Bounced check & Judgement questions

First time in my life I accidentally bounced a rent check. I deposited cash in the teller machine but they didn't open the machine to do the stuff manually till the next day. After I left the bank I dropped off the rent check at property management company. They deposited same day and it bounced cause my bank hadn't gotten to the machines yet. Bank notified me by email. I emailed property management company and asked them to redeposit and let me know if there were any problems/questions. They didn't redeposit it nor did they sent me any reply to my email - no contact from them at all.

Do they have some responsibility to let me know they deposited it or even that it bounced? I guess I don't understand that. If someone gives me a check that bounces, I contact them immediately to tell them cause I want my money. But they didn't
So they start applying my current month's rent check to the prior month's rent without telling me. I was writing checks for July 2007 Rent with that in the little notation box but they didn't use that money for July rent, they applied it to June. They did the same thing with August rent - never telling me what they were doing. I don't understand that. If I give a check to BofA with a loan number or whatever on the little note section of the check, they can't take that check and apply it to some other account - right? Does that mean anything? This is just for my info. If it doesn't mean anything I won't bother putting anything in there anymore.

So a bunch of bad or no replies from property management company and I get an Unlawful Detainer summons. I go to legal aid and filed papers around 8/23. They said wait till I get the date from the court. Didn't get the date for the court and called on Monday to ask what I should do. They said call the court, I did - hearing had been set for that morning 5 hours before I called. I never got the hearing date notice so was not there and lost by default. I've had mail problems since moving in here but just verbal complaints to the post office. Back to legal aid and they file an ex parte to get the hearing reset. Horrible experience. It doesn't matter that I didn't get it. So it got turned down.

I'm sitting here with the judgement and I don't know what I'm supposed to do or what happens now. Judgement is for "rent and damages", attorney fees, costs as provided by law. for a total of $1795. No breakdown what 'rent & damages' is or means. Then it says and this is what I don't understand and what's supposed to happen.

Restitution and possession of the premises located at (address). This judgement of possession applies to any and all unnamed occupants and that the lease or agreement under which the aforesaid property is held be, and the same is hereby declared forfeited.

So they're going to evict me? When do I have to be out by or do they lock me out or what? The landlord's attorney rearranged the people he was taking care of and put me to be last so I heard a bunch of other stuff before then - his and other attorney's cases - other people got dates and explanations of how much per day from one date to some other date. But this doesn't say that. It's the weekend, no legal aid till Monday and I'm going crazy with this stuff. I was totally numb after walkign out of court and not thinking. Any info would be very much appreciated. I've got a heart condition that started acting up again this week and some other medical issues and I'm stressing way too much and now getting real scared for my health too.

If you were not properly notified of the court procedures you can call the court and have it all set aside.

But of course you have to stay very proactive and follow these things. It is a lot easier than having to undo all these issues.

[OHlandlord]

So you bounced a check in June. But you didn't notice that they didn't redeposit that check, nor did you worry that they were applying your next month's check to the previous month until August? Didn't you balance your checkbook anytime during those 3 months and notice that they hadn't cashed that check for June?

As soon as they cashed July's check and applied it to June, didn't you question them about this? That notation is useless if you owe back rent and haven't gotten caught up. Many leases say they can apply this payment to previously owed monies. Didn't you go to the office and inquire? Send a letter by certified mail? Call them on the phone? E-mailing them isn't the same as contacting them directly by phone or in writing. It probably won't hold up in court that you took any action to contact them. Many companies refuse to respond to e-mail, because you cannot prove who sent it. For privacy issues, they don't release any info based on an e-mail inquiry. As the last poster said, you have to be proactive.

Now you are going to have to contact the court and ask for them to set aside the eviction ruling on the basis that you did not receive proper notice to present a defense. Unless I misunderstand, you attempted this but failed. It would only delay the eviction though. You didn't stay current on your rent. When you found out they didn't redeposit the check by balancing your checkbook, you should have stopped payment on the bad check and reissued a new one to them. That would make you current on rent. As it is, if you cannot get a new hearing, you will be evicted within a couple of weeks at most. You will soon receive a notice on the door that says you will be set out by the sheriff, court baliff, or some other official in only a couple days. If they have already received the ruling on the eviction, and you can't get it overturned for a new hearing, you had better move immediately, or face having all your belongings placed at the curb.

