Late Rent & Small Claims Court

[Trish360]

First, some background info:
We have been renting this house for the past 7 years. (yes, we're CRAZY!) My husband is a 2 tour Iraq Vet with a 40% disability. I have been handling all the bills for the past 6 years. Three weeks ago, I injuried my back, and have been in the ER-twice, Urgent Care-twice, and the doctor-three times. I was heavily medicated for over 2 weeks. My husband took over the bills at that time. During the past 4 months, my husband has been in and out of work, due to his TBI-Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We fell behind in our rent, but were working with the rental company.

At the beginning of September, our rental company, lost their license, and we had NO idea what was happening for over 3 weeks. They would NOT accept anyone's rental payments.

At the end of September, right before my injury, we found out about the new rental company. My husband started working with them with the back rent, then my injury happened. He was taking me to the doctor, and he missed an appointment to pay on the rent. He CALLED and left a message for the rental agent. The next day, she filed a petition for small claims court.

My husband was working with several Veteran groups, who help disabled Vets. He told the Rental agent, what he was doing. He kept her in the loop, the whole time.

Now, the major questions:
1. The lease, which has been on a month to month for over 4 years, is in MY name ONLY. The petition is in HIS name. We're not disputing the back pay. We will have the WHOLE amount by tomorrow (court date).
Is this legal?

2. Can they evict us if we're caught up? We believe that the rental agent, is telling our neighbors all of our business. Our neighbors are locally born and bred, so they don't like "outsiders". We believe that THEY have influenced the agent to sue us, despite the fact that we were working with her.
Is there any recourse we can take for "breach of confidentiality"? I KNOW that the agent was telling her husband what was happening with the closing of the first rental company. My neighbor TOLD me that he was telling her what his wife was saying.

Again, we're not disputing the back rent. It WILL be paid in full tomorrow, most coming from the Vet groups.

Do we have any legal recourse for breach of a verbal agreement and/or breach of confidentiality?

Thank you for the help!
Trish

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

I wish this site would encourage folks to post where they live.

In my state (Georgia), a landlord can be made to accept a payment for late rent at the court hearing for eviction. This is typically a once a year allowance and often "buys time" for the tenant to get caught up with financial issues.

Unfortunately, a verbal agreement is often worth nothing. And as for suing for breach of confidentiality, I'd put that on the back burner. You have greater things to worry about.

Gail

 

[Trish360]

Thank you for the reply. We live in NC.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Here are the laws in your state regarding payment of owed rent at the court date..

http://www.rentlaw.com/eviction/nceviction.htm

Often these payments are handled by the court so that there is a record that the tenant paid.

Gail

 

[Trish360]

Thank you very much, Gail. I appreciate the link and the information!

Can you tell me, or do you know if the petition against my husband is legal, when his name is NOT on the lease? Maybe "legal" isn't the right word! I guess I'm asking if they can sue HIM, instead of ME! He does NOT have a Power of Attorney for me. So, legally, he can't conduct business in my name.

We're heading to small claims court in the morning. I just want to know what I'm talking about, and not sound like an idiot!

Thanks again!
Trish

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Technically your husband is a tenant (generally someone who is not listed on the lease is considered a "tenant at will" or a month to month tenant) and they too can be sued for owed rent.

What may happen if this is brought up in court is that you two will be asked whose name is on the actual lease and why he was served instead of you. However, since he resides there too either one of you could be listed in the lawsuit.

The important points you want to make is that you accept the fact that you do owe rent and to prevent the eviction from continuing (which can be a real pain and wreck a persons credit history), you now have the funds to pay the rent and would like to do this at the court hearing.

This will make the judge happy (and the landlord too) as it provides a satisfactory ending to the case, something that really doesn't happen in many civil cases.

Gail