You didn't reserved that object, you reserved a house with balcony.