MS

moved in july '08 with written rental agrmt. rent was to be $1000.00, per landlord- as long as water bill was under $100.00 he would pay it, since i agreed to pay electric bill.(his part of the house is upstairs but he lives with his girlfriend elsewhere. however his lights stay on 24/7 and 3 hrs every night his motor-home battery gets charged automatically. i agreed to this verbally) sept.'08 he verbally raised my rent $200.00 and has never put it in writing, yet i have paid it (idiot that i am) and have never been late on rent. jan. '09 he decided to evict me. not legally just notices i would find on my front door, back door, my REFRIDGERATOR! inside the house!, etc. he would call me at work, pop up at the house, NEVER with notice, be verbally abusive, all without a reason for eviction. so now he has done it legally, to which i answered the unlawful detainer and the court date has been set for may 11. he cashed 2 of the rent checks since he started the eviction but this months rent he returned. yet he still harrasses me, showed up the other day claiming he wanted to "assess the damages" assuming there are some. can he show up at the house whenever? can he make me pay the 2 water bills he already paid? and whats with the picture taking? and using his key to come in and do it? HELP! HE'S MAKING ME CRAZY!!!!!

Several questions come to my mind.

You said you had a written agreement with him. Was this a term lease or a month to month agreement? If a month to month, he can raise your rent by giving you the appropriate amount of notice. If a term lease, he can't change the terms without your consent.

You say he enters your unit without notice. What state are you in? Does the MS refer to your state or are they your initials? That would determine how much notice he has to give you to enter. Not all states require prior notice to entry. IF MS is the state, there is no requirement or statute requiring prior notice to entry. Look for s local city orfinance on this.

You said he has been giving you notices. What kind of notices? What do they say? Are these notices to move out within a certain amount of days? If you are in MS, he can give you a 30 day notice to vacate (without reason) if you have a month to month agreement. You have no recourse other than to move out. (If for non-payment, he should serve you a 3 day Pay or Quit notice. Rent and costs must be paid prior to removal to stay.) Since he is returning this month's rent, I am guessing he is giving you 30 days notice to get out on a m2m agreement. You must move if this is the case. You will have no defense in court if he has given you the 30 day notice. Many states allow notices taped to the door of the unit to be considered proper service. None allow service in a fridge!

You do not have to allow a pre-move out inspection. It is not uncommon for a LL to inspect before the tenant moves out if they know they will have to do some maintenance and repairs after the vacancy. This allows them to line up contractors before you vacate so they have the shortest "down" (unrented) time. As for photographs, are there damages he intends to charge you with? Do you have rule violations he wants to document for court?