I am being sued over back rent. I had rented from the landlord for 10 yrs when I had to take my husband home to FL due to an illness which the landlord was aware of. I ended up staying in FL about 8 months. My rent was 300/mo and the landlord is suing for about $3000. Then there are attorneys fees, court cost etc. My questions is how long can the landlord hold the apt open before renting it out again. I was trying to get home to return to live there. One attorney (friend) states she could not hold me liable for 2 months. The apt was not rented until after a year when I returned. I did go back to the apt when I returned home and the door knobs were taken off the doors and the whole apt was in shambles, the couch was cut up with a knife shredded. I had jewlrey stolen, a painting and some of my deceased fathers personal things stolen,(shriners fez hat, and his purple heart) which those are not replaceable. I had a septic tank company before I left and the landlord was trying to sell my truck for the rent payments. The motor was blown this is the only reason he did not sell it. Can he do this for the back money owed? Please advise as soon as possible. I can not afford and attorney and legal aid will not take me because I make too much money. I bring home $300/wk nothing but taxes are taken out of my check, which means I make about 60/day. Thank you for any help you can help with. I live in TN if this matters on the law or not and I am 51 yrs old.

I'm a little confused. Did you not realize that while you were away you still had to pay rent? After ONE month of non payment, the landlord could start eviction proceedings. The LL may have been nice holding the apartment for you. But after a time it could be considered abandoned and he probably had a right to seize the property to recoup the back rent. On the other hand, he was negligent in letting the apt be ransacked. So I would countersue for the lost and damaged property.

Your right I did realize the rent had to be paid. Whole story is I married a man that had a drug addiction I found out about it after I put him in a business, after a yr he was using $1000 or more a day, collecting from my customers without me knowing it. His family and friends begged me to bring him to FL for help and said they'd help, so I did. The LL knew he had an addiction, he had rented from them before I met him. He even did work for them at no charge but they would slip him money even though I asked them to not give it to him because he was using it for drugs and they knew this. I was a basket case after a year of this and was grasping at straws so to speak to get him help. I left everything here and just pack a suitcase and went to FL, no job no money nothing, he had been pawning everything worth anything with the business. The rehabs are so full in FL the waiting lists were months long to even get him in one, I took him to every rehab in Ft Lauderdale area. After a while his family was telling me to go home I was causing his problem even more. So after 8 months I did return home without him to find the apt still vacant. An attorney (friend) said they could not charge more than a couple of months back rent to me instead of the whole 8, this is what I'm trying to find out. Should they have left the apt open the whole time I was gone. I had wrote to the LL and advised her what I was doing while in FL and told her I was trying to get back as soon as I could. Never got a reply. She could have rented the apt out one month after I left but didn't. The LL even tried to sale my pump truck which is parked next to the apt complex, for the back rent, can he do this?

This is rather a complicated situation. I don't know if you had a lease in effect or were month to month. That has a bearing.

On the one hand, the landlord may have been trying to be nice, knowing the circumstances, in keeping the apt open for you. But at some point decided they could no longer carry you. On the other hand, they had a responsibility to protect your belongings from vandalism and theft.

I don't think a court is going to fault the landlord for giving you the benefit of the doubt that you were coming back and limiting the amount of back rent they can collect. If they obtained a judgement against you, then they may have had a right to seize personal property for sale to recoup the amount owed. But they would have had to get a judgement first.

And I do think you have a case against them for allowing your property to be damaged and stolen.

I am a little confused also, exactly what happen, but I often have tennants that just move away and leave most of their belongings in the rental house. I have to wait till they are a month late, send a notice and if I go by all the laws it takes me about 2 months to get a legal eviction.

Once I get a legal conviction, I can sit out on the street everything they own. Once it is on the street it is free game for anyone to take.
I am not permitted to sell what is in the house, unless I sit it on the street and then take it since it is abandoned. I have heard of some landlord getting permission to sell of property in the home to cover rental, but I have never tried that.

If you left and left a car or truck or vechile parked on the landlords property and appear to desert it, they have rights to go to the court to dispose of this also.

So if they got a valid eviction notice, they can sit any and all of your belongings just on the street, I do it every month of so to people here.

