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Garnished from landlord

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kramnordstrom

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio Hi everyone i am writing on here to hopefully get some advise because i have never been to court before and don't know much about what to do . I will try to explain everything that is going on the best i can. OK so i was staying at a house with only one month left on my lease and had to leave. A month prior to this she was trying to sell me the house for cheap like 18,000 because the house wasn't really great. Anyways i come to find out from my work that she took me to court for the max 3000 in small claims court and got a default judgment against me because my mom had signed papers serving me because i was letting her stay with me at the time . When i talked to her about it she said she didn't sign anything. Now i am paying 3000 which is almost a 4th of what she was trying to sell me the house for. also i will have this garnishment on my credit for 7 years . I have tried to file a motion to vacate judgment and it got denied everyone i have talk to about this Legal aid and the judge said something doesn't seem right but cant give me any help said i need to higher a lawyer in order to do anything . I guess my question is is there any thing i can do to get the judgement off of me i have paid 2000 already i don't care about the money even tho i feel like she is not entitled to it i'm more concerned with the judgment on my credit report is there anything i can do ? any advise is greatly appreciated :)
 


Ohiogal

Queen Bee
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio Hi everyone i am writing on here to hopefully get some advise because i have never been to court before and don't know much about what to do . I will try to explain everything that is going on the best i can. OK so i was staying at a house with only one month left on my lease and had to leave
Why did you have to leave? How much was your rent? Was the house damaged in anyway?

A month prior to this she was trying to sell me the house for cheap like 18,000 because the house wasn't really great. Anyways i come to find out from my work that she took me to court for the max 3000 in small claims court and got a default judgment against me because my mom had signed papers serving me because i was letting her stay with me at the time .
Your mother is over the age of 18 and was living with you. That is proper residential service.

When i talked to her about it she said she didn't sign anything.
Did you check the court file?

Now i am paying 3000 which is almost a 4th of what she was trying to sell me the house for.
$3000 is 1/6 of $18000.
also i will have this garnishment on my credit for 7 years . I have tried to file a motion to vacate judgment and it got denied everyone i have talk to about this Legal aid and the judge said something doesn't seem right but cant give me any help said i need to higher a lawyer in order to do anything .
The motion to vacate was denied most likely because service was found to be proper. How long ago was this decision?

I guess my question is is there any thing i can do to get the judgement off of me i have paid 2000 already i don't care about the money even tho i feel like she is not entitled to it i'm more concerned with the judgment on my credit report is there anything i can do ? any advise is greatly appreciated :)
If it has been more than 30 days since the motion to vacate was denied, you are out of time for an appeal by right. You could attempt a discretionary appeal but that could be denied.
 

kramnordstrom

Junior Member
Thanks for your reply!

Why did you have to leave? How much was your rent? Was the house damaged in anyway? I Left the house because i couldn't afford to live there after my brother left i know it was a bad choice to get a place i couldn't afford by myself . My rent was 500 a month. The only thing i could see her even trying to say would be damaged would be the carpet. but the whole house was kind of in bad shape. Wouldn't she have to show receipts for what she replaced all she had in the hearing i went to witch i couldn't defend myself was a piece of paper with what she thought i owed .

Did you check the court file? I checked it the last name is scribbled in and you can barely make it out ....so even if my mom did sign and didn't tell me about it there's nothing i can do about that ?


The motion to vacate was denied most likely because service was found to be proper. How long ago was this decision? It was just around 30 days ago that they denied it ....do you think i'm going to have to higher a lawyer ? and can i even get that judgement off of me ?
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
Thanks for your reply!

Why did you have to leave? How much was your rent? Was the house damaged in anyway? I Left the house because i couldn't afford to live there after my brother left i know it was a bad choice to get a place i couldn't afford by myself . My rent was 500 a month. The only thing i could see her even trying to say would be damaged would be the carpet. but the whole house was kind of in bad shape.
So you broke the lease early. You owed at least $500 plus costs of rerenting plus rent left on the lease if she couldn't re-rent the house. So how many months were left on the lease? Was there a termination fee for the lease? Were there outstanding bills? All of those could be charged to you.

Wouldn't she have to show receipts for what she replaced all she had in the hearing i went to witch i couldn't defend myself was a piece of paper with what she thought i owed .
So you showed up at the hearing after being served. You had a chance then to ask for a continuance OR proceed with your defense.

Did you check the court file? I checked it the last name is scribbled in and you can barely make it out ....so even if my mom did sign and didn't tell me about it there's nothing i can do about that ?
Nope. That would be proper service. The time to dispute service was in your first appearance at court. You did not do that apparently.

The motion to vacate was denied most likely because service was found to be proper. How long ago was this decision? It was just around 30 days ago that they denied it ....do you think i'm going to have to higher a lawyer ? and can i even get that judgement off of me ?
Just around doesn't help. You have thirty days from the time stamped entry to file an appeal. Not about thirty days. BUT THIRTY DAYS. And yes you would need to hire an attorney because you do not comprehend the law and I do not believe you would be able to argue the legal basis for your appeal as a pro se.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio Hi everyone i am writing on here to hopefully get some advise because i have never been to court before and don't know much about what to do . I will try to explain everything that is going on the best i can. OK so i was staying at a house with only one month left on my lease and had to leave. A month prior to this she was trying to sell me the house for cheap like 18,000 because the house wasn't really great. Anyways i come to find out from my work that she took me to court for the max 3000 in small claims court and got a default judgment against me because my mom had signed papers serving me because i was letting her stay with me at the time . When i talked to her about it she said she didn't sign anything. Now i am paying 3000 which is almost a 4th of what she was trying to sell me the house for. also i will have this garnishment on my credit for 7 years . I have tried to file a motion to vacate judgment and it got denied everyone i have talk to about this Legal aid and the judge said something doesn't seem right but cant give me any help said i need to higher a lawyer in order to do anything . I guess my question is is there any thing i can do to get the judgement off of me i have paid 2000 already i don't care about the money even tho i feel like she is not entitled to it i'm more concerned with the judgment on my credit report is there anything i can do ? any advise is greatly appreciated :)
**A: the only way would be to pay off the debt in full including any other courts costs, legal fees etc. if these costs were included in the default judgement.
 

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