Landlord making us leave before court date of Unlawful Detainer ?
Question by Kara: Landlord making us leave before court date of Unlawful Detainer ?
I live in Virginia. We moved into our apartment in Feb 2013 and signed a 6 month lease which ended on August 31st 2013. When November rolled around, my roommate and I weren’t able to afford the rent for this month. The landlord has been trying to sell her house and insisted us on staying. (We live in a garage apartment in her back yard.) On November 7th, as we were pulling out of the driveway, the landlord approached us and gave us an Eviction letter saying we either had to pay $ 625 in rent and $ 20 late fee, or she was evicting us. (No option to move out to avoid court) We offered her half the rent at the time, and she refused because that would “void” the eviction notice. On the 18th, she came to the door and told us she didn’t want anyone out in the cold but her “lawyer” went and filed for an unlawful detainer, which the judge would rule in “her favor”. She also said her “lawyer” told her at this point she would be keeping the $ 625 security deposit for the rent we owed. On the 23rd, we received a summons in the mail made by her stating we owed $ 625 in rent, $ 82.50 in late fees and $ 62 in court costs and the court date was set for the 11th of December. We assumed that we would have until then before having to move out. On 11/28, she then sent me a text message saying that was her written notice of us having to move out by 12/3 because she was leasing the apartment to someone else.
The utilities are included with our rent, but in July our water and electricity got turned off because of her failure to pay (she was $ 1000 behind on the light bill). 29 hours later, she informed us that the utilities were back on. She didn’t deduct ANY rent for that month, even though we had to stay at the hotel I worked at for 2 days. I was even nice enough to give her half of the rent 2 weeks early to avoid it happening again. Also, in September, she approached me and told me I would have to pay the rent a few days early or else our utilities would be cut off. (Again, because of her failure to pay).
Not only that, but the ENTIRE time we’ve stayed, she’s had random people come into our apartment without giving us a proper 24-hour written notice because she was selling her house with our apartment included. (Several times without our consent). Then had the nerve to complain because we had “dirty clothes” piled up in our room and the people interested in the house didn’t want to buy it because of that.
I just wanted to know if she could legally still take us to court for an eviction if she’s making us leave before the court date ? Also, since she breached the lease several times, could that help us in any way ? (I have saved text messages proving all of the above that I can print off) I really don’t want to get screwed over by her, especially since she’s already told us she was keeping our deposit in place of the rent we owe AND taking us to court over it. I’ve also read several things online about zoning and safety requirements that the apartment does not meet.
I talked to a lawyer and he told me yeah, it was illegal of her to make us leave prior to our court date. I also called the sheriff’s department to make sure before I confronted her about it and they said it was illegal for her to do that. I sent her a text message letting her know we don’t have enough time to move out by the 3rd. She then replied saying “I was told you guys were trespassing and police can become involve now. Will verify. The lease is done, has been broken with failure to pay rent. You’ve lived out security on 30th and we have no further obligation to you guys. I spoke with captain of sheriff dept in person on Friday and he says hopefully you guys are out before court date on 11th at 2pm”.
Isn’t that proof that she is planning on keeping our security deposit for the rent that we owe ? From what I’ve read online, she CANNOT use the deposit for unpaid rent…(Isn’t that the point of her taking us to court and suing for the rent and late
?) I think she’s trying to take advantage of and scare us. If she sent us the text saying we had to move out by the 3rd why would the “sheriff” tell her on Friday that he hoped we were out by the 11th ?
In all reality, we WANT to get out of there and away from her…but 5 days isn’t enough time to pack, move, find somewhere else to live, and clean. We are planning on leaving by the 10th, so in court they see it as us leaving on our own, or by her telling us to leave. Also, do any of the documents she has typed up have to be noterized ?
Best answer:
Answer by Jin Hayashi
You always have a option to move during month to month !
No you do not have to leave before the court date you have to represent yourself in court however you can politely ask the judge by showing that she broke her side of the agreement with numerous violations
In the end yet you are at fault you owe rent
I would just move out after court
FYI if the zoning and safety requirements does not meet the house can be considered a hazard zone aka uninhabitable and they will make you move out anyway
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