A single mom was horrified to find that she’d received an insensitive eviction notice from her landlord that included the use of the waving goodbye emoji. Sonja Lee lives at The Steeples apartment complex in Houston with her two sons but had recently fallen behind on rent because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, she never would have expected to find the shocking notice taped to her door.
- The landlord is facing some major heat for the letter. The top of the notice read, “Guess who’s moving? You!!!” with the giant waving goodbye emoji appearing just below it. “So y’all think it’s funny to antagonize the person that’s going through financial hardship with putting an emoji stating, ‘Guess who’s moving today?’ There was nothing funny about that,” Lee said, according to ABC 13 Houston.
- The notice made some pretty strict demands. “Pay your outstanding balance, or release your apartment and turn in your keys to the leasing office by 6:00 p.m. today. Eviction will be filed promptly Tuesday morning, 8/18/2020,” the letter continued.
- No, the notice isn’t legally binding. Making a picture in MS Paint and taping it to someone’s door doesn’t make the document official. “This notice doesn’t have any power (and) will not hold up in court,” Jon-Ross Trevino with Lone Star Legal Aid said. “Just because this notice is on your door, doesn’t mean the landlord is correct in what they’ve done.” Generally speaking, notices must appear inside the residence and residents must have at least three days before a filing is made.
- Lee lost her job for reasons out of her control. She was working at a local Jack in the Box but when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, her managers stopped putting her on the schedule. She’s been turned down for unemployment five times despite multiple appeals, leading her to fall behind on June and July’s rent. Lee says, however, that she spoke to the property managers about her situation.
- The management company claims the landlord was disciplined. Karya Property Management insisted that they appreciate the notice was insensitive and that they had disciplined the landlord who posted it. In addition, they claim it had only been used once, on Lee’s apartment. The company’s founder, Swapnil Agarwal, says that Lee is not being evicted and no filings have been made against her.
- Lee started a GoFundMe page to help her make ends meet. At the time of posting, she’s raised more than $40,000.
