Hi,

My rent was late by 1 day in June and I was called on my work #, home #, and out of state cell #, to notify me. I mistook "by the 3rd of the month" for "by the 3rd biz day". Rent and late fee was paid immediately.

My daughters mother passed away who lived in a California. I was in month 3 of a 6 month lease. From that time I began leaving messages at the property management office (on site).

Month 4 Rent was paid. Within about a week of paying that rent, the apartment was cleaned as I was anticipating moving back to californa, but I still worked for my company in Georgia.

Being in a 6 month lease, I still would need to give 60 days notice to terminate the lease. Other attempts were made to call the management office to discuss the matter and several voicemails were left. I was not able to talk to a live person until Saturday 8/25/07. I explained the situation to the receptionist, who took my business card, put it on the managers computer with a note. All I wanted to know was if it made since to terminate the lease, or just pay rent on 9/1/07 and 10/1/07. That would have been $780 X 2 = $1,560.

8/25/07 was the last day I was at the location. Monday afternoon, 8/27/07 I called and the receptionist was surprised the manager had not returned my call but said that she would. I never heard from the building management.

On 10/30/07 a collection agency called, stating that I skipped/owed money/abandoned my lease. This was not the case and I tried to explain it to the collection agent who did not care, as they were told to collect $2,340 (broken lease fee + 10 days of rent and penalties). They reclaimed the apartment on 9/10. As far as I know they did not attempt to evict me by filing info with the court.

I attempted to talk to the building management, who said they couldn't do anything because it was in collections, and the collections people said they didn't care (more or less), as they continued to demand $2,340

In response to being given 30 hours to tell the collection agency how I would handle it, I researched and gave them this response.

I am willing to pay 2 months rent - security deposit - rent they received from re-leasing the apartment (as of around 10/15 to my knowledge). That came to $920.

They agency of course said I owed the $2,340 and re-attempted to tell me why, at which point I said send me everything in writing.

After this long story :) , What is the best remedy?

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Originally Posted by TNash22

Being in a 6 month lease, I still would need to give 60 days notice to terminate the lease. Other attempts were made to call the management office to discuss the matter and several voicemails were left. I was not able to talk to a live person until saturday 8/25/07. I explained the situation to the receptionist, who took my business card, put it on the managers computer with a note.

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Hello TN:

Apparently, you didn't give WRITTEN notice and you didn't pay the last 2 months rent.

They're not going to send you anything. They're just going to sue you and it'll be for even more than the $2340 they're asking for. I think you're going to lose your case. You owe $1560. $2340 is pretty reasonable given the cost of collection.

excon

Should the leasing company have tried to sue me? It went straight to collections and I was never able to discuss paying them in the 1st place.

One of the things I read on line stated that in GA, they have to go through that process. In such a process, 7 days to get a warrant to ask me to move. According to what happened, they went in the apartment on day 6.