ex-tenant tryin to sue from a year ago over property left

[catrinas]

Arkansas- Tenant was served with NTQ(notice to quit) for failure to pay rent.I gave her till the END of that month to vacate according to the NTQ.I called her the day I put the note on her door and she hung up on me.THe following month I still hadn't heard from her.On the 5th she had her power turned off(also against our lease) I assumed she abandoned apartment.On the 7th When we restored the power in our name, we changed locks and "trashed" out the apartment to rent. Nov 11th the following YEAR, I recieved a letter from a lawyer wanting over $33,000 for things that weren't in the apartment.Big screen tv's, fur coats,laptops,a gun, etc. She couldn't pay rent but yet she claims to have these nice things, who wears a fur coat in Arkansas? Can she really sue after this amount of time? I hate going to court I don't have nice enough clothes for it.

 

[Cvillecpm]

Ignore the attorney * DO NOT RESPOND * anything you put/say in any response will be used against you.

If there were valuable items in the unit, she should have taken them with her OR filed a police report as proof of their existance.....do nothing....it will be hard because ex-tenant is so blatantly WRONG; however, resist responding and let them file a lawsuit and THEN you hire an attorney to respond....let ex-tenant/attorney have some "skin in the game" (cost of filing suit)before your attorney responds.

 

[FlyingRon]

Sounds like you didn't follow the laws for eviction. The NTQ isn't the be all and end all that lets you go change the locks and dispose of the tenants belongings. I suspect if the tenant has a lawyer, you're going to require a lawyer of your own.

 

[Cvillecpm]

Don't be afraid - tenant abandoned per the notice to quit

 

[sandyclaus]

Tenant wasn't evicted. She received the Notice to Quit and complied. She turned off the utilities voluntarily and abandoned the premises before an eviction action in court became necessary.

She also abandoned all property left behind since she never appears to have gone back to claim it. And under the circumstances, IF she had left such expensive items there (not believing a word of that), I find it very difficult to believe it would take her over a year to claim them or sell some off to pay that overdue rent. A judge will most likely agree with this and toss out any case filed against OP. This is a very common tactic from deadbeat tenants trying to make a buck off the unsuspecting LL who may or may not have followed proper legal eviction procedures.

 

[Baranov]

Like Cville said, Ignore all attorney and tenant correspondence. Don't worry about it. The judge will probably chuckle in court. This case will probably make his day. counter sue for your attorney fees and court costs.

 

[catrinas]

I actually work for a HUGE corporate so I wont have to pay legal fees...Thank the lord. I was just curious.I honestly thought she abandoned the stuff.All it was..some thong panties, picture frames laying in the floor( the cheap ones from the dollar store across the street),rotten food in the fridge(that stunk), a few VHS tapes with no labels on them, a couch with a broken leg. Looked like trash to me.I made sure I had the guys change the locks when the power was restored in our name.Im NOT going to let someone steal rent AND our Electric, right? Her lawyer first faxed me a letter but today i recieved it in the mail, not certified just regular, and had tape on the back to keep the envelope closed...very professional of course.I'm starting to laugh this off.Thanks for the comments everyone.

 

[sandyclaus]

Did you have witnesses with you when you cleared out the apartment? Took photos or video of what was in there and what you had to get rid of? Made an inventory list or kept some written documentation of the work you did? That would go a long way in proving that the ex-tenant (and her lawyer) are lying scumbags trying to make a little cash out of their bad situation.

Otherwise, lawyer could turn around and claim that you "got rid of the evidence" and did so without witnesses, trying to make you out as the bad guy. (Probably what they are counting on.). No evidence of your position gives a little bit of credibility to the other side. But you still have the valid argument that someone with all that expensive & valuable property would have likely sold something to pay her rent, and would have been very UNLIKELY to abandon it without having made some documented and credible claim to try and get it back - and quite a bit sooner than 1 year after the fact. She'll need all the appropriate purchase documentation (receipts and insurance records - for such valuables, who wouldn't have them insured?) to prove she allegedly owned the property, along with photo/video evidence to show she had possession of the items in question while living in the apartment you rented to her. Her LACK of these items will go a long way to discredit her phony claims.
and when that happens, you can be sure to have a counterclaim in place for your unpaid rent, cleaning costs and damages to the apartment, and your own costs and attorney's fees for having to fight this atrocious and ridiculous exercise in futility.

Good luck - I can't wait to hear how this turns out.

 

[catrinas]

we do a "walk out sheet" well the maintenance does it.Its a detailed sheet that shows what was there and how it looked.We only take pictures if the place is damaged.On the walk out sheet the guys wrote in detail what was left in the apartment and when I did the move out papers I actually charged her for them having to clean out the leftovers and for the two months unpaid rent and my corporate office sent her a letter certified stating why she was being charged and that she had ten days to reply to make payment arangements.Never heard from her so I sent her to collections. Whats funny is her lawyer THINKS he has the facts and if he only knew the real deal he would have never took the case.Our files and leases are tight and no lawyer in our town will go against us because of the reputation.Her lawyer is from quite a few ways away.The investor over my property(my boss) was a lawyer for 10 yrs till a few yrs ago.I just havent had much opportunity to talk to her because she has been on vacation for two weeks.So i got on here to ease my mind.

 

[catrinas]

oh just for fun. My father inlaw made a joke because she claimed to have $2000 worth of makeup(the bathroom only has one drawer)600sq ft apartment. He said" Man..$2000 worth of makeup? She has to be pretty ugly to need all that!"