Question About Going In A Rental

Anyone know if my landlord can kick me out of my (his) house for growing and possessing my permitted quantity of marijuana? I'm only a couple months into a year lease, and nowhere in the lease does it say anything about cardholders or growing/possessing marijuana, legal or not.

I ask because the only place to grow is in the garage, and my landlord has a few boxes in there along with a key. I've got a locked box for growing in the garage, but he will probably hear the fans running and want to know what's in there.

Lastly, my landlord is also my uncle, but he's insanely dead set against medical marijuana and will undoubtedly give me an ultimatium: Get out, or quit growing and stay. I'm wondering if I should just tell him up front and get it over with, or not worry about it. After all, I wouldn't make it a point to tell him if I were taking any other doctor recommended medication.

I wouldnt tell anyone I'm growing. Especially if he has a key he may feel a right to them if its his property come harvest time even if hes against pot he aint against money. But if he's your uncle and he finds em he probably wont call the cops and your legal anyway.

ExtremeMetal43 said:

I wouldnt tell anyone I'm growing. Especially if he has a key he may feel a right to them if its his property come harvest time even if hes against pot he aint against money. But if he's your uncle and he finds em he probably wont call the cops and your legal anyway.

Click to expand...

Agreed.

I could care less about the police showing up, I just want to know if a cardholder can be kicked out of their rental by the landlord because he doesn't want you growing marijuana on the property, regardless of whether or not it is legal.

your card allows you to posses medical marijuana, thats it. It isnt a "grow wherever" and all is good card. If the landlord wants to kick you out, you are out.

Well insurance won't cover anything related to a marijuana grow regardless of whether it's medical or not. I don't see how that liability can be forced on an owner. If they find out they can kick you out.

jamiesname said:

Anyone know if my landlord can kick me out of my (his) house for growing

Click to expand...

and possessing my permitted quantity of marijuana? I'm only a couple months into a year lease, and nowhere in the lease does it say anything about cardholders or growing/possessing marijuana, legal or not.

I ask because the only place to grow is in the garage, and my landlord has a few boxes in there along with a key. I've got a locked box for growing in the garage, but he will probably hear the fans running and want to know what's in there.

Lastly, my landlord is also my uncle, but he's insanely dead set against medical marijuana and will undoubtedly give me an ultimatium: Get out, or quit growing and stay. I'm wondering if I should just tell him up front and get it over with, or not worry about it. After all, I wouldn't make it a point to tell him if I were taking any other doctor recommended medication.

Click to expand...

Check your lease but yes any criminal offense on rented property are grounds for eviction. If your uncle hates dope, grow somewhwere else.

Checked over my lease for the second time. It says nothing about growing anything, nor does it say anything pertaining to medical marijuana. I did notice that it says that the landlord is required to "give reasonable notice before entering the premises" which he doesn't, he just pops in so if anything ever went to court I'd have that to fall back on at the very least.

My uncle and I get along great, but I'm just trying to get my bases covered and set up a reasonable defense in case anything were to happen.

Also I'm using CFL's so I can probably get away with multiple smaller, quieter fans in the grow box. Toss some activated charcoal into the equation and it should be unnoticeable. Lastly I figured that I would just replace the lock on the garage door. If he comes over to try and get in, I'll tell him that I broke the key in the lock on accident, because it does stick and is hard to turn, so I just picked up a new lock instead of bothering him about it.

He could serve you a 24 hours notice and it would be for real.

last time.

DONT DO IT

jamiesname said:

Checked over my lease for the second time. It says nothing about growing anything, nor does it say anything pertaining to medical marijuana. I did notice that it says that the landlord is required to "give reasonable notice before entering the premises" which he doesn't, he just pops in so if anything ever went to court I'd have that to fall back on at the very least.

My uncle and I get along great, but I'm just trying to get my bases covered and set up a reasonable defense in case anything were to happen.

Also I'm using CFL's so I can probably get away with multiple smaller, quieter fans in the grow box. Toss some activated charcoal into the equation and it should be unnoticeable. Lastly I figured that I would just replace the lock on the garage door. If he comes over to try and get in, I'll tell him that I broke the key in the lock on accident, because it does stick and is hard to turn, so I just picked up a new lock instead of bothering him about it.

Click to expand...

