Risk Being Offensive
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Georgia
My family and I have been staying in the upstairs portion of a home (the downstairs portion is still occupied by the landlords) for the last 25 months, 24 out of that 25 months rent was paid on time, and it was never late until August of this year, I had the money to pay, but I had talked to Landlord 1 and we were supposed to take off what I had put into the home off that month (I have put in well over one month's rent into the home), but Landlord 2 did not accept that because he was not included in the discussion. So I paid after they gave me a Pay-or-Quit notice just to avoid any problems knowing that eventually, I would get the money one way or another.
Landlord 2 filed his frivolous dispossession on August 15th that had no merit and was in bad faith saying that we owed money that he knew we did not owe just to harass us (this is not the only case of harassment from Landlord 2, but it is the most troublesome).
The filing of the lawsuit rendered any property that we had but applications in with or were planning to put applications in with "Dead on Arrival".
At the time of the filing, our landlords were not only paid up for the entire month of August but were also paid for 5 days into September at the correct prorated amount.
Even though our landlords were paid in full Landlord 2 still filed the lawsuit and kept the lawsuit filed until September 2nd when he wrote a letter to the court saying that we "wound up paying", this letter was dated September 1st but stamped September 2nd by the court. He immediately refiled with the court that same day. This time he filed saying that he had given us a 60-day notice to end the lease on August 31st even though no notice was given to either tenant.
Because we were paid up until the 5th and rent is due no later than the 5th we paid the remainder of September rent on the 5th, at this point, we still didn't know that the first lawsuit had been dropped by the landlord and that a second one had been filed. We didn't find this information until September 6th which was the date the initial hearing was scheduled. After they didn't call out names and we sat there and waited for them to go through all the other cases they finally told us that the case had been dropped by Landlord 2 and that we could get the paperwork at the counter. It wasn't until we were at the counter getting the paperwork to show that the 1st case had been dropped that we were informed that he had filed a second case on September 2nd.
We were actively looking for other places to rent and filling out applications for said places up until we are notified by one of the places we had applied for that a recent eviction popped up during their application process, this is how we found out about the 1st filing. Now we have two recent eviction filings against us, and a landlord telling us that he wants us to move because he's now decided to not renew the lease at the last minute.
If we had been approved for one of the places that we were applying for we would have gladly moved at the end of the lease or I would have made an agreement with them to let the lease Auto-Renew on September 1st and given them a 30-day notice so that we had time to move comfortably. Instead, we decided to stay and let the lease Auto-Renew on September 1st because it was now unrealistic that we would be able to get another place until the eviction filing from August 15th was dealt with.
I paid the remainder of September's rent on the 5th for multiple reasons:
1:
Because it was due, and since he had already asked for 5 days of September's rent and had not stated that he was not renewing with us it seemed the logical thing to do so that when we inevitably won on September 6th this was not something he could use against us.
2:
Because until the eviction filing is done on August 15th was clear we were going to have to stay somewhere, so we decided to stay put for a few more months until that was all figured out.
3:
It was my understanding that paying September's rent in full would enact the Auto-Renew clause in our lease so that I didn't have to worry about any issues in the months to come while we were looking for a new place to live. Remember at this point I had no idea that he was not renewing the lease.
"22. RENEWALS AND CHANGES IN LEASE: Upon expiration of the rental term provided for above, this lease shall automatically renew itself for another year, unless modified by the parties."
The landlords accepted the rent that we paid on September 5th and everything was quiet till September 11th. On this day Landlord 2 hit us up saying that he had a Leaking from the air handler inside his portion of the house and that he needed to shut the unit down and have a technician come and look at it "next week". We said okay and informed him that the system had had issues earlier in the year and that we had hit Landlord 1 up about the issue and never got a response, but that like most things around the home we went ahead and fixed it out of our pocket. This seem to upset him because he wanted to know why he (Landlord 2) had not been notified. We told him we did not know that we had to notify both of them, but just in case you didn't know the thermostat and the blower motor both blew out in November of the previous year and we were without heat for 2 weeks, so the unit has had issues in the past. Landlord 1 paid to have a technician come out and fix the blower motor and we paid for the thermostat and installed it.
