My landlord's lawyer tried to evict me over a typo in the lease... 3 years later I'm still here

Last month in Portland, I got a notice to vacate in 30 days because my landlord said I broke the lease by having a pet... but I don't have one. Turns out his attorney filed the wrong paperwork, mixed me up with another tenant in the building. The judge in the eviction hearing actually laughed when I showed the court the lease paragraph with the wrong unit number on it. Has anyone else had a landlord try to pull something this sloppy and get shut down by the judge?

2 comments

2 Comments

taraw1617d ago

My buddy had something similar happen in Seattle. Landlord tried to evict him for "unauthorized modifications" because he painted the living room a different color. Except the lease literally said "tenant may repaint walls with neutral colors" so the judge was not having it. The judge actually asked the landlord's lawyer if he'd read his own lease before wasting the court's time. Whole thing got tossed out and my buddy stayed another two years without issues. Landlords get sloppy when they think you won't fight back.

elizabeth_king17d ago

Did that landlord actually try to argue the paint wasn't a "neutral color" in court? Because that's wild if so. I'm guessing your buddy had to bring in some kind of proof like a paint can label or something to show it was like beige or gray. What did the judge say exactly when they asked that question? I'm just wondering if the landlord's lawyer had a legit excuse or was just totally unprepared. Seems like some landlords think they can bully people into leaving without reading the fine print first. Maybe your buddy got lucky with a judge who actually cared about the law.