Sister threatening to sell house

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You don't get free legal advice for a Hail Mary cause of action. If you did, the line of clients at Legal Aid would be out the door and around the block.

Wut?

Anyone can get free legal advice for any legal issue here in Canada and Likely in the USA. Typically you can get a half hour consult - which can run over time and you get more info for free. Pretty well all lawyers of all types give a free half hour "sample," in hopes that you then hire them for that case or future legal issues.

You can contact a law firm, schedule an appointment for your 1/2 hour, ask questions you've pre-written, get answers.. then think about things, and if you have a bunch more questions, call a different lawyer and use 1/2 hour there to get more info on the rest of your questions.. rinse & repeat if you have to.

I've only ever met with a lawyer for a free consult once for one issue, and then had a 1/2 hour over the phone for a different one. Each time I had enough info to proceed. The second one was for some business issues for my friend's company, and he then hired them for other stuff so their free sample worked out well for them.

/\ Yeah, legal aid consult is free.If they can’t help you they tell you it’s a lost cause.If you’re eligible ,they take your case.

And then there are law societies and student lawyers etc. There are ways to get a bit of free info, then read up on things yourself, so that even if you can't afford a lawyer and aren't eligible for a free one (I think that's only for criminal law - public defenders) then at least you're not going in totally blind.

FWIW, my first time legal experience was with the BC Human Rights Tribunal back in about 2016 and I didn't want to pay $300/hr to a human rights lawyer to defend me when the whole case was so batshit crazy And I had evidence to support my version of events - in large part because I had created a thread about it here on WP long before I knew there were even any allegations towards me, so I had time stamped evidence from my thread of what my story was. Anyways, utilized the 30 minutes, represented myself, won.

The second case was info about evicting a commercial tenant that was tons of trouble. Got info, proceeded, that guy eventually moved even though he caused a lot of headaches and police calls etc. But we won and so far there's no additional lawsuits I'm aware of - but never know - he could file some BS and have a nonsense case go to trial in the next few years even I have no idea; also don't care because this guy is also nuts and I would win.

Ironically, it's the same scumbag bottomfeeder lawyer that represented both of those whackos and I/we won both times. Must be one of those "I'll sign any letter you want for $300," type lawyers I guess. Whatever - he's going to Hell.

“In general, the family's income may not exceed 50% of the median income for the county or metropolitan area in which the family chooses to live.” Section 8 eligibility rules.

The above is the guideline for section 8 housing. I am thinking you live in California. If you made $29,000/year, you would be eligible if the median income in your county was $58,000 or more.

My impression is that income levels are very high in California, over $58,000. The median income in L.A. is $98,000/year.

I’m not disagreeing with you. It is certainly possible you fall into the trap of the working poor; people who because they work, don’t qualify for help, but because they work at low wages, can’t afford necessary things like food, a home, medical care, etc.

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the Public Housing Authority's website says that gross monthly income limit for one person: $ 1383; and net monthly income limit for one person: $1064. my income is above both of those limits.

i do not live in los angelos. i would post the website, but i do not want strangers on the internet to know where i live.

mean, median, mode, and standard deviation are all four different things.

los angelos is a lot more expensive to live in than the city that i live in. on the other hand, some parts of los angelos are more expensive than others.

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she might want to sell the house for many different reasons. for example, if she sold the house, she would no longer have to waste time, energy and cash on maintaining the house.

in the email, she made it sound like selling the house is my punishment for bothering her too often (about things such as the dryer not working), but maybe even if i did not bother her, she would still want to sell the house. and she could still sell the house. i have zero "rights", not even the right to remain silent.

i am paranoid that if i tattled to animal control, the neighbors would take out revenge on me.

How much is the house worth? Curious.

Could you afford to pay Some amount of rent on your income and in your budget?



Nothing you can change about it now, but in hindsight it may have been best not to even tell her about a dryer not working and to either have it repaired or replaced yourself or just hang clothes to dry on a rack. Living rent free and just paying taxes is quite the housing cost savings. (Mind you, property taxes could be quite a bit - especially as a percentage of your income.)

Sadly, if your sister decides to sell the house, there is not much you can do about it . . . unless . . . you can prove, in court, that (1) you are legally entitled to handicapped status, and (2) you have have legally lived in that house for a minimum amount of time, with or without a written lease or rental agreement.

I am basing this on my SIL's case; she rented a house to one person (with a rental agreement), who invited another person to live there as well (without a rental agreement).  The first person died, and she could not get the other person to leave without going through a lengthy and expensive eviction procedure.  She finally won the case (and got the house back), but it may take years to recover the legal fees and lost rent.

This happened in California.  The laws in your state may be different.  You may need a lawyer.

Although you may have legal rights, I think that will be a difficult road for you to pursue. I know I wouldn't be able to do it, and you say you have difficulty with things in general (as do I, but your difficulties seem like they might be even more pronounced).

If you can work something out amicably with your sister, I think that would be a better route. If you can get her off your back by just not bothering her with problems (even though you have every right to), that would be my choice if I were in your position.

Is there anyone else who can help you solve day-to-day problems at the house without asking your sister? Maybe a social service agency? A social worker? If not, can you just let them go? Live with a not-working dryer, ignore the dogs? I know that's not ideal, but that's probably what I would try to do.

I was just using LA as an example. I agree you should not post your location in a public forum. I was just trying to give you an idea of possibilities to explore. I have looked over available information on the internet and I still think it is possible you qualify. Another resource I found said you would qualify if you were under 80% of average income for your area. The more money you earn, the less the value of the voucher.

There are some advocacy agencies that provide free assistance to people looking for government benefits. If you are interested, I can post some of those links. I have not worked with any of these agencies, but some you can do by computer and don't have to talk on the phone. Or you can just google "section 8" and look at the possibilities.

Without other options, I would agree with others here who suggest quit asking your sister for help as she seems to resent any time or money spent to help you. That is unfortunate but it is not uncommon, I am sorry to say.