In most states a 30 day notice of termination of tenancy is required,
and in California,  for instance, a shrewed tenant can exploit legal
loopholes and drag an eviction out for at least 5 months.

But if the department of public safety has the building condemned,
all bets are off.  

--
 -john
           wide-open at throttle dot info

~~~~~~~~
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries
of life: music and cats."  -Albert Schweitzer
~~~~~~~~

Take that arsehole to court, and purrs for a better place.

--Fil

Winnie, not all landlords are jerks.  I get the impression Karen's landlord
is the sole owner of the property.  Where I live, it's owned by a management
company with the financial resources behind it (and from their other
properties) so they don't have to behave in such a manner.

I've been in this same apartment for almost 9 years.  Not only have I never
had a problem, the rent increases have been very, very minimal.  I don't
have to tend a yard and whenever an appliance breaks they react immediately
and either fix or replace it.  My apartment is a spacious 2 bedroom with a
22-foot fenced patio.  All the dwellings in this complex are single-storey
(they are more like a townhouse type flat) so there's no upstairs/downstairs
neighbors to deal with.  And they are set up so there is at most only two
adjoining apartments.  In my case, there's only one next to me sharing an
adjoining wall.  No noise :)

When they found out I lost my job and it came time for the lease renewal,
the manager backed out the rent increase and also dropped the monthly pet
fee for Persia rather than lose a good, long-term tenant.  I'm not saying
all apartment complexes (or managers) would make such concessions, but there
are good ones out there.

Jill

The problem with south Florida is that property values have got so
high that they're turning every available apartment building into
condominiums... our rather old, rather poorly-maintained building was
sold for some outrageous sum back in January, and the new owner is
converting the apartments into condominiums and selling them off,
mostly to people who are investors  who will never live in the place
at all and don't care that they're only making minor cosmetic changes.
As condos they'll be able to sublet their property at a much higher
rate than we've been paying for rent. And they're hoping that the
housing prices keep on going up because then they can sell them in a
year or two and make a tidy profit (they think).
We had hoped to buy our own apartment so we could keep living in it,
because I like the area, but they wanted a totally outrageous price
for it.