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A year ago, I was evicted from my last apartment. I was laid off 3 times and exhausted my unemployment and didn't have any income for 5 months. I was already behind in rent.
The landlord decided to sue me for the back rent of $5,000. It's sickening to me that my landlord can complain about her loss of income, but she neglected her responsibility to evict me in a timely manner to avoid this. She could've avoided her loss of income as well as creating a big financial burden for me. It's up to the landlord to evict a tenant. A tenant won't evict himself! I would've moved if I had the money...duh!
It's my understanding that she can also get that money back by claiming "loss of income". It's very frustrating to see that a stupid judge can allow a landlord to be negligent to evict a tenant in a more timely manner to avoid a loss of income and prevent a financial burden for the tenant. There should be a law in place that a landlord must evict a tenant within 60 days upon non-payment of rent. I'm ok with that.
Now I have to wonder if this landlord is collecting money from me and might claim her loss if income on her taxes. It's illegal to take money twice, but I don't know if I can request to have her audited.
Has anyone else experienced this type of situation? I'm looking for people who might have had the same type of experience. Please don't respond if you're going to be insensitive or lecturing. This is not why I'm posting this.
Evictions aren't "free" for the landlord - who's to say the landlord wasn't as financially "strapped" as you, especially given the fact that you weren't paying rent? Mortgages, property taxes, utilities & services like trash removal still bill the landlord, whether or not the tenant pays.
A year ago, I was evicted from my last apartment. I was laid off 3 times and exhausted my unemployment and didn't have any income for 5 months. I was already behind in rent.
The landlord decided to sue me for the back rent of $5,000. It's sickening to me that my landlord can complain about her loss of income, but she neglected her responsibility to evict me in a timely manner to avoid this. She could've avoided her loss of income as well as creating a big financial burden for me. It's up to the landlord to evict a tenant. A tenant won't evict himself! I would've moved if I had the money...duh!
It's my understanding that she can also get that money back by claiming "loss of income". It's very frustrating to see that a stupid judge can allow a landlord to be negligent to evict a tenant in a more timely manner to avoid a loss of income and prevent a financial burden for the tenant. There should be a law in place that a landlord must evict a tenant within 60 days upon non-payment of rent. I'm ok with that.
Now I have to wonder if this landlord is collecting money from me and might claim her loss if income on her taxes. It's illegal to take money twice, but I don't know if I can request to have her audited.
Has anyone else experienced this type of situation? I'm looking for people who might have had the same type of experience. Please don't respond if you're going to be insensitive or lecturing. This is not why I'm posting this.
Thank you!
You're post is confusing. Were you evicted ? Did you have a signed lease ? Did you have a security deposit ? and was that deposit returned ? After you left the apt was the apt re rented ? and how quickly was that apt re rented ?
For example, if the apt was re rented two months after you left the landlord can only seek back rent for the two months the apt was empty.
What you should do now.
If you have a signed lease make sure you keep it for future reference.
Do not have any contact with the landlord verbal, thru USPS mail, text, or email.
If you receive a complaint (lawsuit) thru the mail from the court make sure you file an answer by the due date. You answer can be as simple as "I do not agree" sign, date the document, and send it back to the address indicated.
The complaint from the court is sent via "USPS certified mail" Therefore, you can refuse to accept any certified mail and the landlord will be forced to hire a "process server" to serve the complaint to you in person. If you're going to be sued why make it easy ? If the landlord goes thru all that then you will have to "answer" the compliant.
This part is critical If you do not answer a complaint (i.e. lawsuit) the court can rule in the plaintiffs favor by default. You do not want that to happen. Unless you have a very compelling reason for not filing your "answer" on time such as being in the hospital the court most likely will not re open your case.
If your landlord goes thru all these steps it takes about 1 year for these types of cases to reach the docket in CT courts. Most people don't have the stamina to wait this long, and if the landlord tries to do all these steps themselves most likely they are going to make a mistake somewhere.
If you are low income call the court clerk in the area where the lawsuit would be filed and ask for "legal services" You can also look at this website https://www.jud.ct.gov/clinics/ for more info or call
860-263-2734 in CT.
In my area, it costs about $500 for the court process to get a tenant out, and anywhere from $2000-$5000 if the sheriff has to get involved to enforce the eviction. Many landlords would not have that much in excess, especially if you were behind on rent, too. Even if they did, they wouldn't be excited to spend it, since they get no direct benefit from doing so other than to get possession back.
I'm not sure AT ALL how this is a financial hardship for you. You got somewhere to live for those months that you didn't pay for. If they had evicted you sooner, you still would have owed rent to SOMEONE, so there is no financial hardship. If you had a couch to camp out on somewhere and wouldn't have had to pay rent, then you should have done that as soon as you couldn't afford to pay. If you couldn't afford to move, you could have just returned keys and told the landlord to throw away anything you left behind. They would have had costs involved with time, labor, and trips to the dump, but it would likely have been less then $5000.