Fast forward to September 16th and Landlord 2 hits us up and says he has an HVAC Technician coming out tomorrow in the afternoon but that someone will need to be there in case the technician" needs to look at any of the components upstairs. We agreed that the technician could come in if need be or that we could allow the technician to access the Wi-Fi thermostat that was installed in November so that he could control the stuff that he needed to control from downstairs as a convenience to him. We told him that some would be within a mile of the residence all day and could be there in no more than 5 minutes if there wasn't someone already home. We didn't hear anything back from Landlord 2 even after we tried to find out a more exact time than "afternoon" on Friday morning. Sometime later that day he hit us up and said that he was not going to let the technician fix the unit until we let him do a complete inspection of the home, which is something that he had not mentioned at all the day prior. This unfortunately turned into a long back and forth where he told us that he would not even let us call a technician out to fix the unit and forbid us from touching the unit ourselves which would have been pointless anyway because he had pulled the circuit breaker pull out from the main electrical box anyway. This is probably a good time to mention that the AC system seemed to be working fairly well before he downed it on the 11th which leads me to believe that the system may not have a problem and this was done to try to force us out. As of today September 28th the HVAC system is completely down, we cannot circulate air, can we cannot run the AC, and we cannot run the Heat.
We had our court date for the second eviction hearing on September 27th. Even though we were not allowed to speak because the previous case was for lack of a better term two sides filibustering for an hour and a half (which annoyed the Judge), and the fact that the landlord presented a 60-day notice that was sent certified mail but had a signature on it that was not either one of ours (the tenants that live on the upstairs portion of the house, the judge even commented that "it looks like somebody tried to copy one of your signatures"). We did wind up with the case getting dismissed because he accepted September's rent, but even though the signature on the certified letter was not one of our signatures and the fact that even the Judge questioned it, she said that it was proper notice and that he could refile the eviction case immediately.
Looking at our lease the payment of September's rent should have renewed the lease or at the very least the acceptance of September's rent should have invalidated the 60-day notice even if it had been served properly, which it wasn't. We never received any notice except for the pay or quit notice that we got on August 10th and paid on the 14th (within the guidelines of the letter), and It made no mention of a 60-day notice or anything to do with renewing or not renewing the lease.
As a reminder rent was paid on the 14th and he didn't file the initial eviction paperwork until the following day after he had demanded, received, and accepted rent. Rent was paid in full for August as well as 5 days of the prorated rent for September.
He did ask in the pay or quit letter for an additional $250 over what the rent and the late fee would have been. The Judge question why we paid that amount and didn't argue with him about it, but I was not allowed to answer, the Judge seemed to change her mind about wanting an answer to it after she asked it. The simple answer is we had applications out for other places, but we were still leaning toward leaving and did not want to cause any issues while we were trying to do so.
I'm fully expecting that he either filed yesterday or he's going to file today a third case against us. I honestly feel like I'm in crazy land. I keep having to find someone to watch the children that I'm responsible to watch, my spouse keeps having to take off of work to show up to court, and I see no point in putting any applications in at the current moment because there are 3 eviction cases filed against us in the last 45 days, so the chances of getting any of those applications approved or more than likely zero.
I just don't understand if the landlords want us out how do they expect us to do that when they're filing frivolous lawsuits left and right which is making it impossible for us to get another place to live. I also would like to know what legal action I can take against them for the initial filing that started this snowball effect because every time I do a countersuit when they file the eviction paperwork the Judge dismisses their case and doesn't even listen to one word of my counter suit. So because their case gets dismissed by them or by the Judge my countersuit doesn't even get heard?