There is none. Insurance will not cover anything related to a grow. He has absolutely no benefit to allow anyone to grow on his property, but would be assuming a huge risk. If the house burns down and the insurance company determines it was related to growing marijuana in any way he will get nothing from them.

I'm pretty sure you have no legal leg to stand on. And I don't see why anyone would allow a grow. The risk is there, but not the reward.

I wouldn't do it....yes he could evict you for it...

As much as I wanted you guys to tell me what I wanted to hear, I'm glad you didn't. After two weeks of consideration I've decided not to grow (sort of) until I get my own place. Since I already built my grow room, I do intend to grow some tomatoes and various peppers in there though just to hone my skills. Considering that whenever I get the chance to grow will be my first, I figure I could use all the practice that I can get. I intend to treat it the same as I would if I were growing my own medicine, the only difference will be the plants.

Lastly, what are your guys' opinions on growing in this house if I were to enter into a land contract to purchase this house from my Uncle? The maintenance of the house would become my responsibility and he would have to get his belongings out of the garage so there would be no chance of him finding it. I know most of the main arguments were that insurance doesn't cover damage due to medical marijuana grows such as fires, but the same would be true regarding a mortgage as well, so in essence it would be the same thing.

DON'T DO IT! You need a good care giver dude.

In that case you might be good.

I change the locks on my rented property, then if i have to move, i just replace. Tell your unc that you need that area for storage. Or put it all in a storage unit and give him a key to it. (Had to do this a few years ago with a jetski)

oh my god all u guys r such scardy cats dude, come on its the o.p.s uncle, we shud be motivating fellow patients to grow there own not scaring em away from doing it. Ive grown in apartment and in one case my b.m. went and snitched me out to the onsite property manager and my boy the maintenance guy called me and told me the property manager wanted to check out my apartment so that night we took everything down real quick and in the morning the property manager came by and saw the closet on the patio was all filled up with recycling and kids toys and told me sorry for bugging you and believing that crazy bitch. anyways moral of the story is growing marijuana for someone who loves it is a very relaxing rewarding hobby and i would encourage anyone who wants to try it and has the legal right to do it shud do it.
change the locks like you said and jus put your recomendation up if he says it you think your uncle would kick you out without the chance to jus break it down??
and you never know he might see the doctors recomendation and not bug you about it.
And insurance only doesnt cover a house if the reason it burnt down was BECAUSE of the grow. if it is something else that damaged the house insurance would still cover it and your not gunna burn the house down with cfls.

The owners insurance covers 'criminal activity' as long as the owner is not aware of the activity prior to a claim.
I do a fair amount of insurance repair work in my tradework, and it has always been this way.

I guess it's like this: If you can demonstrate need for medicine to your Uncle then you should be honest and hope for the best.
Most reasonable people will be agreeable if you state your case and a little history.
If you can't demonstrate need then don't grow on his property knowing he is dead set against MM because of people who don't 'need' cards in his minds eye having them.

There are two clauses in most leases that can be used to evict someone for mmj: "for lawful purposes only" and "must follow all state and federal laws." If neither appears in your lease you are probably golden. Maybe you could scan a copy of your lease, black out the sections that identify you, and share it with us? (If you don't feel comfortable sharing it publicly, PM it to me and I'll take a look.)

The MMMA of 2008 seems to prohibit evictions, but the courts so far have not been friendly. Maybe someday when it reaches the MI Supreme Court, things will change.

Sec. 4. (a) A qualifying patient who has been issued and possesses a registry identification card shall not be subject to arrest, prosecution, or penalty in any manner, or denied any right or privilege, including but not limited to civil penalty or disciplinary action by a business or occupational or professional licensing board or bureau, for the medical use of marihuana in accordance with this act ...

Click to expand...

Regardless of whether your lease specifically mentions growing marijuana (or anything for that matter) if it states no illegal activities then he is well within his legal rights to kick you out. It is not about the growing, it is about the criminal act. Unless your medical card states you can grow it without breaking the law then you are committing a criminal act.

Why isn't there anywhere in the house to grow it? A couple plants don't take up much room I would think

it hasn't yet been challenged in court, addressing the OP. My good friend has many rental properties and while he is for the MJ he is also all for knowing his rights so after a few lawyers talked to him he has found he has no legal standing to do anything for or against tennants growing. so in short, if your landlord wants to he can do what he wants and then have his day in court and see if the court agrees. that's all he got out of his research. federally he can get fucked for knowing though, that's all that is crystal clear.