Taking us to court without contacting us first?

[maneki]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CO

Hi all. I'm really confused. I hope I'm putting this question in the right forum, I wasn't sure if it should be here, or in Small Claims.

Anyway... here's the deal. At the beginning of September my husband and I had to break our lease. We didn't *want* to, but that's irrelevant. We couldn't afford the rent any longer, bottom line. We tried working with our landlord on some sort of arrangements, but we couldn't come up with something that would work for all of us. So we let them know in August that we'd be out in September. We tried to get out earlier, but we couldn't swing it. We told them at that time that we didn't know what our mailing address would be yet (we didn't have the money for a PO box) and asked them to send any correspondence to our address we had while we were there and it would be forwarded (we were moving in with my IL's who didn't want us to give out their address. Their old, what can I say?). They agreed at the time.

Now here we are at the end of September and we have had no contact by them (they also have our phone numbers, which haven't changed). Nothing at all... not a certified letter saying we owe them anything for rent, cleaning, etc. Well today my husband was served at work with a summons for small claims court. A total of $3000 for rent and late fees (I can't make the math work up to that amount, but, whatever).

So my questions:
1. I had been under the impression that they would have to contact us themselves before suing us. Can they go straight to court?

2. If so, and we lose in court (which I expect we will since I know we owe them, we just don't have the money to pay it right now) how long does the court give to pay it?

3. If we can't pay it by that time, what happens?

I'm so confused. We've never been sued for anything before. We're honest people (believe it or not, I'm sure you hear that all the time) who just couldn't make things work. We have two kids and another on the way. We're trying our best, we just don't have $3000.

 

[Mrs. D]

If your lease was terminated, the LL can generally immediately file in small claims to collect whatever you owe him above your security deposit. He usually doesn't have to send you a bill or try to collect himself. This could be inaccurate in your specific state, in which case it goes like this: he mailed correspondence to your old address; the always-reliable (laugh) postal service didn't properly forward it; and he made a good-faith effort to correspond with you. Either way, the suit probably has standing.

Make sure you bring all your documents to court showing what you paid and when, and figure out how much you think you owe and be able to demonstrate how you came up with that number.

If you can't pay all at once, the court will generally allow you to work out a payment plan. If you don't stick to the payment plan, they may be able to garnish your wages or even arrest you in some states. Bring documentation of your income and expenses so that the court won't make a payment plan you can't afford.

 

[maneki]

Eek! Well... hmm. I know we can't afford to pay anything, though we would of course try. We are barely making ends meet, and when we move it's going to be even harder. How can I find out what states arrest someone instead garnish wages? A garnishment would be breaking, but better than an arrest.

 

[Mrs. D]

Google small claims court for your state. However, if they don't do arrests, they usually do garnishments, so you're going to be out the money anyway. You may want to consider some kind of extra small part-time job to cover the payment plan until you get the money paid off.