My question involves a roommate in the State of: Texas
OK, I'm naive, I got taken, don't need to tell me that. Won't happen again. I need help to fix it, though. Please.
We own a house with guest house (detached, about 100' from the main house, shared driveway, single address, separate electric, shared well/septic, no phone). About 4 months ago, we took in a houseguest with kids, she needed to escape a bad personal situation in a hurry. She had no money, nowhere else to go, so we let her drew up a brief agreement, and let her stay in the guest house as a guest - not as a tenant - this is in the agreement. In exchange she was to pay the electric (separate meter, still in my name), and contribute to general maintenance and upkeep, with several items listed.
She is now in default on the electric, has not been assisting with the upkeep, has become verbally abusive to both my wife and I, using foul language descriptors of us in front of our children. They have also trashed the place to the tune of a couple thousand $$, had a dog in there that we had explicitly banned from the property after it attacked our livestock. I could go on ... but you probably get the picture of what we are dealing with. Before this goes any further, we want her out.
She seems to have lawyered up, and is claiming protection as a tenant - so we will have to evict, I'm fairly sure of that. But she is also claiming that we cannot enter the guest house since it is now their home. That I am not sure of. Nowhere did we give her exclusive occupancy. She is staying as a guest, and it seems to me that if we wanted to bring in another guest, she could not reasonably object. Similarly, do we still have the right to enter our own home (either while she is there or not)?
She is also claiming parking privileges, again that was not stated, and had a sheriff out who warned us that we had to leave access so that she could get to the closest part of the drive to the guest house, which is not always convenient as it is a shared driveway.
So what can we do, and what can we not do while the eviction processes?
How do we go about suing for the damage to the property?
Steps I've taken so far: posted the 3-day notice to vacate on the door, along with a letter explaining the violation of the agreement, and stating that we will formalize the eviction action if she does not vacate within the 3 day notice window, and will pursue small claims if the property is not returned to its original condition (as stated in the agreement). The same letter has been mailed certified mail (kinda strange mailing a letter to your own home).

