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No Lease

A woman leased one of the apartments with her "uncle".  Anyway, since the woman is someone that my husband recognized from our church, he gave her the keys on August 30th without having a signed copy of the lease.  My husband says that on August 30th, her uncle signed the lease in front of him but the woman said that she needs to review the lease.  (I know bad move from my husband) So he left without having the lease and they moved in.  Whenever, my husband asked for the lease he got the run around.  A week later the woman said that she is moving out at the end of the month (September) and she wants all of her money back. (First months rent & security deposit)  We decided that we will work something out with her but she never returned our calls.  So now she is suing for 4200.00 for rent,security deposit, stress, and the fact that she had to give her furniture away b/c her furniture could not fit through the door.  Does she have any recourse since we do not have a leave?  Please help.

This is very complicated, and the absence of a lease is unfortunate. Nevertheless, she remains in the wrong in even requesting her money back. What is the basis for that? I would welcome the chance to try and help here.
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Most states have laws and regulations describing what to do in Landlord/Tenant situations with or without a Lease. There are many resources on the web and even on this web-site directing you to such information. SInce this woman and her uncle accepted your property as their living quarters and paid the first months rent and the security deposit implies a lease arrangement. Check with your state statutes or an attorney for the specifics, but it seems to me that your tenants do not have a leg to stand on.
In most states a lease exists as soon as a rental obligation has been entered into. This means that you accepted the keys to a rental property in exchange for some type of monetary agreement. With that being said, in most states there is a minimum number of days required for a landlord to end such an agreement. Furthermore, after the landlord gives you notice to vacate and/or to end the lease, if you fail to vacate then he would have to provide another notice to begin eviction proceedings. NOW, if you should NOT pay rent and be evicted for such, that would go against your credit.  Be aware....eviction times vary greatly from state to state and township to township and city to city. Some as short as 20 days and others as longs as several months.
Vickie have you given them an eviction notice? If there is no written lease it does not mean that there is no lease. A verbal lease can be binding. Give them proper notice of eviction and move out date and proof of this notice. Then if they are still not out an note of intent for court action and if this does not scare them then you may need to go to court. Changing the locks is not a route I would recommend this could leave to angry tenants and it is not quite legal. Most law states that you must go through eviction proceedings to get a writ of possession which is you getting your property back.
You should send them an eviction notice first. My friend was living in a rental home in Killeen which he rented with Kingsbury Homes and when his landlord wanted him to vacate the place, a proper eviction notice was sent to him.
Just changing the locks is called a "self help eviction" and is illegal.  If you do that your tenant can actually sue you and win.
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