It appears that you not only missed the eviction hearing, but maybe the hearing on monetary judgement. Have they already gotten a judgement against you for the back rent, damages, attorney fees, etc? Or is it just a motion for the judgement you recieved? If they have already received the judgement, it may be too late. You will owe them the amount in the judgement because you did not contest the amount. This judgement will be placed on your credit record.

If it is just the motion for the judgement, call the court immediately and find out when the hearing is. Show up - if you don't they win that amount automatically. Contest the amount you owe. Call your attorney first thing in the morning, before you get the notice of set out.

No, I did not need to balance the account. That account was only for my rent cause I got free checks with it and I only needed checks for rent. I use an account that's online for my other bills. I don't have many bills.

I only found out they applied July's check to June in court on Friday. That was the hearing to let them know I didn't get the court hearing notification. I don't remember the legal name for that hearing. My mouth dropped when I heard that and I tried to reply but attorney objected saying 'your honor, she's trying to try her case'. I had all the copies of the checks with me, copies of all emails. I never heard of applying things backwards before. I thought when I paid my August rent, it was my August rent I was paying. If they were doing things differntly, why didn't anyone tell me? They sent me 3 day notices to quit in July and August. July I brought them copies of my that month's rent check and nobody complained or said it was wrong. August I'd talked to legal aid and the lady said if I paid my rent for August I should just ignore it. Emails back and forth and the property manager said she has someone coming down and he'll bring over the check. I wrote out a replacement and waited. Then got another email about she needed to talk to the accountant. Then she said they redeposited it and destroyed the check. Then I got an email 8/15 saying I hadn't paid August's rent and if I felt that was wrong, i needed to supply a copy of my August rent check. Within 1/2 hour of her sending me that email I replied including a copy of the August rent check and said you said last week you redeposited it but I just checked and you didn't. What's going on? This is my August check. Either destroy the bounced check and let me know so I can replace the check or give it back to me and I'll replace it then. I got no reply and that sunday morning I got served with the summons.

My phone barely works (cord falls out, too static-y to hear, it's only for 911) and I like to have copies of communication so I asked them to use email. I don't need a phone except to get DSL. I actually hate talking on the phone and 'm probably the only person in CA that's not surgically attached to one. Email is better than the he-said she-said of a phone conversation.

The judgement was settled at the hearing I didn't know about. I don't have an attorney. I used legal aid who basically only fills out papers for you after you check off boxes on a form.

So I'm screwed. Thank you for replying.

[OHlandlord]

Being given 3 day notices 2 months in a row was a big red flag that something was wrong. Your legal aide attorney was wrong. You should NEVER ignore legal papers like that. Legal aide didn't do much to help you I'm afraid. You should get it in writing that it was a mistake and that you owed nothing. It is standard practice to apply money paid toward the oldest debt first, then this month's. If you make a car payment this month, but not last, the same thing will happen.

E-mail is useless in most courts. Since anyone can fake an e-mail, it is often not admittable as evidence. So copies of that form of comunication aren't much better than the he said-she said phone call. You should have written a letter and sent it to the LL by certified mail, return reciept requested. This proves to any court that you sent it to the LL and that he received it. You should also have checked that account to see if the checks had cleared when you balanced it (whether for only rent or not). Be proactive in your bills by checking to be sure they are, in fact, paid. Looks like you may have learned this lesson the hard way. You can also request that the LL send you a reciept for any payment made to them. Most places don't require receipts for checks since you are able to check you own account to see if they were cashed. You have to ask for a receipt for this.

You now have a judgement against you and an eviction on your record. You had better find a place to move to immediately. It will be hard to do since most places will not accept you with an eviction or a judgement from another LL. It may only take a couple days before the sheriff is at your door to carry all your belongings out. Start packing now and move all non-essentials to storage. Find another place and move quickly to protect your things. If you want to know an approximate date for the set out, you can call the court. I'm sorry this turned out like this. But never ignore legal papers on your door.

It is true, you must always answer the court papers. Learned that the hard way once myself.