Articles — evictions

I'm gonna keep it short today. Here are a 10 missteps that could derail your eviction case. You're only as strong as your weakest link, so make sure everyone on your staff knows these rules. Once you've filed an eviction, don't send any more notices. Pay special attention to any software that might auto-generate a notice each month. Make sure you terminate a month-to-month lease at the end of a rental period. Don't accept rent after issuing a termination notice for a material lease violation. Don't accept rent after a deadline to vacate when non-renewing a lease or month-to-month tenancy. Don't...

RENTAL ASSISTANCE UPDATE Lexington's rental assistance program has become much more landlord-friendly. The Housing Stabilization Program has removed the 45-day waiting period and the 30-day notice requirement from its settlement agreements. This means that if your tenant receives assistance but fails to resume paying rent once the money runs out, you may proceed to give your usual notice to pay or vacate immediately rather than waiting for 45 days then giving a 30-day notice. This is good news that should encourage more landlords to participate in the program and get their rent paid. The settlement agreement still requires that you...

There's been a lot of talk in Lexington about adopting a set of proposals being called the "Tenant's Bill of Rights". That talk sounds good. We're all in favor of rights for everyone - so why not rights for tenants? No one in history worth remembering ever opposes a "bill of rights", right? This crusade is an excellent example of framing an issue to gain sympathy and support from those who don't have the time or the interest to look further into the issues. But here's the truth of the matter: tenants in Lexington already have a "bill of rights"....

A RESPONSE TO THE LEXINGTON FAIR HOUSING COUNCIL’S REPORT ON EVICTIONS  The Lexington Fair Housing Council (hereinafter “the FHC) has recently released a document titled Locked Out: Foreclosure, Eviction and Housing Instability in Lexington, 2005-2016 (hereinafter referred to as “the Report”). The Report was presumably created because the FHC believes that Lexington has a housing instability crisis that has either resulted from, or been perpetuated in large part from, too many evictions and foreclosures. Because of the tone and tenor of the Report, as well as the facts that it addresses issues affecting our association and names certain members of...

We don't get much case law in the landlord-tenant arena. It's usually too expensive for either side to appeal their case up to the Kentucky Court of Appeals or Kentucky Supreme Court. So landlords, tenants, and their attorneys are left trying to guess how their local judges will interpret the statutes that we have. But we got some additional clarification last month in the case of Young v. House, which originated in Pulaski District Court. You can read the full opinion here. The Case: Young v. House The lease in this case had expired, and the tenants were renting the property month-to-month. Rent was...