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Comment by gentryb | Hacker News Reader

This hit me personally (somewhat) yesterday - I'm not being evicted, but learned that my apartment was rented out from me during the COVID-19 crisis (used in past tense) yesterday. Struggling with enough other things that a move certainly wasn't envisioned in my future.

I was already dealing with a ton of uncertainty, but this one now takes the cake.

Unfortunately, I was predicting something like this while volunteering at the homeless shelter. More people are closer to being homeless than they realize. Little did I know it might be me.

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Just as a heads up: Assuming this is due to lease being up and the landlord deciding not to allow you to renew, I'm pretty sure the landlord is required to give 30 days notice if you've rented for less than a year, and 60 days notice if you've lived there for more than a year. I'm not a lawyer, but might be worth looking into if they did not follow the proper process.

Thank you for this response. I'm looking into my options - I'm pretty sure it varies state by state.

While not what I wanted to do, I'll likely be on the phone with our tenant resource center to find out more once open.

> I'm not being evicted, but my apartment was rented out from me

Non-USian here: what's the distinction?

I should have said rented out from under me - It was rented by someone sight unseen in the middle of COVID without them notifying me I wouldn't be able to renew my lease.

Is this a thing in the US? In most of the world that would be impossible without the landlord giving proper notice that they're not going to let you renew, and a legally permissible reason why.

Further down they say the lease ends in August depending on the state that's probably enough time given they're probably not just finding this out today. I don't think they're forced to have a particular reason for not renewing in the States just a notification period. (not 100% sure I only rented for a few years and never had to really dig in on my local rights)

I absolutely knew the lease ended in August. There was no notification, until yesterday, that my home had already been rented out. I also had the intention to renew said lease, but it's all up in the air at this point.

That sounds illegal. But maybe not worth fighting for.

At this point, fighting may make the difference as to if I am homeless for my 40th birthday. I spent 6 months in a wheelchair in this apartment in the last year. Moving isn't something that I can physically do myself - and family is several states away.

Not OP but my guess is that a new tenant signed the lease to move in. So, not evicted, but no chance to renew the existing lease.

Wait, what? they're not evicting you they're just going to rent your flat out while you're still in it? How is that even possible?

Did your annual lease end and you were leasing monthly?

The annual lease ends in August. I'm still struggling with how this all could have happened. They scheduled a showing, and then told me the people looking had already rented the place sight unseen. I've been here for 2.5years BTW.

FWIW I've moved twice during COVID and have had zero issues. In fact apartments are basically draining out of people because they're moving back home or couples are combining rent so the occupancy rates in some of the nicest places in my $bigcity are only at 80% and the concessions are up into the 8 weeks free territory.

I'm moving again in a few weeks and I'm not concerned at all. I also moved to a brand new state on April 1st. That was a really weird few weeks for sure but it's fine now. Masks are everywhere, virtual tours or self-show only.

Obviously not factoring in that you don't WANT to move here just saying that if you're worried about the process it will probably be fine apart from possibly having to decide on a place via a Skype tour.

Where is this? Depending on where, tenant laws may prevent your immediate eviction if you continue to pay your rent, even after the lease expires.

Hesitant to say this, but WI

I would strongly recommend making a post on reddit's r/legaladvice and explaining your situation to them.

Entering your home without your consent is definitely illegal. You might be able to use the threat of suing over that alone as something to get your landlord to renew your lease (e.g. have a lawyer write a letter about them entering your home without your consent, and offering lease renewal as the "settlement"/alternative to going to court over it.)

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