And I have no idea what you are talking about with claiming "loss of income" and getting paid twice. You can claim loss of income to your insurance company if you have an insurance claim that requires a tenant to vacate for repairs. But I've never heard of an insurance policy that covers a tenant just not paying rent and having to be evicted.
She also can't claim a "loss" on her taxes for the unpaid rent. She didn't have as much income, so she will pay less income tax than if you had paid the rent (so if you hadn't paid $5000 and say she was effectively paying 20% taxes, it would be as if you had paid $1000 of that. But if you pay it, then she DOES have to pay taxes on it, so in no way does she get paid twice), and may be able to pick up the legal expenses as an expense. But that is actual legal expenses paid out. So her benefit would be whatever tax bracket she is in. If your boss just decided not to pay you for 2 months of the year, but you had to pay slightly less taxes as a result, would you consider yourself to have been paid in full?
Eviction is meant to be a last resort. If a tenant can't pay rent, they can't continue living in a property. An eviction is just the landlord requesting legal help to get a nonpaying tenant out of their property, because the tenant, at that point, is there illegally. Basically, the tenant is stealing from the landlord. So you go to court to get the judge to make that official, and get the sheriff to enforce the law.
From what you said, it sounds like the sheriff likely had to help you move out, in which case, you are lucky $5000 is all you are being sued for. Probably because that is all that small claims court would allow, and the landlord didn't want to pay MORE money for a full lawsuit for the higher amount they actually are owed.
In other words, pretty much everything you said was wrong. I agree with oregonwoodsmoke. I have to HOPE that this is a tongue in cheek joke post.
A year ago, I was evicted from my last apartment. I was laid off 3 times and exhausted my unemployment and didn't have any income for 5 months. I was already behind in rent.
The landlord decided to sue me for the back rent of $5,000. It's sickening to me that my landlord can complain about her loss of income, but she neglected her responsibility to evict me in a timely manner to avoid this. She could've avoided her loss of income as well as creating a big financial burden for me. It's up to the landlord to evict a tenant. A tenant won't evict himself! I would've moved if I had the money...duh!
Oh please. You think she "neglected" her responsibility?
It's my understanding that she can also get that money back by claiming "loss of income". It's very frustrating to see that a stupid judge can allow a landlord to be negligent to evict a tenant in a more timely manner to avoid a loss of income and prevent a financial burden for the tenant. There should be a law in place that a landlord must evict a tenant within 60 days upon non-payment of rent. I'm ok with that.
She's not claiming a loss. She simply declares less income.
I completely agree. A LL should be allowed to evict a tenant pretty fast. I think there should be a law where a tenant should be evicted way less than 60 days even less than30 days. . And they should have a permanent record of non payment if they dint pay back all that us owed. Then the nonpayment should stay for 7 years
Now I have to wonder if this landlord is collecting money from me and might claim her loss if income on her taxes. It's illegal to take money twice, but I don't know if I can request to have her audited.
She's not collecting a loss of on taxes . It doesn't work that way in rental income. She's suing you for what you owe and her casts incurred in evicting your azz.
Has anyone else experienced this type of situation? I'm looking for people who might have had the same type of experience. Please don't respond if you're going to be insensitive or lecturing. This is not why I'm posting this.
I only had to get close to evict. Usually a 3 day notice and a letter from a kawyer is enough. Had one tenant who I ended up settling but it was only because they agreed to move immediately.
When you post in a public forum don't expect to be treated with kid gloves.
Thank you!
You could of been proactive. Speak to your LL explain the situation and tell her you will help her get a new tenant. Pack your stuff and be ready to move at a moments notice.
What you fail to realize is she COULDNT just move you out. Although she probably wishes she could without having to go to court. She has to follow a specific process to evict. And if you fight her or the orcas in your state takes a long time overall the process just takes longer.
Sorry Charlie if I had to evict a tenant I would sue to recoup losses also.
Last edited by Electrician4you; 05-15-2017 at 10:13 AM..
I was laid off 3 times and exhausted my unemployment and didn't have any income for 5 months.
Did you tell your landlord of your change in circumstances?
I bet the application/lease described this expectation.
Did you ask for time or offer to leave early?
Did he ask you to leave early rather than to run up another bill?
How long were you in place with that LL before getting laid off?
iow.. what had your "track record" been up to this point?
Quote:
The landlord decided to sue me for the back rent of $5,000.
How many months of unpaid rent went by before the LL had enough of you?
How many different stories did you offer for when you would "catch up"?
Quote:
Has anyone else experienced this type of situation?
Of course... many have.
And it's a fair statement that many landlords will foolishly stick to the letter of their lease
regarding early termination ...but the tenant has to at least ask for that concession.
The duty to mitigate runs both ways.
That's what i'm thinking. The landlord did him an obvious favor by letting him stay there that long being behind on rent and now the landlord is the bad guy for not evicting him right away?
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