Can they sue me????

[heidianne99]

I was in a year lease. My roommate turned out to be a freak. I gave notice to get out of the lease, she (the roommate) had friends that applied and were approved to move in, in replace of me. On Oct. 29, I turned in my keys and was giving a letter from the leasing agent that says (and I QUOTE) "Heidi has returned all keys and vacated the apartment on Oct 29, 2001. She is completely free of all responsibility regarding that apartment." Then signed by the leasing agent, on company letter head with my full name and address. Well, I found out a few days ago that my roommate never paid rent and got evicted. They did not return my $650 deposit PLUS they say I am responsible for the $1700 due. They said that I need to take my roommate to court for the money. They also put a thing on my rental record saying I was evicted, which caused me to be denied for a lease. That is the first I heard of it. They have my forwarding address and phone and no one EVER contacted me. It was taken to court and the judge ruled that I am responsible because I didn't show up, but no one ever told me I was being sued!!! Please help! I need my deposit back to pay my grad school tuition!!!

 

[Michael Wechsler]

They may be right but then again, they might not. I don't have a good grip of the facts of the chronology. However, if the landlord gave you the letter that states you are free of liability and they sued you, you may want to tell the agent that unless they remove the judgment, you will sue them for false and malicious prosecution, in addition to defamation. I wouldn't doubt that the damages could be significant. The letter could be used as proof of your exoneration, or in legal terms, a "novation" occurs when a party is completely released for an obligation that it had.

That said, I'm not so sure you have such a tight case because I don't have all the facts and wonder what else is going on here. First, how did you not know that rent was not paid on the apartment. Are you telling me that you never knew that rent wasn't paid the entire time you were at the apartment? It is also difficult to say that the "responsibility" that you were free from is with regard to the rent... but they would have the burden of explaining their actions.

You may wish to send a letter with a copy of the document you received stating that if they do not remove the judgment then you will countersue, for damages, attorneys fees, etc.

Regarding your deposit... that's a tough one since as a cosigner on a lease you could be held responsible for the entire rent on the lease. However, it could be seen that they kept your security deposit and the note waived in writing any claim they had against you. Normally without the waiver, they would be right and you could be sued for the entire balance and you would have to sue your roomate for the money that you had to pay. You would have to bring an order to show cause to overturn the judgment showing that (1) a good reason why you didn't show and (2) that you have a good likelihood of winning. If you can show this then the landlord might not care to push things since he will have to pay quite a bit for an attorney to fight this in court...