Chrln_little
Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maryland
Approximately 4 days ago, we received a notice on the door from the sheriff stating that we were facing a failure to pay rent case at district court. I can prove that we do not owe ANYTHING to the claimant, but I am not sure which papers I should take to court. The case is supposed to be heard tomorrow morning, and with it being heard on the 23 of December, there is no chance of getting an attorney in time, or one that isn't going to charge me an arm and a leg to show up this close to Christmas, so the other defendants and I are on our own, so I came here for advice.
Dave owns approximately 50 properties in the county. Many of these properties cannot be rented at the time because they are not livable. Bob (my father) is a retired contractor who is still licensed in the State of Maryland. Because of boredom, Bob decided to work as a property manager for Dave to occupy his time. My mom is currently waiting to hear a decision on her disability case.
On October 1, 2014, we (Bob, Susan and myself entered into a rent-to-own agreement with Dave. For the purposes of this forum, I will change all of the names of the involved parties to make it read easier. Lets call them:
Deed holder – Dave
My father – Bob
My mother – Susan
The agreement between Dave and Bob was that Bob would work for Dave, OR pay the amount of $425 per month in order to satisfy the monthly agreement/monthly rent-to-own payment. All money earned in the course of working was to go to the mortgage/rent on the property.
The paper served by the sheriff is “FAILURE TO PAY RENT – LANDLORD'S COMPLAINT FOR REPOSSESSION OF RENTED PROPERTY REAL PROPERTY 8-401.”
In the paper that Dave gave us, he claims that:
1. Tenant refused access or to relocate/vacate during remedial work.
2. Tenant is responsible to pay the following amount of rent: $425, due on the 3rd of the month, which has not been paid or reduced to judgment. As of today, rent is due for the months of September through December 2015 in the total amount of $2,125.
3. He claims a late fee total of $105 also, for a total of “$2230.”
I probably do not need to point out that his math is faulty and when it is properly added, it only equates to $1,805.
Upon receiving this notice, I personally contacted Dave and asked for documents showing that we owed him this amount, other than what he filed with the court. On Sunday, he dropped off three papers. The papers consist of Dave's handwritten records for:
1. Hours of Rent/Mortgage (monthly summary)
2. Records of why Bob Quit working for him
3. Hours of Rent/Mortgage (weekly summary of hours)
Document 1 and 3 state pretty much the same thing. For space reasons, I will only put the monthly break-down here. This is exactly what Dave has written down:
Hours of Rent/Mortgage
October 2014 – 80 hours x $10 hour = $800
November 2014 – 88 hours x $10 hour = $888
December 2014 – 90 hours x $10 hour = $900
January 2015 – 100 hours x $10 hour = $1,000
February 2015 – 38 ½ hours x $10 hour = $385
March 2015 – 198 hours x $10 hour = $1,980
April 2015 – May 2015 – 195 hours x $10 hour = $1,950
June 2015 – 162 hours x $11 hour = $1,782
July 2015 – 113 hours x $11 hour = $1,245
$10,892 – paid
After fixing his faulty math again, we come up with exact amount paid in of $10,930.
Bob did not work for Dave during August or September because the rent was paid several months in advance and a friend of Bob's needed help remodeling his house. In this document, Dave refers to him as “Preacher” because of his occupation.
August 2015 – 0 hours x $11 hour = $0
September 2015 – 0 hours x $11 hour = $0
October 2015 – 26 hours x $11 hour = $292
November 2015 – 27 hours x $11 hour = $300
December 2015 – 4 x $11 hour = $44
_______________________________________
$ 640 – paid
Correct his math again and we have $636 paid directly into the rent/mortgage.
This means that in total, $11,532 has been paid directly into the mortgage/rent in the last 14 months. The total amount due to date is only $5950, which means that we are ahead in paying Dave by $5,582.
As far as us not letting him in the house to do repairs, we never asked him to and he never asked to come in the house. The only time he ever stopped by was to drop off a pizza and to ask me whether my dad was home or at the store. He NEVER asked verbally or in writing to come into the house for an inspection or for repairs.
Document #2 Break-down why Bob quit working for Dave:
1. Bob got attitude about me inquiring on hours.
2. Bob got attitude about 123 Blank Street due to his good name
3. Bob got attitude over 123 and 124 Blank Street over lead inspection.
4. Bob Started working for preacher without notice.
Bob quit working for Dave in December of 2015 completely because Dave was trying to cut corners on lead inspection and city code inspection. Also, Bob refused to sign rent-to-own documents as a property manager stating that “to the best of his knowledge, there is no lead paint on the premises,” in situations where lead paint was obvious and could be located visually.
Bob stated that as of the point when he quit working for Dave, that he would pay the payments in the form of check or money order only.
Today, Dave contacted me via text message asking about my mother's SSD settlement. Stated that he has a number he can call to check the status of her claim and asking for my mother to sign a promissory note giving him part of her disability settlement in exchange for dropping the case completely before court.
My question is, what information should I provide to the judge in the morning, and what information is just going to annoy him? I plan to only use documents that Dave produced because I know he cannot argue against himself or he will look like an idiot. I also know that eviction court allows you about 5 minutes to plead your case and get out.
Essentially, we want what anyone else in this situation would ask for, the right to either live in the house and use up the amount of rent/mortgage paid in, OR the overage amount given back so that we can find another rental. Using simple math, you can see that we have over paid by 11.8 months.
Given the information I have provided, would an eviction order be possible or is it possible that he would rule in our favor. According to the court house, they cannot tell us the amount of time the judge would give because every case is different.
