I hope someone reads this, that can relate to my situation and could help me out.
I need a Civil Lawyer in the worst way. I’m not able to pay the Average $5000 retainer that almost all of them want (for a decent attorney with experience) up front.
I have tried to get a pro Bono one, which is almost impossible in my state. If I lived a couple hundred miles north, it would a possibility but as I have research for weeks now…its really a not gonna happen here!
I’ve checked the low income lawyer assistance sites, the bar association, and every probono page I could find. They were all willing to assist in filing paperwork, and how to fill it all out. Not go to court on your behalf with you, so you would have a fighting chance against people that have pretty good attorneys.
I have a great case against them too. There’s NO WAY they could beat me on this. I’ll give you the short version…
I moved onto a family friends property in my motor home, as I needed a serious surgery for a full pelvic collapse. Then covid hit and they stopped all “elective” surgeries until further notice. Still don’t see how it was considered elective?!?! Anyhow, it had been canceled and now the whole country was in lock down.
We had agreed that instead of paying rent, that I would HELP out on the property. They had 2 pregnant mares, a stray cat and acreage that had NOT been cared for in years, as well as a toddler. They both worked full time, and asked (before covid hit) if I would HELP with the2 horses, and Help out with yard stuff, and watch the little one when something would come up, or he would be sick and couldn’t go to daycare. Seemed agreeable to me. Oh yeah, as well as I would pay rent when I had my surgery and wouldn’t be able HELP do the physical things for a while. The first mistake I made…not getting anything in writing! Not sure if you seen the HELP them or not. That would mean they would be involved in some way. They were at first, but it gradually just stopped all together, and I was taking care of ALL 6 horses (the mares had their babies and they purchased 2 more), the now I think it was 10 chickens as well as 5 turkeys, their toddler full time as well as the property and having to keep up their house(for people that are beyond lazy as to picking up after themselves). Not to mention ALL the little projects the wife said needed done.
Mind that I was now having to work more hours than a full time job, and not being paid, just parking my motorhome on the property with an extension cord for power. No water and I paid every other month for my septic to be dumped. Sorry to have to tell you this, but back 5 years ago, the cost of an RV space with full hook up was only $350 a month plus electric at the coast. The hours and expected duties I was being asked to do so passed what I would have paid for rent ANYWHERE. I mean at minimum wage(then) of even $10hr at 40 hrs a week(5days a week( is $400 a week, right? What if your days went from let’s say 7:30 and ended anywhere from 5:30 to 8pm, with the usual NO call or notice of the common LATE evenings. And Heaven forbid you text and ask if they had a time frame on when they would be home, as they wouldn’t answer the majority of the time anyway.
So needless to say…my average work week was over 60 hours a week. Then there were the weekends when she would be home (he worked every other weekend at first) and expect me to still take care of ALL her animals and property. When I tried to say something about it to her, she would make a comment like ” maybe we’re not a good fit anymore”, and how the typical stall cleaners worked 7 days a week. When I told her that was a lie(as I previously worked at a 60+ stall facility) and only occasionally did they even work 6 days a week, and only to cover someone else when they were sick. Besides which, I wasn’t a stall cleaner. I had become a full time child care, house keeper, cook, landscaper, animal care taker, maintenance worker, etc. They were getting a lot more out of the arrangement than if I had just paid them rent. I got off track, sorry. Okay, at just 40hs=$400 a week, which is $1600 a month. Not counting the average let’s say15-25 hours extra each week about 8 months of the yr, and 10hrs a week extra the rest of the time. Oh yeah, did I mention that I was there to HELP them with these things!
All this would be hard for the average healthy person. Now, how do you think a person with multiple auto immune diseases, diabetes, and MS, as well as there because needed surgery, but covid still had all non life threatening surgeries put on hold, doing all this? Well that’s me, and when I had to leave the property recently for a devided 3 weeks to help my parents, all hell broke loose. I came back to a “you need to move,Now!”. What the H*llc?
After all these 5 yrs being here in my RV, she decided they aren’t set up for an RV. Why??? Because according to her.. ” you could have said No!” Excuse me, my mom is a double transplant recipient with numerous other health issues, and my dad is on dialysis. Both of which were extremely sick and in and out of hospital. But she had become accustomed to having a SLAVE around to bid her calling. She was pussed because I was helping someone else.
But my body has been through hell out here doing all this stuff for them, and already told them I couldn’t do everything anymore, so she was already irritated at that. But they were happy enough with my work, to ask if I wanted to move up to their other property that her mom gave them and help get it ready for a barn, home etc. To be put on it(10acres). I said I wasn’t sure about wether my body could take it or not, and left it at that. Now she is saying. That I’ve been here for 5 yrs and never even paid rent, that the agreement was to be for a fee months. EXCUSE ME???
What about all the work,the supplies never reimbursed for, even though promised I would get back? As well as all the projects done, like chicken coup, stall pasture making and leveling, cleaning hay barn, so it could hold hay, cleaning out barn as it was so covered in webs(it took 2 days with2 people to get it dome),getting a water line to barn(they ran into spicket attached to wall) they broke in about 2 weeks, burning piles and piles of rotten trees, brush, etc. That I cleaned up, and that doesn’t even include all the work done in the back yard.
What about the almost full yr of child care that you gave me $50 for, after telling me they paid $950 a month before me. And the cheapest quote gotten to put the water line in was I believe just under $12000. The moss taken off their roof, which they only Paid $100, and I did too because they were gone( going rate…over $2000), as well as the New John Deer Riding mower I was able to get them with a warranty for under $500(look them up), oh yeah, a $3500 metal carport (20′ × 30′) for $250, and another one(10×12) for $100, and the list goes on. All that was supposed to be covering my staying. But she just keeps saying I have been there 5 yrs and never paid rent!.
When I told her we could add up all the hours I have worked, projects done and money not reimbursed,and when I leave she would still owe me a boat load of money.
All I get from her is ” you were only supposed to stay a few months”, and when I asked her about her wanting me to stay, everything done and her wanting to go to the property, she doesn’t respond or threatens to have my motor home and car towed off.
All the while, she still won’t tell me why, all of the sudden she wants me gone.
I’m on a limited income, I can’t pay all at once what it will take to get the motorhome road ready(after sitting 5 yrs), filling the gas tank alone is over $200, then having to license it again is almost $300, and my flatbed she borrowed to haul hay then parked at her parents instead of here suddenly has no wiring, when it did have, and all worked when she used it, so that’s going to take a few hundred dollars, since they said they don’t know what happened to it and it’s not their concern. Really???
With these friends, I’d rather deal with enemies. Anyway I gotta get out of here. I don’t want to stay where I an not wanted. It’s gonna take both time and money. I hate to have to do it, but I want to get back the money I spent on supplies etc. I am still going thru my receipts, but the first yr alone is around $900. The way she keeps saying I never paid rent, I think they should have to pay me for ALL the hours I work, as well as the special(oversided) project I did, that saved them Thousands of dollars each. Then I can hand her the rent she wants and still have plenty of money to do everything needed and get off the property.
It’s time for me to finally take care of me. Oh yeah, I did have my surgery. Though now it needs redone, only now…they say I am gonna have to have a colostomy bag. The Dr isn’t sure if it would be temporary or permanent until he sees the damage that has happened fromm all the work, etc. Where I live.
So if you have ever been taken advantage of, to even a little bit of this extent, then you know what I am feeling and would/could donate to help me out.
I can add some before and after photos if requested.
the sad part about all this…i’ve known her husband for right around 30yrs., and still didnt know him like i thought i had.
My PayPal is @GMcCallister
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