What Can I Do if My Landlord is Trying to Evict Me?
First read the "Eviction" section in our handbook The
Rights of Tenants in Maine. This tells what your landlord can and cannot
do. It also tells how the eviction process works and how long it takes. It
explains some common defenses to eviction actions. After you have read this
information, you may have more questions. This may answer some of those
questions. If you still need to know more,
call
Pine Tree Legal.
Decide what you want to do. If you do not want to stay, but you need more
time, call your landlord or his attorney to see if you can settle the case.
Your landlord must take several steps to legally evict you. These steps take a
minimum of two weeks beyond the eviction date in the first notice. So, if you need more
time, don't sell yourself short. If you are offering to save your landlord the
expense of a court hearing by settling early, you should be able to get some
extra time for that. Before you agree to a date, read more below under
"What if I plan to move out but I need more time?" and "How
much time do I have?"
If you want to fight the eviction, think about whether you can make a good
case for not being evicted. Some common defenses are explained in The Rights
of Tenants handbook. Also, read more below under
"If I want to fight the
eviction, what do I do?"
| I am being evicted for not paying rent. I want to
stay where I am but I cannot afford to pay up. Is there anything I can do
before being taken to eviction court? |
Talk to your landlord about whether he will accept a payment arrangement to
give you a chance to catch up on your rent.
If the landlord will not agree to this, you may be able to get some help
from one of these places:
Family Crisis Assistance Program
(Emergency Assistance)
 The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) runs this program. It provides emergency
help to low income households with children. You can get up to $250.00 for a
housing emergency. You can apply this toward a security deposit or toward back
rent if it will prevent the eviction.
This program will also assist with $150.00 to prevent utility shut-offs and
will help with other crises.
You have a 30-day period to get all of the emergency help you need. After the
30 days, this program will not help you again for 12 months. Therefore, once
you apply, ask for information on everything they can help with and apply for
everything you need within the 30 days.
To apply: Contact your local
Maine Department of Human Services Office.
(Applications may also be available at your town office or utility company.)
More information about DHHS Emergency Assistance
General Assistance
General Assistance is a welfare program run by every city or town. If your
income is too low to meet your
basic necessities, such as rent, and your income is less than the
"assistance maximum," your local town should assist.
In an emergency, your town or city should do whatever is necessary to assure
you have basic necessities: shelter, food, heat, medicine, etc. However, the
town may require you to show that your income for the last 30 days was spent
on basic necessities in order to qualify.
If you are being evicted, the town should assist with the first month's
rent or, in an emergency, the security deposit or back rent. (A town will only
help with a security deposit if no landlord will rent to you without a
deposit.)
To apply: Contact your local town office.
If you do not know where to apply or have questions about how your town or
city is handling your problem, you may call the Special Services Unit,
Department of Health and Human Services, at 1-800-442-6003 or 287-2826.
More information on General Assistance
Salvation Army, Red Cross,
or Homeless Shelter
Your local Salvation Army, Red Cross or homeless shelter sometimes can help
you with emergency housing.
Partial list
of emergency shelters in Maine.
For more information
contact the Maine State Housing Authority: 1-800-452-4668.
| What does a landlord have to do to evict me? |
The Rights of Tenants handbook explains, in detail, what landlords (in
different types of rental situations) must do to legally evict. Here is a
quick overview of those rules:
 Eviction Notice
Your landlord must give you a written Eviction Notice, sometimes called a
"Notice To Quit." If you do not have a lease, the Notice will tell
you that you have either 7 days or 30 days to move out. (An oral eviction
notice is generally not legal). Keep your eviction notice.
The Eviction Notice is not the same thing as a court order. Your landlord
cannot legally evict you until he gets a court order allowing the eviction.
(If you live in a rooming house, these rules may not apply to you. Read more.)
If your
landlord tries to evict you without getting a court judgment, call the police.
Call Pine Tree Legal if the police won't help. Your landlord cannot legally change
the locks, shut off your utilities or try to keep you out of your home.
Court Papers
At the end of the time period given in your Eviction Notice (usually 7 days
or 30 days), your landlord can serve you with court eviction papers. These are
called a "Summons and Complaint". A Deputy Sheriff usually serves them on
you. Call Pine Tree Legal
right away if you get these court eviction papers.
Eviction by Court Judgment
The court papers will tell you the date of your eviction hearing. If you
want to fight the eviction, you must go to court. In court you may ask your
landlord questions, bring your own witnesses and exhibits (photos, for
example), and explain your side of the story.
