Preserve Strong Communities with Housing Mediation

At first, the case appeared to be a typical landlord-tenant dispute: The tenant, Debra, had a one year lease that had expired and the landlord, Chris, was seeking to evict her. Through conversation, the mediator learned that Debra and Chris were siblings, and that the house Debra was living in was the family home they were both raised in. The house had been owned by their father, who had died without a will. At some point, the siblings had agreed that the house would be put in Chris’s name, but that Debra would live there and pay rent. When the lease was up, Debra refused to leave and Chris sued her in eviction court.

Chris’s needs were largely financial. He had been paying nearly all the expenses generated by the home since their father’s death, and his sister’s rent payments had been erratic. He wanted to sell the house because it had become a burden. He believed he had bent over backwards to help his sister financially, but could no longer afford to burden his family by continuing to do so. Debra, on the other hand, was a single mother of three struggling financially and had a strong emotional attachment to the family home. She was attempting to get financing to purchase the home from her brother for $90,000, which Chris said was below the $110,000 market value of the home.

The mediator helped Chris and Debra talk through the issues and arrive at an agreement in which a judgment of possession was entered, but enforcement of that judgment was stayed for approximately 70 days. Debra agreed to pay rent during that time, and Chris agreed that if she got the necessary financing and paid the $90,000 purchase price the judgment of possession would be vacated. Debra agreed to move out if she could not secure financing by the agreed upon deadline. Debra and Chris came into the mediation with a lot of anger and resentment toward each other. The siblings were given time to express their concerns, develop greater understanding of what was happening for the other, and problem-solve together. By the end of the process they were laughing and smiling with each other.