--Barb Lickness: The addendum states that if the tenant, tenant guests or other members of the household participate in any of these crimes based on a "preponderance of the evidence", the tenant agrees to leave the premises voluntarily. Evidently, this helps the landlord avoid costly housing court expenses.
The tenant always reserves the right to go to court if they feel they were unfairly evicted. --Me: There's no real problem with the addendum--but it does overstate its legal impact and effect and could in some cases be construed to mislead tenants as to their rights. A landlord and tenant cannot voluntarily 'waive' any right of the tenant to require the landlord to go to court to determine whether or not the tenant violated the lease and should be evicted. A court order is the only thing that can require a tenant to vacate a property. Thus, any agreement that says the tenant will 'voluntarily' vacate the property upon evidence of criminal behavior has no real legal effect--i.e., its not enforceable other than to evict the tenant in court. The landlord cannot simply say "you engaged in criminal behavior, according to our contract, you must now voluntarily leave." If the tenant disagrees with the evidence or the landlord or even has a bone to chew with the whole thing, the landlord must bring a court action and prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the criminal behavior occurred. Sophisticated, so-called criminally-minded tenants, know this. So do unsophisticated non-criminally minded attorneys who say to the landlord "OK, show me the beef." I think the Addendum does provide some limited educational function and notice to tenants as to what is expected and what is deemed obviously unacceptable behavior. But it's really just a different way to set out state law, probably in a more understandable way. Why CCP/SAFE hangs its hat so regularly and forcefully on these addendums is a bit strange if not humorous, actually. Gregory Luce St. Paul ===== "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
