I am in a situation where a man that I thought loved me convinced me to move out of state leaving my friends, family, job, and my home to be with him. Within a month of me moving and preparing to find work, he decides to move out within in a month of moving in the house without notice to go and live with a woman he was seeing secretly behind my back. We signed a 12-month lease. He left me knowing I am currently unemployed. I dipped into my retirement money and paid the deposit and for three months of rent in advance with the understanding, that he and I would share the responsibility of the remaining rent. The property owner has agreed to let us out of the lease within six months. However, he is still refusing to pay for the remaining three months and is expecting me to pay the remaining three months by myself. The property owner has also stated that if he could get someone in the house before October, he would reimburse me for the month of October and my deposit. But I will still have loss the money for the months of August and September. How can I get him to be responsible for the other three months of the lease so that it won't affect my credit plus pain and suffering or is there a way for me to get him to reimburse me for at least half of the three months of rent I paid plus pain and suffering? Regardless of the situation, I may be forced to move out of the house and I am not financially able to get back home or find another place. This has caused great stress on me and I have lost quite a bit of money in the name of love. How much can I sue for pain and suffering?

I don't think you can sue for pain and suffering at all in small claims court only actual monitary debts up to the court limit. Unless his name was also on the lease... you may have a hard time even collecting his share of the rent. If his name was on the lease you stand a good chance of getting his share of what was actually owed and not paid... assuming you can prove it to the Judge.

Playing the jilted lover may work against you.

You have to sue for pain and suffering in civil court. And you can't sue over pain and suffering over a relationship breakup... everyone would have sued and been sued if that was the case.

I am not suing for pain and suffering over the break up. I feel I have suffered because he moved me away from my friends and family. I don't have any support here. If I am forced to leave the house I don't have any where to go nor the money to move me and my stuff back home. I haven't been in the house of month or had a chance to find work before he decided to leave. He did not even give me enough chance or notice to prepare for this situation. I spent money for the rent and other things I will never be repaid for when I could have paid to get my car fixed. I asked him ifvcould he at least help me get my car fixed or help me move back home. He refuses to help me with this knowing that I don't know anyone in this state, he was my only support. I have suffered from depression due to this situation causing me to not have the mental desire to look for work and help with my situation nor do I have reliable transportation. I can not get my car fixed due to me exhausting practically all of my funds moving up here, paying for the three months of rent, deposit, and helping him. I know in a few days or weeks he is going to turn the utility bills off because they are in his name and I haven't done anything I feel to deserve to be treated like this but love the wrong man. I don't have the money to get the bills in my name because of my credit, I know I will have to pay a deposit.

You can't sue for pain and suffering in this case. Sorry. You may be able to get a judge to force him to pay his share of the rent. It may be quite a struggle to do this and there would be no guarantee you would win this. If you have a signed lease with his name on it you may stand a slim chance of winning. Only the judge would be able to decide in your favor. Small claims courts are not suitable forums to bring any kind of "pain and suffering" suits. That would be reserved for an accident matter or auto accident lawsuit case.

This scenerio has been played out many times by unscrupulous men against many naïve women leaving them high and dry in worse financial state than they were before they moved. Hopefully in the future you are not so quick to jump into the fire from the frying pan.

I agree I did jump into the fire from the frying pan, however, this man and I were supposed to be getting married. We have a marriage certificate and we had planned on getting married soon. I had no idea he was seeing another woman and he lied to repeatedly and presented himself as to love me. Yeah, I made a horrid mistake believing this and I know I will never get back all that I have lost. However, He should have never signed a one year lease agreement with me if he wasn't serious. Therefore, it his responsibility to contribute to the lease as I have.

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Originally Posted by smoothy

I don't think you can sue for pain and suffering at all in small claims court only actual monitary debts ...

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Most states don't limit the types of actions for which you can sure for money judgments in small claims courts. In this forum we frequently get asked whether such things as defamation are allowed in SC courts. The answer is that there is not specific prohibition in small claims.

So, in theory you probably could, but not on the facts here, sorry.

The Court does not reward anyone (unfortunately) for bad judgment. Your facts don't support a claim.