breach of lease in south carolina

[inchristtaylor]

In March of 2006 my boyfriend signed a lease with a property management company. The lease was supposed to be from August 15th until July 31st. Some family things came up and we told the property management compnay, that he had to move to korea and was not going to be able to move into the into the apartment, he ended up not going to korea because I got pregnant, but he had a guy who was supposed to seblet, but he backed out of the deal at the last minute, and so my boyfriend had already signed a lease with another apartment, we talked to an attorney, who's information I cannot find now. He told us that as long as we give the rental company a reasonable amount of notice, and have the apartment completely vacated, that past cases had been ruled that a reasonable time of payment was 1 and half to three months, my boyfriend paid 7 months before he could no longer afford the rent. So the lawyer told him excatly what to say to the property management company, and we thought that was the end of it because we hadn't heard from them until the other day when we recived a court order saying that we owed 1,800. what do we do?

[OHlandlord]

Did your boyfriend give written notice to not live in the unit (that is to vacate it and allow it to be re-rented)? If he did, your state's law says the LL has a duty to take reasonable steps to re-rent the unit. I assume he returned the keys to it promptly. If he did this, the LL should have been able to re-rent the unit within 7 months certainly. This sounds like a miscommunication. Since your BF was still paying the rent, perhaps management thought he was keeping the unit. *Had he turned in the keys?*

Then you get a copy of a court judgement against him. Normally he must be actually served with papers to go to court before they can obtain a judgement against him. If they served him, and he did not show up in court, they would have recieved a default judgement against your BF. Does the $1800 represent the rest of the lease? Please give more details.

[inchristtaylor]

He never got the keys he never moved into the apartment. We were never served with papers, and I have all of the discussion we have with the rental property compnay which stopped in March, after he told them that he would not be paying rent anymore because the lawyer said that 7 months was plenty of time to find a new tenant. They knew he had never moved in. The court information we got says it is for the rent for the rest of the time and the fees associated with the lawsuit as well as intrest for nonpayment. They knew he had never moved into the apartment he told them that before the lease started in August, and we have written proof that states he never moved in, and the rental company knew that. I don't know how he was served or where he was served, or if he was served because we didn't know about the lawsuit until just a couple of days ago. We haven't been down to the courthouse yet, but we will be going to find out how he was served.

[OHlandlord]

I would contact the court ASAP and ask when the hearing was, since he was never notified nor allowed to attend to present a defense. He must be served in some fashion to proceed. Different state have different types of service allowed to get a civil judgement against another person. In some places, the 3 day or eviction paperwork counts as service to a tenant, in others a tenant can be served personally, by certified mail, by US mail, by posting it on the door of the residence, or by newspaper publication. Call the court and ask what type of service was noted on the proceedings. Then if it isn't true, challenge it to the court. They may have to vacate the previous order and schedule a new hearing to allow him to present his side. Let me know what you find out from the court.

[inchristtaylor]

I contacted the court apperantly nothing was ever filed with them, I guess they were just using a court order to scare me, I mean it looks like a court order, I guess it's not. I also recived another thing in the mail from the this is from the company. It has my move out date as 7/31/2007. The balance on this sheet just states that the balance due prior to move out was 1,835.05. I don't think they ever acknowledged the fact I wasn't living there. I don't think they ever tried to rerent the apartment, although I told them, in writting I wasn't moving in in August. And I have an email from them stating everything. They new I wasn't there and the last email I got from them was March 15th 2007 they said they were going to file for eviction today, and they would be collecting on the full amount. I don't understand, they didn't evict me, they knew I wasn't living there. What is going on?

[OHlandlord]

Sounds like they are bluffing to try to get you to pay. Evictions and civil judgements are only handed down by a court order. You must be served in one of the methods listed previously before a court order can be obtained. (You could call the court and ask if they got an eviction order against you back then.) I think they are just trying to get you to pay. Send them a certified letter stating the whole story- who was on the lease, when he notified them in writing that he would not be taking occupancy, how many months of rent were paid after he notified them of the vacancy, etc. State any documentation that you have of their notification. Let them know that you are aware that a LL in your state has an obligation to make reasonable attempts to re-rent the unit. Let them know that you paid rent for 7 mos after it was noted vacant, which is more time than any judge would give them to allow them to re-rent. As such, you have more than fulfilled your penalties from breaking your lease. Send this certified mail, return receipt requested and keep a copy for yourselves. Hopefully if they see they can't bluff you, they will drop this matter. Let me know if you receive anything else.

[inchristtaylor]

Thank you so much for you help.

Yes, good advice.




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