text: Boy. Similar thing happened to us. We renegotiated our lease by text and phone. Reduced rent for a year from September to September. He agreed and took 8 months rent according to the agreement. His lawyer figured out a way to get around the moratorium and claimed since nothing was in writing we were on a month-to-month verbal lease. In that case a landlord is allowed to sue for eviction under no cause. He said he wanted the apartment for personal use. This after we lived there for six years, paid the first year in advance, and laid out 15 grand in improvements. Went from a slum to architectural Digest. They just wanted to steal it back. We fought it. Since our landlords were US Marshals no lawyer in New Orleans would take the case. Wanted to represent ourselves. When we went to the courthouse to observe trials to learn procedure, one of the marshals was there. He had us surrounded by Sheriff's and taken into a back room where we were illegally detained, a violation of our civil rights. I filed a public Integrity complaint with the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Department which was quashed. We are still in the process of looking at options including grand jury and civil lawsuit against everyone involved. We lost everything overnight and remain completely destroyed.