Landlord is suing my sister

[JGilleland]

Jurisdiction

Missouri

My sister and brother in law are currently staying with us due to being evicted from their room that they were renting from a young man. Verbal agreement was made between my brother in law only. They've lived there for about a year now and were paying $400 a month. Plus my sister was cooking, cleaning and taking care of laundry and monitoring him every single night due to extreme drinking resulting in unconsciousness for this landlord, who lived in the house upstairs and his roommate. My brother in law was doing yardwork and home repairs due to the house being hit by a car last year. Now the landlord is suing my sister, who did not make the verbal agreement. The landlord states that they owe him $6000 in back rent, which would indicate that they never paid rent to him the entire time they lived there. This landlord drinks and drives, including 3 motor vehicle accidents involving the injury of my brother in law (for which he was seen in the ER). What rights do my sister have?

 

[Zigner]

Please have your sister and/or brother-in-law log on with their own account in order to ask their own questions. They are likely to have information that you are not presently privy to. Thank you for understanding.

 

[adjusterjack]

They've lived there for about a year now and were paying $400 a month.

Do they have documentation of those payments? Receipts? Cancelled checks?

That's about the only part of your post that's relevant.

And when you say "is suing" do you mean that your sister was served a summons to court attached to a complaint?

Or something else?

 

[JGilleland]

She got something in the mail about a court date. No summons

 

[Zigner]

She got something in the mail about a court date. No summons

This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. Please have your sister log on with her own account to ask her own questions. She has information that you simply don't have.

 

[zddoodah]

They've lived there for about a year now and were paying $400 a month.

Were paying? Or were supposed to be paying?

The landlord states that they owe him $6000 in back rent, which would indicate that they never paid rent to him the entire time they lived there.

You mentioned that they lived there "about a year." What exactly does that mean? $6k is 15 months at $400 per month.

This landlord drinks and drives, including 3 motor vehicle accidents involving the injury of my brother in law (for which he was seen in the ER).

Are you saying that your bro-in-law was injured as a result of his landlord's negligent driving? If so, was a claim made against the landlord's liability insurance?

What rights do my sister have?

Creating a list of rights would be beyond pointless.

Your sister should be liable for the verbal lease made between her husband and the landlord. However, if your bro-in-law has a personal injury claim against the landlord, that should be asserted as a counterclaim.

 

[adjusterjack]

This landlord drinks and drives, including 3 motor vehicle accidents involving the injury of my brother in law

You mean your brother-in-law was injured three times in three accidents that occurred while the landlord was drinking and driving?