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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2008
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    3

    Default Live-in Boyfriend Refuses To Leave And Asks For Jury Trial

    My question involves an eviction in the state of: Michigan

    My mother's unemployed long-term (staying at her home for around 7 years) boy-friend is refusing to move out of her home. He has never paid any rent, bills, food, anything basically toward to home. He has no income and is collecting free junk in and around her house which is unsightly at least and damaging her property at worst. There is no lease and he never claimed to be a tenant previous to her asking him to leave. He is making zero effort to move his trash out of her home or to look for a new residence. She filed a 30 day eviction notice and the court date was today. He showed up at court and requested a jury trial. He is doing anything he can to extend the amount of time he gets to continue to live in my mom's house for free. He tries to intimidate her and has made it clear he will do everything in his power to stay. He also refuses to give over keys to her things (such as her car that she had allowed him to use) and says he will take the car as soon as he sees it. She has thus had to store her car in secret to avoid his stealing it. What, if anything, can she do to either discourage his behavior of continuing to drag this on as long as possible or to get him removed as soon as possible. He is using the law to terrorize my mother.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Live-in Boyfriend Refuses To Leave And Asks For Jury Trial.

    One of the problems inherent in turning over access to your whole life and body of wordly goods to another person without the LEGAL protections of marriage is that it's a heck of a lot harder to "un-take" them. When you marry them, it's a divorce process in front of a judge (who can usually do a quick, even if temporary, division of assets and set some immediate boundaries). When you just move them in, it's something that requires a lot of headache - up to and including a jury trial for eviction. The law can be manipulated by jerks like this one trying to drag things out, but only when the protections that the law can provide are circumvented. Tell her to brace herself for a civil lawsuit too - because it's entirely possible that he'll take her to small claims court for the value of half of everything they accumulated while together (not that he'd win most of it, but again, coloring outside of legal lines and protections usually results in a not-pretty picture).

    A few of the steps she can take to encourage him to move along might center around CEASING to empower his lifestyle:

    1) Quit feeding him or bringing food in any form into the home. Hunger can be a primeval motivator. She's not required to provide access to plates, pots, pans, salt, pepper, toilet paper, etc. either. He'll get tired of being hungry before she'll get tired of eating at Taco Bell.

    2) Personally if it were me, I'd get a cheap storage unit and move all of my non-bedroom furniture into it, and cut off the cable. People only lay on your couch and watch TV all day if you LET them. Hungry people staring at daytime network television and sleeping on the floor are even MORE motivated.

    3) Ask the police to stop by. Show them the paperwork for the eviction. Ask them to ask the boyfriend to return the car keys. Police will likely tell you it's a civil matter (which it is), but perhaps they will back her in telling Mr. Wonderful that should he be in possesion of the vehicle AFTER that point, they'll honor a stolen vehicle report. Getting dragged out of a stolen car at gunpoint can sometimes open the eyes of even the most stubborn folk.

    4) Doubtful that threatening to take her car (which she GAVE him access to) is enough for a restraining order, BUT if he should make any other threats to harm or damage either her or her property, she needs to get her fanny down to the courthouse and request one.

    Now, what she needs NOT to do is:

    Change the locks, cut off the water, power, garbage, throw his stuff out on the lawn, interfere with his mail, etc. Technically, once she handed him a key, she became his landlord (who was willing to accept ZERO in rent for 7 years), so regardless of his employment situation, financial situation, or lack of payment on HIS part, SHE still can't break the law as far as HIS tenant rights are concerned without VERY SERIOUS legal repercussions!

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