Big mess--our word against ex-landlord's in lawsuit

Our ex-landlord is also my husband's ex-boss. He is suing is for over $8000 in supposed damages that we did to his house while we were living there. We "rented" the property next door to his business for 15 years--there was no written agreement. The house was in a dilapidated state when we moved into it. The landlord did not provide the proper maintenance to upkeep the house so in the state it was in already and then 15 more years of wear and tear did not do it any favors. We bought a house and were in the process of trying to move when he had someone come in to "clean up" and take a bunch of our personal things (diplomas, yearbooks, items that our children made when they were younger, educational materials, couch, tv, etc) to the dump. He was even going to have our boat hauled away, but they guy he called to haul it called us first. He is stating in the lawsuit that we "abandoned" the property in August of 2007, but our rent was paid through September and the closing date on our home was September 10th, so we didn't even start moving any of our things until that date and didn't even spend a night in the new house until the 14th. Of course, the only thing we can provide documentation of is the closing date of our house. There are no receipts or contracts or anything else dealing with the rest of it. We feel we have to counter sue just to protect ourselves. I'm afraid that with no documentation the judge is going to side with the homeowner and that we will not only have to pay our attorney's fees and court costs, but the landlord's as well, in addition to the settlement he is asking.

Do you have a rent receipt to show that rent was paid until the end of September? A cancelled check written to him on the first of September? A money order receipt for that date? Something to show that you rent was stil paid up?

Did he send you an itemized statement of what he did with your deposit? Did he send it within the timelimit of vacating for your state? Please post more info and your state and perhaps we can help. I do believe you have cause to countersue if my suspicions are correct.

I'm sorry it took me so long to re-post. Thank you for your attention to this question. When we last paid the rent, we paid with a cashier's check so that he couldn't say that we still owed him anything and we would have something official. I would have to go to the bank now and get a copy of the check if they can pull up a scanned copy. I'm not sure if I wrote on it somehow what months it was to cover (I'm sure hoping that I did). Anyway, there was no issue with a deposit because there was no deposit or anything like that. There was no written lease agreement. We think we may be able to countersue because he had our personal property taken to the dump before we could get it all moved to our new house (just to be spiteful). He did not give us any warning or try to contact us, he did not post any sort of notice on the door other than a sign which read "Keep Out", he just sent someone over to clean out our things. When we got to the house to move another load and found what was happening and I told the guy who was "cleaning" out the house that he had thrown out boxes with our diplomas, yearbooks, caps and gowns, old letters from deceased relatives, Christmas tree and decorations that we've collected over the years, our couches, our tv, he was even trying to take apart our baby's crib and haul it off.

P.S. To the above message........

All the "cleaning" guy could say was that he was "just following orders" and that he didn't check any of the boxes to see what was in them or anything. He was told to clean out the house and that is what he was doing. He even through out a huge box of electrical study guides that belonged to my husband who is a journeyman electrician and was trying to study to get his master electrician's license. It didn't matter what it was......it was getting "cleaned" out.

Another P.S.

Number one, I can't work and spell at the same time, obviously--I meant to say he "threw" out a box of books, not "through" them out.

Number two, I keep forgetting to say that the state is Texas.

TX has no statute on abandoned property. You would have to look for local ordinances on this or case law to determine what period of time he needed to hod the property or when the unit is considered abandoned. In some places, it is not abandoned unless rent is unpaid. In others, it can be considered abandoned when no one is living in the house. Had you returned keys, given him a final date when you would be out of the house, or been behind in rent or fees (so that he could consider the rent paid by cashier's check) only back rent?

We had not returned keys or given him a final date that we would be out of the house other than paying through the end of September. He knew that we were buying a house and were trying to close as quickly as possible. We had been back and forth to the house trying to move things as quickly as we could but it was difficult with my husband working during the day, me going to school at night, and then me working 16 hour shifts on the weekends. We ran 3 days past the end of September in moving out things out of the house and he was already "cleaning" it out.