We received a summons, and facing a no-cause eviction so we gave Ms. Powell a call. We also emailed a 2-page detailed document explaining our situation. I believe she did not read or understand our situation as stated in the document, as her advice was absolutely horrible.
First, she said our landlord could take it to trial, and it will "tank" our credit. Well, it would not tank our credit, as it had nothing to do w/ non-payment of rent (we were up-to-date and current with our rent) - this was a NO-CAUSE eviction.
Secondly, when I asked about the landlord putting the wrong address on the lease, she said the incorrect address would have "no traction at all." However, this played a huge role in our defense as the landlord was committing bank fraud by claiming our rental was owner occupied. The address on our lease was his physical address (across the street) so he could misrepresent our rental as his occupied residence.
Thirdly, the lease was never properly executed. The landlord emailed us a copy, we signed and emailed it back but never received a signed copy in return. (We did not know at the time the address was different as we lived out-of-state.)
Our case had a lot more to this (as stated in my 2-page detailed document), but I only highlighted a few of the issues that Ms. Powell responded to with her "advice". In addition, we were only asking to stay in the rental 2-3 more months until our new house was built.
Ms. Powell also advised that "it would be better" to just move out before we could be evicted. This would mean finding temporary housing, moving our 4-bedroom house into storage and then moving it from storage into the new house, and boarding 3 pets.
We hired another lawyer who listened to our story and was extremely confident we had a strong case. He turned out to be a godsend and we won with flying colors.
Do yourself a favor, if you have a case with a variety of twists & turns like we had, find another lawyer who can handle something more complicated. Perhaps this was above Ms Powell's capabilities or she did not care, as after our first call and a couple of email exchanges, she never bothered to return any further calls from us. read more