landlord/tenant

[Amy Selle]

Almost a year ago I left a townhome that had been infested with mice. The landlords had tried to remedy the situation by hiring an exterminator. It took 5 months until we didn't see any more mice or their babies. Spring came, followed by summer and to my knowledge there was no more problems. In early September of 2000, a couple nights got very cold and we started seeing mice again. I couldn't take another winter or fall of living with mice so I sent a certified letter and moved out leaving my deposit. Now 8 months later, they have sent me to collections for 2200.00 on unpaid lease. I had roughly 3 months left on my lease plus breaking the lease fees. Please help.

 

[mary hartman]

OH Amy Amy Amy:

When will you learn you are not the brightest woman on earth????

It doesnt matter a contract is a contract and you did NOT get the landlords or a court to approve you terminating the lease....YOU chose to leave.

YOU should have taken the landlord to court, and showed explained to the judge about the mice, and if the judge agreed to let you out of your lease you would have owed ZERO.

So the landlord took YOU to court and got a default judgemnet against you for the total amount, which is probably ILLEGAL.. since he probably rerented it, and collected rent from YOU and someone else for theat apartment for those 3 months...

BUT you probably never showed up in court.....

I know HERE in New York CITY a landlord CANNOT get a money judgement against a tenant for back rent.. UNLESS a tenant is physically served with a summons and complaint, OR it is sent registered mail return reciept and they sign for it. otherwise a landlord can only get posession of the apartment.

SO.. This is a very expensive lesson to learn....

You probably should contact a landlord tenant laywer tomorrow, and see if you can get the landlord and collection agency to agree lower the amount.

[Edited by mary hartman on 04-01-2001 at 12:15 PM]