Can only an attorney request a court for documents from a landlord such as utility bills/payments?
April 5th, 2011 | 
Author: My rent at a Non-profit organization rooming house/homeless shelter includes all utilities. Back in September, the electrictiy was shut off. After nearly four days being off, one of the tenants decided to call the electric company who was unaware it was a communal living situation (14 women and children) they thought it was a single family home. When they found out there were infants in the home, they turned it on that night but informed us a payment hadn’t been made in over a year. Roughly a week later the gas was turned off, we had no heat, no stove, no hot water, no laundry. After 3 days, I called and spoke to the Mgr. (who also said unaware many people living there) the gas was turned on that evening and yes, I was told no pymt has been made since April 2009.
I was later evicted without due process. There are dozens of other infractions that some of the tenants are pursing (some are criminal).
Posted in Landlord Tenant Law
You can request documents from a landlord without being an attorney (whether he’ll give them to you is another story). However, you can only represent yourself in court if you are not an attorney. Call your local Legal Aid organization (or whatever you local non-profit legal services agency is called). They handle this kind of thing all the time. Keep in mind they will only represent you if you meet their definition of low income. However, I assume you probably will if you living in a rooming house.
I f you are in or are considering a small claims suit, once filed, you can go to the courthouse and ask the clerk for a ‘subpoena ducus tecum’ form. Completing this will result in an order by the court for the landlord to produce the documents you need. In small claims you can certainly do this without an attorney. In ‘regular’ (civil) court you are probably over your head to proceed w/o counsel. RJ
Yep, it is better to contact an expert attorney.Reliable and expert attorneys can resolve your problem.
http://www.theattorneynetwork.org