Housing issues / eviction

A judge, not a landlord, should be the one to decide who has to leave the home when two people are living together and one has a protection order. And frequently, it has nothing to do with who is the primary tenant. For example, even if the abusive spouse is the sole owner of a home, the judge can still order them to leave and allow their abusive spouse to stay in the home. The same is true for an apartment. When parties are married, it may not matter to the judge who signed the lease and who didn’t. Both have rights to live there and usually the abusive spouse is the one who is excluded (not allowed) in the home to protect the victim.

How did the judge address this issue in the order? Does it say that your husband has to stay away from you? Does it list your address where you live? If you are not sure what the order says, you may want to show it to a lawyer [HYPERLINK] for advice – again, this is a legal issue, not something for a landlord to determine.

Usually, what happens is that one a victim gets a stay away order, the police/sheriff will serve it to the abuser and escort the abuser out of the home to allow the victim to return. If this didn’t happen, you may want to ask the police for help in making this happen. In some situations, if the police do not understand the terms of the order, it may be necessary to file in court to amend the order to ask the judge to clearly state that the abuser is excluded from the home and cannot return to the residence.

But hopefully a lawyer could call the police to ask for their help instead of having to go back to court if, in fact, you have a stay-away order.