Court Notice/Reasonable amount of time?

[dcchick]

I rent an apartment in the District of Columbia. I am one month behind in rent, and have received a notice to appear in court for nonpayment. 1) Must the landlord's atty "settle" and make payment arrangements with me once we get to court or can he refuse and make me appear before the court? 2) I was never "served" with the notice. I received a copy with my regular U.S. mail, which left me with exactly 1 week before the court date. If I had more time, I could get my rent together. Do I have any options because I wasn't "served"? Is one week an acceptable amount of time to notify someone of a court date? Thanks!!!!

 

[LL]

I don't know anything about the law in D.C., but in general:

Must the landlord's atty "settle" and make payment arrangements with me once we get to court or can he refuse and make me appear before the court?

I doubt that he "has to" settle. Settlement means that you two have agreed on a decision, and you don't need the court to make a decision for you.

I don't know anything about D.C. procedure, but a summons sent by first class mail may be sufficient. Here in California there are ways in which that can be done.

One week may be long enough. In California, a tenant being sued for eviction gets 5 days.

Keep in mind that you have already had time to pay your rent. You may not be entitled to ANY more time to pay. By now, there may be a need here which is much bigger than your need, namely the need for the landlord to recover his property as quickly as possible, since you have stopped paying rent.

 

[dj1]

since you are already one month behind, why should the lawyer settle with you...?

I would suggest you get some boxes and start packing tonight...

and sell all your junk on http://www.ebay.com as soon as possible, you have lost your deposit as that will be applied to last months rent, also you will still owe the landlord for this months rent and his legal fees...

better to pay up and move instead of losing in court!