Landlord Served Notice to Vacate Premises Because of Dog They Approved of

[jared1981b]

My question involves an eviction in the state of: Hawaii

I signed a 1 year lease and have been renting the property since February 23, 2012. My landlord showed up today, April 23, 2012, and gave me notice that she was terminating our rental agreement and we need to vacate the premises by May, 8th 2012.

Her notice states she has the right to terminate the lease because:

1. “Having a dog in and on the premises”
2. “Affecting other tenants right to use the washing machine”

This is the first written notice we have received.

Here is the back story. The lease states that we cannot have a dog on premise. However we discussed with the landlord before moving in and asked if we could occasionally keep a dog in the backyard because my roommate’s mother is disabled and periodically goes to the hospital and there was no one else to take care of her dog. Our landlord gave us permission to keep the dog in the backyard, but not in the house.
We also share a washer and dryer with another tenant. When the tenant came up to wash her clothes, the dog bit her 11 year old son. The dog was leashed up in the backyard keeping her about five to six feet away from the washer and dryer. The dog has never bitten anyone before so we did not think it would be a problem. The downstairs lady had already washed her clothes several times while the dog had been here, and she never had a problem with it either. However the dog bit her son on April 19th, 2012. We crated the dog in a bathroom shortly after the bite occurred in order to make sure nothing further would happen with the dog in a common area.

We checked online to see what our options were, and we read the following.

“A landlord must notify the tenant in writing of a violation of the tenant's responsibility to maintain the unit, and give him at least 10 days to correct the issue. If the tenant fails to correct the matter, a landlord may file an eviction.”

We assumed that we had 10 days to locate a new place to keep the dog without being in violation. However they gave us notice to vacate after four days.

Do they have the authority to evict us on a first offence?

What options do we have? If you have questions please let me know and I’ll respond ASAP.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[davidmcbeth3]

I think the LL will win. The dog BIT another tenant.

[Mr. Knowitall]

The lease states that we cannot have a dog on premise. However we discussed with the landlord before moving in and asked if we could occasionally keep a dog in the backyard because my roommate’s mother is disabled and periodically goes to the hospital and there was no one else to take care of her dog. Our landlord gave us permission to keep the dog in the backyard, but not in the house.... We crated the dog in a bathroom shortly after the bite occurred in order to make sure nothing further would happen with the dog in a common area.

Does the landlord agree that he gave you permission to occasionally have a dog in the yard? Assuming the permission was revoked after the bite, is the landlord claiming that you had the dog present on additional occasions? Or is he stating that although you had permission to occasionally have the dog in the back yard you broke your lease by taking it into the home after the bite?

You state that you were given well over ten days notice - April 23 to May 8, so I'm not sure why you think that's only four days notice.