Your landlord can go to court to try to evict you even if you think your
landlord is wrong. You can be evicted even if it is winter or you have
children or you have nowhere to go. It is up to the court, not your landlord
or Pine Tree Legal, to decide if you can be evicted.
If you go to court and lose, you have the right to appeal. If you lose and
do not appeal, after seven days you will be served
with a "Writ of
Possession". This is the eviction order of the court. You then have 48
hours to move out.
| What if I want to move and will be out before an
eviction order will take effect? |
If you know for sure that you will be moving before a "Writ of
Possession" will be issued (see
Steps 1, 2, 3 above), then the legal eviction process
will not affect you. You may want to tell the landlord of your plans to save
him the trouble of going to court to get an eviction order. Be sure of your
plans to move before you decide to ignore the court eviction hearing. It is
too late to fight the eviction after a court judgment has been entered against
you.
| How much time do I have to move? |
 Again, you are not legally required
to move until the following events have happened:
- First, the time period in the Eviction Notice
must be over (usually 7 days or 30 days).
- Second, you must be served with court eviction
papers. The Summons must give you at least 7 more days before the court hearing.
- Third, if you lose the hearing and do not appeal,
you will have 7 more days to move.
- Fourth, after the 7 days, if you are still there,
you can be served with a Writ of Possession. You then have only 48 more hours to leave.
| What if I plan to move out? |
If you are planning to move but cannot do that before the landlord can get
a "Writ of Possession" from the Court, talk to the landlord or his
attorney about agreeing to extra time to move. The landlord does not have to
agree to this. Remember that you already have 7 days after the court hearing
before a "Writ of Possession" can issue. So if you settle, you
should get more than 7 days after the court date. Once you have agreed to a
date, the landlord can get the "writ" from the Court on that date
and have it enforced by the sheriff's department. It will be too late to
change your mind after the judge has approved the agreement.
If you come to an agreement after the court papers have been filed, then
use the attached Agreed Judgment form to protect your
rights.
Click here for more information if
you can't get the form.
Click here if you
want to try our interactive form.
You fill it out on-line, then
print.
Fill out the form and file it with the Court. Write the move out date you have agreed to
on the last line of this form. It is not a good idea to have just an oral
agreement with the landlord and skip the court hearing. You need to be in
court to protect your rights and to make sure that the written agreement is
given to the judge.
| If I want to fight the eviction, what do I do? |
You have tried to work things out with your landlord but he is going
forward with an eviction. You are served with court papers for eviction--a
"Summons and Forcible Entry and Detainer Complaint". The Summons
sets a court date. You want to fight the eviction.
Contact a private lawyer or
Pine Tree Legal Assistance immediately.
Usually, the notice of a court date gives you only a short time to prepare
(as little as 7 days). If you can find a lawyer quickly enough, provide this
information to your lawyer as soon as possible:
- your eviction notice (sometimes called "Notice to Quit")
- your lease or rental agreement (if you have one)
- rent receipts or other evidence of payment (if issue is non-payment)
- Summons and Complaint.
| What if I can't find a lawyer to help me at the eviction hearing? |
If you cannot find a lawyer to represent you at the eviction hearing, Pine
Tree Legal Assistance has written forms to help you fight your eviction.
Along with the "Agreed Judgment" form
(see above), we have
attached:
If you want to fill out the forms on line, use the interactive forms
below:
Click here if you can't view
the forms or you're having trouble with them.
Here's what to do with the forms:
Step One.
Fill out the letter.
- Fill in the date.
- Fill in the address of the court.
- Fill in the name of the case where it says "Re:." For example:
Wright v. Miller.
- Sign your name, put in your address & phone number.
Step Two. Fill out the Answer, Affirmative Defenses & Request for Electronic
Sound Recording.
- Fill in the names of the Plaintiff (landlord) and the Defendant (you).
Fill it in just like on the Complaint that was served on you.
- Fill out the name of the court. Fill it out just like your landlord did.
- On the Answer at question #3, check the correct box.
- On the Affirmative Defenses check the one(s) that apply. Add any Defenses you have that are not listed.
- Fill in the date, sign it, and put in your address and phone number.
Step Three. Make two copies of
both papers, one for yourself and one for the landlord.
Step Four. Send copies of both
papers to your landlord.
If the Summons on the lower
left hand side lists the name of an attorney, send copies of everything to the attorney
instead of the landlord.
Step Five. On the original
Answer, sign and date the Certificate of Service.
This shows the court that you have notified the landlord of your
Answer.
Step Six. Send the original letter and original
Answer to the court clerk.