Approximately 4 days ago, we received a notice on the door from the sheriff stating that we were facing a failure to pay rent case at district court. I can prove that we do not owe ANYTHING to the claimant, but I am not sure which papers I should take to court. The case is supposed to be heard tomorrow morning, and with it being heard on the 23 of December, there is no chance of getting an attorney in time, or one that isn't going to charge me an arm and a leg to show up this close to Christmas, so the other defendants and I are on our own, so I came here for advice.
Dave owns approximately 50 properties in the county. Many of these properties cannot be rented at the time because they are not livable. Bob (my father) is a retired contractor who is still licensed in the State of Maryland. Because of boredom, Bob decided to work as a property manager for Dave to occupy his time. My mom is currently waiting to hear a decision on her disability case.
On October 1, 2014, we (Bob, Susan and myself entered into a rent-to-own agreement with Dave. For the purposes of this forum, I will change all of the names of the involved parties to make it read easier. Lets call them:
Deed holder – Dave
My father – Bob
My mother – Susan
The agreement between Dave and Bob was that Bob would work for Dave, OR pay the amount of $425 per month in order to satisfy the monthly agreement/monthly rent-to-own payment. All money earned in the course of working was to go to the mortgage/rent on the property.
The paper served by the sheriff is “FAILURE TO PAY RENT – LANDLORD'S COMPLAINT FOR REPOSSESSION OF RENTED PROPERTY REAL PROPERTY 8-401.”
In the paper that Dave gave us, he claims that:
1. Tenant refused access or to relocate/vacate during remedial work.
2. Tenant is responsible to pay the following amount of rent: $425, due on the 3rd of the month, which has not been paid or reduced to judgment. As of today, rent is due for the months of September through December 2015 in the total amount of $2,125.
3. He claims a late fee total of $105 also, for a total of “$2230.”
I probably do not need to point out that his math is faulty and when it is properly added, it only equates to $1,805.
Upon receiving this notice, I personally contacted Dave and asked for documents showing that we owed him this amount, other than what he filed with the court. On Sunday, he dropped off three papers. The papers consist of Dave's handwritten records for:
1. Hours of Rent/Mortgage (monthly summary)
2. Records of why Bob Quit working for him
3. Hours of Rent/Mortgage (weekly summary of hours)
Document 1 and 3 state pretty much the same thing. For space reasons, I will only put the monthly break-down here. This is exactly what Dave has written down:
Hours of Rent/Mortgage
October 2014 – 80 hours x $10 hour = $800
November 2014 – 88 hours x $10 hour = $888
December 2014 – 90 hours x $10 hour = $900
January 2015 – 100 hours x $10 hour = $1,000
February 2015 – 38 ½ hours x $10 hour = $385
March 2015 – 198 hours x $10 hour = $1,980
April 2015 – May 2015 – 195 hours x $10 hour = $1,950
June 2015 – 162 hours x $11 hour = $1,782
July 2015 – 113 hours x $11 hour = $1,245
$10,892 – paid
After fixing his faulty math again, we come up with exact amount paid in of $10,930.
Bob did not work for Dave during August or September because the rent was paid several months in advance and a friend of Bob's needed help remodeling his house. In this document, Dave refers to him as “Preacher” because of his occupation.
August 2015 – 0 hours x $11 hour = $0
September 2015 – 0 hours x $11 hour = $0
October 2015 – 26 hours x $11 hour = $292
November 2015 – 27 hours x $11 hour = $300
December 2015 – 4 x $11 hour = $44
_______________________________________
$ 640 – paid
Correct his math again and we have $636 paid directly into the rent/mortgage.
This means that in total, $11,532 has been paid directly into the mortgage/rent in the last 14 months. The total amount due to date is only $5950, which means that we are ahead in paying Dave by $5,582.
As far as us not letting him in the house to do repairs, we never asked him to and he never asked to come in the house. The only time he ever stopped by was to drop off a pizza and to ask me whether my dad was home or at the store. He NEVER asked verbally or in writing to come into the house for an inspection or for repairs.
Document #2 Break-down why Bob quit working for Dave:
1. Bob got attitude about me inquiring on hours.
2. Bob got attitude about 123 Blank Street due to his good name
3. Bob got attitude over 123 and 124 Blank Street over lead inspection.
4. Bob Started working for preacher without notice.
Bob quit working for Dave in December of 2015 completely because Dave was trying to cut corners on lead inspection and city code inspection. Also, Bob refused to sign rent-to-own documents as a property manager stating that “to the best of his knowledge, there is no lead paint on the premises,” in situations where lead paint was obvious and could be located visually.
Bob stated that as of the point when he quit working for Dave, that he would pay the payments in the form of check or money order only.
Today, Dave contacted me via text message asking about my mother's SSD settlement. Stated that he has a number he can call to check the status of her claim and asking for my mother to sign a promissory note giving him part of her disability settlement in exchange for dropping the case completely before court.
My question is, what information should I provide to the judge in the morning, and what information is just going to annoy him? I plan to only use documents that Dave produced because I know he cannot argue against himself or he will look like an idiot. I also know that eviction court allows you about 5 minutes to plead your case and get out.
Essentially, we want what anyone else in this situation would ask for, the right to either live in the house and use up the amount of rent/mortgage paid in, OR the overage amount given back so that we can find another rental. Using simple math, you can see that we have over paid by 11.8 months.
Given the information I have provided, would an eviction order be possible or is it possible that he would rule in our favor. According to the court house, they cannot tell us the amount of time the judge would give because every case is different.