** in larger areas like Atlanta, I have seen the court officer keep people back to the other side of the street till every piece of property is brought out of the house, once it is, he gives one last call for the owner to get it, and then he lets the crowd run in and take what ever they want.
It is an amazing thing to watch

OK I know there is no winning again the rent being paid. I use to rent out a moble home also and yes it has been done to me several times also. The LL was not being nice about anything so to speak. I have know them for 10 yrs. They asked my daughter to move out because she was dating a guy that had a bad reputation and my daughter moved to keep peace with the LL. They slapped me with an eviction notice every time I was late paying the rent, this happened for about 4 or 5 months in a row because I did not have the money to pay before I went to FL. They even questioned me about a couple that she had evicted for back rent, they had 2 babies and I let them stay a night or two with me and fed them and take showers, she was mad because I didn't let them live in their car. She has a heart of stone. I don't think I could file against them for the property damage and stolen items, here in tn there is renters ins and the LL are not responsible for what is taken out of the apt. I do know it was a mess when I went into it. Everything was just trashed, so I know this really made her mad to have to pay for clean up that bad. When I left the apt there had been a leak under the stairway and the carpet in front of the door was soaked. When I asked her about it she tried to blame it on me, I looked in the storage area underneath the stairs and there was white mold growing up the walls all my things stored there were soaked with about 2 inches of water standing in it. I asked the maintenance man about it and he told me the neighbor moved out and the commode kept running all over the bathroom, the LL never did change her mind about it being my fault. They had never done any repairs to my apt when contacted except the last year. I had to get friends to come over and do the repairs, one was even an electrical one that had no power upstairs at all, when looked at my friend said the apt could have burnt down. It was like renting from slum lords. Honestly. There was a child that died from heat exhaustion when the mother put them to bed the heater stuck on high and the child died, nothing was done to the landlord for the malfunction of the heater, the mother got investigated. So I guess I will just have to settle for a judgment against me and having it taken out of my check. Do you know of any good paying jobs in TN? Will they take it out of my check if I am barely getting by? Or will they let me pay monthly? Are there any attorneys that will take a care pro bono? I have checked with legal aid and the bar association but no answer from either. Thanks for all of your help. I know it is confusing reading all of this but Itried to scan down the past 4 years to a paragraph or two. Plus being stressed over all this and going to court on a lawsuit how humiliating it is.

Legal aid is about it, but you need to show up in court and give the judge your version of what happened, you never know, or offer a payment plan to the judge at the court. But yes, if they get a garnishment, they will take a percentage of your pay, no matter if you earn 50 dollars or 500 dollars.

And Good paying is a matter of relationship, here in wonderful Sparta TN about the highest paying jobs around are 8 to 10 dollar a hour and they are few. Some professionals do better, it is all up to what you know how to do. Areas like nashville and Knoxville pay a little better but cost of living is higher also.

Nothing humiliating about going to court, I sue people, people sometimes sue me, this is what happens in our sue crazy world.

I want to thank you guys for your advise and help. I do understand the court systems, I worked in Hamilton County TN for almost 20 yrs with the courts, I was also a reserve officer with the sheriff's office for 6 (that was a freebe job) I watched as the low income people came in and out of court and usually ended up paying. My daughter even got sued by her grandmother. She was renting a house from her that had open wiring hanging in the kitchen area, main fuse box, holes in the floors, a strip of metal over the stove area where a fire had been before my daughter moved in and roaches really bad. I wrote a letter to my mother in law wanting these things fixed that it was unsafe and unhealthy for my daughter to live in (both of my daughter were living there one was pregnant) she only sued one of them. We went to legal aid and got an attorney who knew nothing at all about law, I knew more than he did, so the judge awarded her grandmother a judgment for back rent $2000. Her uncle wiped it off my daughters credit when her grandmother died and apoligized for her suing her. She had also sued her own son and daughter. My daughter did not pay rent for 3 or 4 months until the repairs were made on the house, they never were, and she still continued to rent it out afterward. So I am a little sceptical about using legal aid. I do know of some attorneys that got their start there and they've become better attorneys. I just can't afford one at this moment. Guess a second job is about all that I can do. Cleveland is about like the area you're from the pay here is really low I make $9/hr and work for a call center, there are no jobs here. I made 30000/yr before I met my husband with the addiction,who talked me into starting a business and letting him run it. Well this all brings me back to where I am now being sued for back rent. Again I thank you guys for the help you have offered. Wish me luck next month. I am searching for jobs in Chattanooga at this moment hoping to get back on with the county, but those jobs are few they are held until death by these employees, same as in Cleveland. But I will get back on my feet again and take care of my problems like I have done in the past.