Posted by Nancy on December 29, 1998 at 13:16:26:
Hi:
Here is my situation, if you can help me please do; if you only want to
vent your spleen, please don't post.
I rented a house in California with the father of my children. Both of our
names are on the monthly rental agreement. I paid all of the other bills
and he was supposed to pay rent. We have lived here for over seven years.
One day the landlord called me at work and told me that he had not paid
any rent for over a year, and that I now owe them over $4,500.
I realize you can't trust anyone and that I should have checked to make sure
he was paying the rent, but I didn't. My question is: shouldn't the landlord
have notified me the rent wasn't being paid before such a giant bill was owed?
Please don't tell me to sue the father of my children. He doesn't have any money,
and the only job he has is that he works for the landlord sometimes.
The landlord doesn't want to kick me out, and I guess I should be grateful. But instead
I feel shafted. If the landlord had told me no rent was being paid before it got to be
such a large amount I could have immediately paid up the rent. Now I am looking at being in
debt for a couple of years.
In addition the house I rent needs a new roof, has such horrible mold in one bedroom that it is
unusable, and if I ask them to repair something I am charged for the repair. For instance, the
bathroom sink clogged, and I called the landlord to repair it. He tried to clear the line and
couldn't so he called a plumber, who took hair out of the line. Then I had to pay the plumber over
a $100 because hair in the line is my fault and does not naturally accumulate over the years.
Finally the landlord owns his own rental company, which he started a couple of years ago. I paid my
rent to the rental company for over a year after he told me I was so far behind. Just recently he
had me sign a new agreement saying I will pay the rent directly to him, and not to the rental company.
I suspect that I am his tax write off. First for his business and now for his personal income.
I need to get out of this mess somehow because my car just blew up and I can't get financed because I owe
the landlord so much money. I am the sole support of three kids, and need a car to get to work. When I applied
for financing the landlord told them how far behind in rent I was, and so no one will finance me.
If I file for bankruptcy will I still owe the rent? Can the landlord kick me out? I guess I couldn't rent another
place (even though this one is pretty much uninhabitable) because I couldn't pass the credit check due to the money
I owe this landlord, (or due to the bankruptcy if I file for one).
I am not a bad person. All of my other bills are paid up. I would never have gotten behind in the rent if I had been
notified that HE wasn't paying it. Is there anything I can do to straighten this out, short of walking for two years,
while I pay them off?
Follow Ups:
Note: Posting is disabled in all archives
Post a Followup