MOVING COMPLAINT FROM SMALL CLAIMS COURT

A party has been interested in the property and so was another at the same time. the first party was moving from idaho so they were told in order to hold the property to rent they had to send in the deposit right away. they had a friend pay it. therefore the second party was turned away. the first party then came to the property, entered the property without consent and said no to continueing to rent the place due to and i'm not kidding, dog poop in backyard (we were paying to have it cleaned up) fingerprints on windows and hair in a washer/dryer which they said they would not use they have their own. they went to a hotel were their dog was not allowed and they left it in the car! nights in sd in the winter are freezing and the dog died. they are suing us to get their deposit back, the death of their dog (which how come it costs 2300$) the cremation of it, their uhaul, rental fees to store their stuff and hotel to live in since they moved. their complaint is in small claims court. how do you move it to civil court so they are forced to get an attorney?

[OHlandlord]

You don't want to move it to civil court or to have them get an attorney.

First, did they sign a lease with you, or merely provide a deposit? Did you give a receipt for the deposit? (Your receipt should have said "holding fee".)

***Were these their only complaints?*** If so, they aren't sufficient to break a signed lease or refuse a rental. The dog waste can easily be cleaned up (and they also had a dog who was going to use the yard), the windows can be cleaned within a hour or two, and you can certainly remove your washer & dryer to storage so they could use their own. All of these are very simple to fix and none constitutes uninhabitability. As such, there was no reason to go to a hotel or for you to pay for their hotel bill. It was their choice to place the dog in the car rather than to seek pet friendly lodging, or merely stay in the rental for the night until these problems could be addressed. Since you did nothing to their pet, you are not responsible for the costs of it's medical bills or cremation. Since the house was not uninhabitable, you are not responsible for their hotel bills. Since they were moving from another state, they would have had UHaul fees no matter where they went so you aren't responsible for those. They could have used the rental for storage instead of renting separate lockers for this. Use these arguments to defend yourself in court.

The only cost you should have to pay at all is to refund their deposit, and this is only if they hadn't signed a lease or you hadn't given them a receipt saying "holding fee" (or no receipt - you can claim it was a holding fee).

Why would you want them to have an attorney against you?