landlord problems

[mimi37]

We were late paying our rent for April because my husband has had to take a lot of days off from work since my mother has been in the hospital. We have to pay by the 7th of the month or we get a $45 late fee. Last Thursday, we got a notice in our door that we have to go to court May 4th because they were going to evict us. We pay our rent to a holding company. I called and spoke to the boss there and he told me if we paid April's rent and May's by today, the charges would be dropped. So my mother loaned us the money so we wouldn't be evicted. Since she was in the hospital, my sister had to get the money out of her account to give to us since she has power of attorney. Now I keep hearing from my sister what bums we are because our rent wasn't paid on time. Even though the reason we were low on money was because my husband lost about 6 days pay so we could go be at the hospital. Anyway, today I called the magistrate's office because we didn't get anything saying the charges were dropped. The secretary tells me no one called to drop the charges. So I have to call the holding company(long distance) to find out why. Now she's saying we have an unpaid electric bill. When we moved in, the electic was already turned on and in the holding company's name. They were supposed to send us the bill every month but I always had to remind them because they wouldn't send it. There were a lot of late fees because either I wouldn't get it until after it was due or not at all. Out of 11 months, I only got 5 bills. Finally last Nov. I had it switched to my name and the balance was carried over to my bill. Now they are saying we didn't pay it and they have a bill for almost $500. I told her it was carried over and she said no it wasn't and that I am "basically just lying." So now hubby will lose another days pay to go to court over a bill that I am now going to have to pay twice. :mad:

[redrig]

I would check into the local legal aid office and see what they have to say. If you have proof that it was changed to your name and the balance carried over (either by your paperwork or maybe the electric co can provide you with a paper trail), they don't have a leg to stand on.

[schsa]

Send copies of all of the bills that you have from the electric company that you have paid and a letter from them saying that you are paid in full to date.

Secondly, you sister will get over it. Geesh, some people. Just ignore her.

Also, if you sent a check for your rent and you are up to date, you have proof and that's all you need. You can go to court and they will dismiss the charges and nothing will be done.

[mimi37]

It's kind of late to get anything from the electric company now. I would never receive anything before we have to go to court Tuesday. All my bills would show is that I paid a high electric bill. There's no way of proving that this was the original bill. The rent we paid in person this past Tuesday because I didn't feel comfortable sending 2 months rent through the mail. They could have said they didn't receive it. I have a receipt saying the rent was paid. What makes me mad is all the work my husband did for free on this house. Before we could even move in, he had to plaster big holes in the walls and paint all the rooms. While he was doing this work, we discovered there was a small leak in the roof. We told them we weren't going to move in until the roof was fixed. They decided they should just have the whole roof replaced but the cheapest estimate they got was around $5000. So my husband told them to get the materials and he would do the roof. The materials came to around $1300. So they got almost $4000 in free labor. Now they are going to complain about an electric bill that I couldn't pay on time because they wouldn't give it to me?

[DivineMsDi]

Sorry for your troubles. If everyone who is late paying his or her bills are bums, there must be A LOT of bums in the world. Your sister is wrong to say that. I guess she is one of the lucky ones who DON'T live paycheck to paycheck...

Hope it all works out for you.

[mimi37]

My sister would probably not survive if she had to live a week in my shoes. She has had the same job since she was 19. She never had kids of her own. When she married her husband, all his kids except for one were already on their own. The younger one was already a teenager. She doesn't know what it's like to have to make sacrifices sometimes so your kids don't go without. She thinks it's terrible that I don't have 20 some pairs of shoes like her because I will buy my kids shoes before I buy my self a new pair. :rolleyes: She had to go buy my mother a couple of new housecoats to wear because we moved her into a nursing home and my mother wanted to look nice and not wear older ones like she would if she was at home. My mother told her not to spend a lot of money because she won't be wearing them too long. So my poor sister had to go to J C Penney's. :eek: That is her idea of not spending too much money.

[VALENA-)45]

pay your sister no mind, she will have to live like a "bum", one day, and when she do her own words will come back and haunt her. and as for the court thing, just use the recepts and the paid bills you have now to show the judge, that you have paid the bills. didn't the man say the charges would be dropped?? tell the judge that he told you that also. just in case he tries to make you pay that bill, too. good luck.