Ex Landlord and small claims court

[kay1994ray1997]

Can any give me any advice? My exlandlord is taking me to small claims court. On Feb 2002 Me and my husband signed a lease that was up in feb 2003. The lease also stated that if we didn't give any notice after that one year was up that the lease would automatically renew for another year. During this second year me and my husband were having problems. (I was being abused) I moved out because I knew that my landlord was not going to go for me putting my husband out. (They were close friends) My husband told me that he had informed the landlord that I had moved out and that he wanted to keep the house. Apparantly he could not handle it and moved out. A few months later I got served from the court indicating that the landlord was sueing me alone for him not being able to rent the house for five months. He is not sueing my husband for anything even though his name was on the lease also. Can he do this?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Originally posted by kay1994ray1997
Can any give me any advice? My exlandlord is taking me to small claims court. On Feb 2002 Me and my husband signed a lease that was up in feb 2003. The lease also stated that if we didn't give any notice after that one year was up that the lease would automatically renew for another year. During this second year me and my husband were having problems. (I was being abused) I moved out because I knew that my landlord was not going to go for me putting my husband out. (They were close friends) My husband told me that he had informed the landlord that I had moved out and that he wanted to keep the house. Apparantly he could not handle it and moved out. A few months later I got served from the court indicating that the landlord was sueing me alone for him not being able to rent the house for five months. He is not sueing my husband for anything even though his name was on the lease also. Can he do this?

The landlord can choose to sue you but you should be able to join your husband to the suit. You should probably call the clerk of the court to find out instructions on how to do this and should not take this suit alone. Are you on amicable terms with your husband? Basically both of you are individually on the hook for the full amount due, even though your husband may have lived there. Your husband would seem to be liable to reimburse you if you end up paying the tab. This is the difficulty with joint liability and it frequently rears its ugly head with domestic disputes and joint leases or purchases.