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My mom rents a house from a neighbor. I live in another state. This neighbor is doing some questionable things, like watering her own horses with my mom's water faucet outside, thus running up the water bill for my mom, which is completely wrong, but my mom has allowed this woman to take advantage of her. This shady neighbor has also been hateful to me for 2 yrs, at one point harassing me through text while I was on vacation, even though I told her to stop (I blocked her # to prevent further harassment). I was planning on going to see my mom this summer to help get her house organized and in order, find her important papers, and getting a Power of Attorney signed, among other things. My mom told her landlord I was going to visit, and the landlord said that I wasn't welcome there. Not welcome to visit my own mother who needs assistance with several things? Would a power of attorney prevent this landlord from barring me from the property? Even if she didn't want me there now, at some point my mom will pass, then what? I can't enter the house to get my mom's things? If a power of attorney won't help, then what can I do?

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I agree with "notgoodenough" here. I think you are going to need to make other living arrangements for Mom. A landlord does not have the right to tell a tenant who they can have and can't have to visit. That water thing should have been dealt with years ago. Mom should only be paying for her usage.

Your Mom is showing signs of cognitive decline. My Mom was president of a class she was part of. This one day she made a point to tell me she had everything in order. We got to the meeting and she could not find anything and became overwhelmed. A fellow member was a nurse and brought Moms confusion to my attention. It was the beginning of Dementia.

You are not with your Mom 24/7. You don't see how she is in late afternoon early evening when sundowning happens. The only person she can rely on is the neighbor. If my Moms neighbor landlord told me I couldn't stay, I would go anyway just because I would wonder why and what may be going on.
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I assume that mom and landlord live in 2 separate residences. Is there a lease? While a lease might be able to limit the *number* of people a renter can have in the home at any given time, it can't specify WHICH person is not allowed to enter. The landlord would need an order of protection for that. Does the landlord have an order of protection against you? If not, I would visit and to hell with the landlord's permission.

There is obviously some history here that you haven't told us, and that's fine. If this landlord is/has been taking advantage of your mom, your best bet might be to find other living arrangements for mom. If you don't trust this landlord, then it's probably not a good idea to leave mom there, especially as mom's mental capacity further declines. If landlord is already taking advantage of mom, and mom is unwilling or unable to tell her to stop, I can only envision that getting worse as time goes on; and with you in another state, it will be harder for you to keep an eye on things, as it were.

Good luck.
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Gen, from your description, your mom is in dire need of more assistance. It sounds like she is increasingly dependent on the landlord. And can't find her "important papers"? Not good.

By what authority does this landlord say you can't visit your mom in her rental unit? Show up, take mom to en eldercare attorney to draw up POA and go with mom to a doc appointment. Let the doc know beforehand the troubles your mom is having with daily living.
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Should your Mom pass the executor of her will has legal power to pursue removing her belongings, so we can eliminate the problem with that.
A POA acts FOR a person who creates them POA by request only to do as they are directed by that person. Therefore, as POA you will act at your Mom's direction. A POA doesn't have a right to "move in" at will if a lease designates how many persons or what persons may occupy the premises. Caregivers can come and go as needed. The POA then, if the person is no long COMPETENT to act for herself will act in her best interest. In this case that would mean removal from the rental property to live with family or to have other safe placement.
It is my fear that your contentious relationship with your Mother's landlord is going to get your Mother removed from her property. Is your mother ASKING YOU to intervene as regards water for horses, and other things? Or are you doing this on your own? If the latter, you have no right to do these things without your Mom's direction or permission, and wouldn't have if you were POA either.
When you visit your Mother plan on staying in a Motel. It isn't worth ticking off this landlord.
Any emails of course are now part of a log that cannot be erased. Retrieve and save them and begin to keep a diary of all actions and interactions.
I wish you the best of luck.
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Genamic Apr 2022
There is a signed lease. I asked her to find it. She's frustrated and doesn't want to look for it in her mess of papers, which is another reason I was going down there. Her mental capacity is diminishing , but not enough for a Dr to say she needs a caregiver. Just age related stuff. I'm not dealing with all the unscrupulous things the landlord is doing, I simply want to go clean her house and find important documents.
As far as telling the landlord I DO NOT TALK TO HER AT ALL. I repeatedly told my mom NOT to say anything to the landlord or anyone else, and she let it slip in conversation to her yesterday. This is part of the problem, her mind is fuzzy and can't remember certain things. There is no point in going down now, since I can't go to the house to help her.
She absolutely refuses to go into assisted living or nursing home. She hates Texas and doesn't want to live here. She can't handle ANYTHING with anything the slightest bit mentally difficult, she gets upset then shuts down. So my only option is to help her where she's at. She also can't afford to move into anything more expensive than where she is now, so she's literally stuck in a bad situation. I don't know what else I can do for her.
The audacity of the landlord to tell her that her only child can't come visit is hateful.
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First of all, is there an actual written, signed lease agreement? If not, then it gets a little trickier and your mom may need legal counsel.

If there is a signed lease, then your mom needs to read it. Here is what I found through a very quick search online:

"No Texas statute addresses landlord's entry, but Texas courts have held that a landlord may not enter the rental property unless entry is authorized by the lessee. Once a residential property is leased, the landlord's ability to enter the rental unit is diminished."

You are free to visit your mom. She is free to have anyone she wants to visit her. Her landlord is a d-bag. If there currently isn't a written lease I'd come up with one (you can find many online or at sites like Legalzoom.com or Rocketlawyer.com) and have them both sign it to avoid this mess in the future, or better yet: find your mom a better place to rent from a trustworthy person.

Also: stop telling the landlord any of your or your mom's business: plans about visiting, talking to an attorney, looking for other digs, etc. The element of surprise makes for a strong offense.

Hopefully your mom's been paying her rent by check and not cash so there's proof of her renting. If not, she's got to start doing this whether or not the landlord wants it that way. Your mom holds most of the cards in this issue, so don't waste it on being clueless. Invest the money to get smart guidance from an attorney experienced in these matters if there's no written lease.
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