Judging by previous filings I expect the next court date to either be the 18th or 25th of October. Just trying to get a little bit of advice here and more than likely retain an attorney on this matter.
P.S
Since the Judge said she's validating their 60-day notice she said even if we pay October's rent she's still going to rule in their favor if we come back in front of her. She's not even going to listen to what we have to say, not that she did before.
Landlord 2 filed his frivolous dispossession on August 15th that had no merit and was in bad faith saying that we owed money that he knew we did not owe just to harass us (this is not the only case of harassment from Landlord 2, but it is the most troublesome).
The filing of the lawsuit rendered any property that we had but applications in with or were planning to put applications in with "Dead on Arrival".
At the time of the filing, our landlords were not only paid up for the entire month of August but were also paid for 5 days into September at the correct prorated amount.
Even though our landlords were paid in full Landlord 2 still filed the lawsuit and kept the lawsuit filed until September 2nd when he wrote a letter to the court saying that we "wound up paying", this letter was dated September 1st but stamped September 2nd by the court. He immediately refiled with the court that same day. This time he filed saying that he had given us a 60-day notice to end the lease on August 31st even though no notice was given to either tenant.
Because we were paid up until the 5th and rent is due no later than the 5th we paid the remainder of September rent on the 5th, at this point, we still didn't know that the first lawsuit had been dropped by the landlord and that a second one had been filed. We didn't find this information until September 6th which was the date the initial hearing was scheduled. After they didn't call out names and we sat there and waited for them to go through all the other cases they finally told us that the case had been dropped by Landlord 2 and that we could get the paperwork at the counter. It wasn't until we were at the counter getting the paperwork to show that the 1st case had been dropped that we were informed that he had filed a second case on September 2nd.
We were actively looking for other places to rent and filling out applications for said places up until we are notified by one of the places we had applied for that a recent eviction popped up during their application process, this is how we found out about the 1st filing. Now we have two recent eviction filings against us, and a landlord telling us that he wants us to move because he's now decided to not renew the lease at the last minute.
If we had been approved for one of the places that we were applying for we would have gladly moved at the end of the lease or I would have made an agreement with them to let the lease Auto-Renew on September 1st and given them a 30-day notice so that we had time to move comfortably. Instead, we decided to stay and let the lease Auto-Renew on September 1st because it was now unrealistic that we would be able to get another place until the eviction filing from August 15th was dealt with.
I paid the remainder of September's rent on the 5th for multiple reasons:
1:
Because it was due, and since he had already asked for 5 days of September's rent and had not stated that he was not renewing with us it seemed the logical thing to do so that when we inevitably won on September 6th this was not something he could use against us.
2:
Because until the eviction filing is done on August 15th was clear we were going to have to stay somewhere, so we decided to stay put for a few more months until that was all figured out.
3:
It was my understanding that paying September's rent in full would enact the Auto-Renew clause in our lease so that I didn't have to worry about any issues in the months to come while we were looking for a new place to live. Remember at this point I had no idea that he was not renewing the lease.
"22. RENEWALS AND CHANGES IN LEASE: Upon expiration of the rental term provided for above, this lease shall automatically renew itself for another year, unless modified by the parties."
The landlords accepted the rent that we paid on September 5th and everything was quiet till September 11th. On this day Landlord 2 hit us up saying that he had a Leaking from the air handler inside his portion of the house and that he needed to shut the unit down and have a technician come and look at it "next week". We said okay and informed him that the system had had issues earlier in the year and that we had hit Landlord 1 up about the issue and never got a response, but that like most things around the home we went ahead and fixed it out of our pocket. This seem to upset him because he wanted to know why he (Landlord 2) had not been notified. We told him we did not know that we had to notify both of them, but just in case you didn't know the thermostat and the blower motor both blew out in November of the previous year and we were without heat for 2 weeks, so the unit has had issues in the past. Landlord 1 paid to have a technician come out and fix the blower motor and we paid for the thermostat and installed it.