The clerk's name
and address is on the Summons, which was served on you. Try to get this to the
court at least one day in advance. (You may not be allowed to get a copy or
transcript of the hearing recording, if you need it later for an appeal,
unless your request for sound recording was made at least 24 hours before the
hearing.)
| What happens when I go to Court? |
- You Must Go.
- Don't Be Late.
- Bring any witnesses, pictures, and letters with you. (You cannot say that
you have a picture at home or a friend who would back you up. The picture or
the friend must be with you in court.)
- Refer again to the above section "
What if I plan to move out but need
more time?" After you get to Court, you can still talk to the landlord
about settlement. If you reach an agreement, be sure to put it in writing and
give it to the judge when he calls your case. (See attached Agreed
Judgment form.) You might agree that you can stay if payments on back
rent are made by certain dates. You might agree to move by a certain date
(giving you more time to move than the 7 days you will have, anyway, if the
court orders the eviction without an agreement).
- Beginning in January 2008, you will probably be sent to mediation before
having a court hearing. This means that you meet with the landlord and a court
mediator. The mediator does not take sides. The mediator's job is to
talk to both sides to see if you can reach an agreement. You must mediate in "good faith,"
but you don't have to agree to anything
that you believe is wrong or unfair. If you reach an agreement, the mediator will
put it in writing and have you sign it. Then it is presented to the judge for approval as a
court order. If you do not agree, your case will be set for a court hearing.
If the judge
decides that either
party has not mediated "in good faith," he can send you back to mediation, dismiss the case,
order the eviction, award payment of attorneys' fees, or impose other penalties.
| What happens if I have a Court Hearing? |
If you and the landlord do not settle the case, then the judge will hold a
hearing. Ask for the hearing to be tape-recorded. (You may not get this
if you didn't put in your written request at least 24 hours ahead.)
All witnesses will be sworn in. The judge will ask the landlord to give his
side of the story first. After he presents his case, you will be given a
chance to ask the landlord questions. You may want to ask follow-up questions
to clarify his earlier statements, or to bring out information he has not
talked about. He may also present other witnesses. You may ask them questions,
too, after they have finished telling their stories.
When it is your turn to testify, tell the judge your story as clearly and
simply as you can. Think about the reasons you raised in your written answer
about why you shouldn't be evicted.
Here are some common arguments against the landlord:
- You did not receive the Notice to Quit.
- The Notice to Quit did not give you 7 days to cure the non-payment of
rent.
- The Notice to Quit said you have 30 days (or 7 days) before the tenancy
ends, but it really gave you less than 30 days (or 7 days) after you received
it.
- The 30-day notice period runs out when your rent is still paid up.
- The landlord is trying to evict you only because you complained to a
code enforcement officer, or to the landlord in writing, of bad conditions in
the apartment.
- You did not pay rent because of serious conditions, which make the house
unsafe or unhealthy to live in. You have told the landlord about these
problems but he has not fixed them. (If you win on this point, the court can
set a lower rent, which you must pay until the needed repairs are done.)
- The landlord's story that you are behind in rent, caused a nuisance, or
broke the lease is not true. State the facts on these issues based on your own
knowledge. If there are witnesses who can verify your version of the facts,
you can bring them to court and ask them to testify about what they saw and
heard.
- The 7-day notice you got for non-payment of rent does not contain these
two sentences:
"If you pay the amount of rent due as of the date of this notice
before this notice expires, then this notice as it applies to rent arrearage
is void."
"After this notice expires, if you pay all rental arrears, all rent
due as of the date of payment and any filing fees and service of process
fees actually paid by the landlord before the writ of possession issues
at the completion of the eviction process, then your tenancy will be reinstated."
If any of these defenses apply to your case, be sure to
point them out to the judge.
If you have a hearing and the Court orders the eviction, you will have at
least seven days to move. In some cases, you may have good reasons to appeal
the decision to Superior Court. (For more details on "writ of
possession" and appeal, re-read these sections in
The Rights of Tenants handbook.) Appealing the decision without an attorney
can be difficult.
Finally, remember that if you are being evicted for not paying rent, you
still have the right to stay if you pay all of the back rent, plus the
landlord's court costs, before the court issues the "writ of
possession."
Partially updated September 2009
|
Notice
© Pine Tree
Legal Assistance
April 2009
Sometimes the laws
change. We cannot promise that this information is always
up-to-date and correct. If the date above is not this year,
call us to see if there is an update.
We provide this
information as a public service. It is not legal advice.
By sending you this information, we are not acting as your lawyer.
Always consult a lawyer, if you can, before taking legal action.
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Rights of Tenants in Maine
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