My husband and I just received a court summons for an apartment we rented nearly five years ago in another county. We are being sued in the county wherein we rented the apartment. We believe that the Plaintiff rented our apartment to another party after we moved out, but cannot prove this. We gave 30 days notice, and turned our keys in the day we left. The summons claims we abandoned the apartment.

What can we do? We do not believe that we owe the money they are requesting from us, and until very recently (the past few months) we would not have been able to pay them if we did believe we owed it. They are asking for 4 months of rent. We would be willing to give them one month and the $ 550 security deposit they never returned to us, just to get them out of our hair.

Is there any way that we can prove we gave appropriate notice? Prove that they had another tenant in the apartment? In short, what are our options? Thank you so much for any help you can offer.

First, Do you have a copy of the written notice you gave. Second, where you under a lease or where you month to month? Third, if the landlord never returned the deposit, did he send you an itemized statement of what he used the deposit for? Did you pay for the last month? Did you leave a forwarding address?

What you need to do know is respond to the summons with a letter of Intent to Defend. But I need the answers to those questions to advise what to say.