Fast forward to September 16th and Landlord 2 hits us up and says he has an HVAC Technician coming out tomorrow in the afternoon but that someone will need to be there in case the technician" needs to look at any of the components upstairs. We agreed that the technician could come in if need be or that we could allow the technician to access the Wi-Fi thermostat that was installed in November so that he could control the stuff that he needed to control from downstairs as a convenience to him. We told him that some would be within a mile of the residence all day and could be there in no more than 5 minutes if there wasn't someone already home. We didn't hear anything back from Landlord 2 even after we tried to find out a more exact time than "afternoon" on Friday morning. Sometime later that day he hit us up and said that he was not going to let the technician fix the unit until we let him do a complete inspection of the home, which is something that he had not mentioned at all the day prior. This unfortunately turned into a long back and forth where he told us that he would not even let us call a technician out to fix the unit and forbid us from touching the unit ourselves which would have been pointless anyway because he had pulled the circuit breaker pull out from the main electrical box anyway. This is probably a good time to mention that the AC system seemed to be working fairly well before he downed it on the 11th which leads me to believe that the system may not have a problem and this was done to try to force us out. As of today September 28th the HVAC system is completely down, we cannot circulate air, can we cannot run the AC, and we cannot run the Heat.
We had our court date for the second eviction hearing on September 27th. Even though we were not allowed to speak because the previous case was for lack of a better term two sides filibustering for an hour and a half (which annoyed the Judge), and the fact that the landlord presented a 60-day notice that was sent certified mail but had a signature on it that was not either one of ours (the tenants that live on the upstairs portion of the house, the judge even commented that "it looks like somebody tried to copy one of your signatures"). We did wind up with the case getting dismissed because he accepted September's rent, but even though the signature on the certified letter was not one of our signatures and the fact that even the Judge questioned it, she said that it was proper notice and that he could refile the eviction case immediately.
Looking at our lease the payment of September's rent should have renewed the lease or at the very least the acceptance of September's rent should have invalidated the 60-day notice even if it had been served properly, which it wasn't. We never received any notice except for the pay or quit notice that we got on August 10th and paid on the 14th (within the guidelines of the letter), and It made no mention of a 60-day notice or anything to do with renewing or not renewing the lease.
As a reminder rent was paid on the 14th and he didn't file the initial eviction paperwork until the following day after he had demanded, received, and accepted rent. Rent was paid in full for August as well as 5 days of the prorated rent for September.
He did ask in the pay or quit letter for an additional $250 over what the rent and the late fee would have been. The Judge question why we paid that amount and didn't argue with him about it, but I was not allowed to answer, the Judge seemed to change her mind about wanting an answer to it after she asked it. The simple answer is we had applications out for other places, but we were still leaning toward leaving and did not want to cause any issues while we were trying to do so.
I'm fully expecting that he either filed yesterday or he's going to file today a third case against us. I honestly feel like I'm in crazy land. I keep having to find someone to watch the children that I'm responsible to watch, my spouse keeps having to take off of work to show up to court, and I see no point in putting any applications in at the current moment because there are 3 eviction cases filed against us in the last 45 days, so the chances of getting any of those applications approved or more than likely zero.
I just don't understand if the landlords want us out how do they expect us to do that when they're filing frivolous lawsuits left and right which is making it impossible for us to get another place to live. I also would like to know what legal action I can take against them for the initial filing that started this snowball effect because every time I do a countersuit when they file the eviction paperwork the Judge dismisses their case and doesn't even listen to one word of my counter suit. So because their case gets dismissed by them or by the Judge my countersuit doesn't even get heard?
Judging by previous filings I expect the next court date to either be the 18th or 25th of October. Just trying to get a little bit of advice here and more than likely retain an attorney on this matter.
P.S
Since the Judge said she's validating their 60-day notice she said even if we pay October's rent she's still going to rule in their favor if we come back in front of her. She's not even going to listen to what we have to say, not that she did before.
