I had alresy posted this question but only received one response. I live in Virginia and Im getting ready to be evicted from my townhome because Im behind on rent. I would like to know what the next step is? This woman who is my landlord is a physcho. She emails me all day at work and is not willing to take payments so I can get caught up. She is now going to take me to court and keeps telling that there are going to be great ramaifications against me. I just want to get out of there as soon as possible and find somewhere else I can afford.

Unfortunately, she will take you to court and most likely will win. She will then sue you for the rent you owe, plus the rest of your lease until she rerents the unit, plus court costs. I'm sorry she won't work with you, but legally she doesn't have to.

If you owe back rent the only way to not get evicted is to pay all the money you are behind. Some landlords will let you pay part of what you owe but there is no requirements since you are obligated to pay the full amount of the rent plus all late charges each month.

And lets say that the place you work, did not pay you for three or four paydays and told you just to keep working, that they would pay you a little and catch up when they could? How long would you keep working, this rent payment is someone's paycheck.

So she takes you to court, and if you are still living in the townhouse, they send people over and set all of your property on the street curb, and she then can also go back and sue for any unpaid rents and get a judgement so she can garnish your paycheck.

So it is best to move and don't force her to actually have to do a formal eviction. Plus you will always have that eviction on your record

What if she cuts off my utilities while Im still leagally in the townhome? I was told that in the state of Virginia Im supposed to be given 30 days written notice to pay up or get out. I haven't benn given anything. This is crap. The woman is a pyscho

If she cuts off your utilities while you are still a legal resident, you can sue her.

If you haven't received any notices yet, she hasn't filed yet. She cannot evict you without a court order. She has to show you have been informed that she is seeking such an order.

She did. I recently got something from her lawyer that said that I owe her so much and Im being given 5 days to get out or a unlawful detainer will be filed against me. She cut my utilities off last weekend while I was still in the home. I read that in VA the landlord has to give you 30 days to get out of the property but she says no. I got the letter from her lawyer on 5/8/2007. Im rying to get out next weekend.

Ok, At the top oif this forum is a sticky note with links to state laws. The relevant law here is:

LIS > Code of Virginia > 55-248.31 (http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+55-248.31)

Section F states that if a tenant is in arrears on his rent the landlord can give him a 5 day notice. I suggest you read that section and some of the related ones carefully.

You lease wording could contain a waiver of the 5-day notice period... you will receive an unlawful detainer with a "hearing" date within 21 days... you go to court on that date and if you don't owe the money (you have paid) then you may be charged court and attorney fees. If you say you owe the rent, they will order you out within 10 days. If you say you don't owe the $$$, they will have a trial which could get rough.

You WILL get a judgement against you and it will be recorded on your credit file.