Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Oregon

Tenants Rights

my boyfriend and I currently are residing in a condo my boyfriend is the only one on the lease but for almost a year now the landlord has said it was ok for me and my 3 year old son to reside there when i started going to college he was wanting me to pay rent with my financial aid check but when i didn't get my check because of academic reasons he is throwing my 3 year old son and myself out on the streets without even a 24 hour notice i don't know if he is wrong because i am not on the lease but he claims i can not stay there if i do not give him money. my boyfriend's job is slow right now so he is not being worked and he owes the landlord $3800.00 but the landlord worked it out with him he also told my boyfriend not to give me the mail key so i could not cash my financial aid check without him there he also will just come inside the house without a word he has come over while we were sleeping or he has gone through our belongings when we were not there he has also come over looking in our garage at 11:30 pm this has been going on ever since we moved in he has done this even when no rent was due and now since i am not getting a big chunk of money from the government he is throwing my son and me out. I am not sure what to do.


Asked on 3/16/07, 12:08 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Andrew Svitek Svitek Law Group, LLC

Re: Tenants Rights

The landlord cannot exercise "self-help", meaning that landlords are required to go through a court process to remove ANYONE residing in their apartments, whether or not they are on the lease.

If he has known and acknowledged that you are living in the apartment (he has accepted rent from you, for one thing) over the course of 1 year, it looks like he has waived his right to terminate your boyfriend's lease based on your residing there.

However, the flipside is that you personally are not protected by any lease and the landlord can terminate your occupancy by a 30-day notice or 72-hour nopayment payment notice.

If the landlord unlawfully removes or excludes you from the premises, seriously attempts or seriously threatens unlawfully to remove or exclude the tenant from the premises s you are entitled to damages of twice the monthly rent or actual damages, whichever is greater (ORS 90.375)

UNLAWFUL ENTRY?

ORS 90.322(8) states that "If the landlord makes an unlawful entry or a lawful entry in an unreasonable manner or makes repeated demands for entry otherwise lawful but that have the effect of unreasonably harassing the tenant, the tenant may obtain injunctive relief to prevent the reoccurrence of the conduct or may terminate the rental agreement pursuant to ORS 90.360 (1). In addition, the tenant may recover actual damages not less than an amount equal to one week�s rent in the case of a week-to-week tenancy or one month�s rent in all other cases."

Those are some of your rights. However, your ability to continue to remain on the premises will depend on the legitimacy and validity of any agreement to permit you to stay despite the fact that you are behind on rent. Also, this is probably a month-to-month tenancy.

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Answered on 3/23/07, 2:48 am


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