Pushed out and Priced Out: Residents say they only have a few weeks to vacate after quadruplex is purchased by a new company

By Caresse Jackman

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    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — This time next month, Kanisha Johnson and Monica Smith do not know where they’re going to live.

“You’d end up sleeping in your car before you find something. I mean, it’s not right,” Kanisha Johnson said.

“I was unaware that the property was being sold or possibly being sold,” Monica Smith said

When it was sold, you can imagine the shock both women felt when this letter came to their door.

“They are trying to evict us in 30 days. Then, we get another message saying 60 days to vacate because they’ve taken over the property,” Smith said.

Smith is fighting this lease battle. She did her homework and found out more about fixed-term lease agreements.

“The state of Tennessee says that when property managers change, the new property owners bought our lease. And it needs to be honored until our lease expires,” Smith said.

What Smit is saying is true, but there is a catch.

“Looking through the lease agreement, I saw that there was a specific clause that dealt with sale of the property, specifically it was Clause 37 that said if the property is sold, then the owner, meaning the old owner or the new owner could terminate the lease agreement with 60 days’ worth of notice,” Zac Oswald, Managing Attorney Legal Aid Society’s Gallatin Office said.

News4 took Smith’s lease agreement to Legal Aid. Managing Attorney Zac Oswad says these clauses are a growing trend.

“Because property values are so high…that owners are thinking, I might sale my investment property –but what happens is the tenants may or may not completely read their lease agreement and may not realize that,” Oswald said.

Johnson says she feels like she’s being forgotten about.

“This whole neighborhood is being forgotten about,” Johnson said.

“The city has to come to terms with the fact that it has not done its due diligence in the housing supply,” P.A.T.H.E. Nashville said.

Sims is demanding that the city do more so that residents like Johnson and Smith aren’t priced out and pushed out.

“Nashville is a pro-growth city, but it is not making adequate accommodations for what’s happening to, especially indigenous people who have lived here for decades and have no idea how they’re going to negotiate these new housing prices and the constant displacement that many of them are experiencing,” Sims said.

Both Johnson and Smith don’t know what the future holds, but they will keep fighting to make sure they can stay in the place that they love.

“Just have some consideration. It’s certain families out here that’s homeless! Ain’t got nowhere to go, and still trying to find low-income housing. Give us some respect,” Johnson said.

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