I have a small claims case and I am seeking advice for my case I processed against my former roommate. She is disputing the claim and I was wanting legal advice regarding her letter she sent me regarding the summons she received from me.
She failed to pay rent and utilities when we had agreed to pay half of rent and utilities. She was forced to be removed off the lease voluntarily in order to avoid eviction from Landlord and I was granted to stay in property because I was paying rent and she was not. She claims to have been current on all rent and bills when she left property and lease agreement. That is incorrect, this is why she had to leave. I have all documentation to prove the matter here.
Her letter she sent to me also states she wants my proof of copies of my documentation to prove my claim because she was without any merit when she left she claims. However, I do not want to give her my documentation because it has all my personal information on it. I just told her the court will strictly handle the case and decide the judgment. Was that okay?
Any one know of attorneys who handle these kinds of cases in Cumberland, MD? Or is there a landlord tenant hot line to call?
She also claims in the letter if I had contacted her before filing suit, the matter could have been resolved quickly. This is wrong information from her, this is why I had filed the suit against her because she cut off all communication when she moved out after not paying her half of rent and utilities. This is the first time I have heard from her or get any response from her since August 2009 when it occurred.
Thanks Ranger! She’s just trying to blow a smoke screen and really digging herself a hole. She did not pay rent at all during her stay on the lease.
She will have rights to be shown the documentation at the court date to prove my claim. She had copies of everything when she left. She’s claiming now she does not have anything or got anything. I will send it to her certified mail and she signs it upon delivery each time, then she will say she never got it. . So, now I am not wanting to keep wasting anymore $$ on that.

I’ve been living with my landlord for a bit more than 6 months. At first it seems great because the place is really nice and well decorated and furnitured, the landlord is rarely home, a cleaner come in every week, and two other tenants who live here are great. The house is also in a beautiful semi rural area.
My landlord who is in early or mid 30’s has always been rather shady. No body is sure where he’s from. He isn’t too talkative toward most people, have bunches of suspicious scars, and is rather cold and distant. He always claims he’s a translator for living, but yet we’re in a small city that is almost two hours away from nearest big city. One of the tenants once told me that he used to be in military for a long time and hinted that he have lose someone very close to him in war. They have say if you get past his barrier, he’s actually a very nice, caring, and a great friend that can be rely on.
I am not too fond of my landlord, but I love living here and since landlord was almost never home, I didn’t mind it at all.
On Saturday I and my boyfriend decided to have a party here while the landlord was gone. So we invited about ten people and have some beers and potluck and stuff. When one of the tenants came down, she was extremely upset and shaken by the whole thing and started to cry and begs me to get everyone to leave and clean up. We tried to calm her down, but other tenant came out and we can see he was so scared that he went to get dressed and left the house right away. Since there was so many of us and my boyfriend is really big and have a couple other guys with him, we weren’t too worried. A couple hours later, the landlord came home unexpectedly.
He started by coming to me and told me to get everyone out of the house now. I tried to tell him everything will be ok and we’d not get out of control. He started to get more harsh so my boyfriend came up to him and try to be friendly. Out of blue, he attacked my boyfriend, so everyone tried to stop the fight but couple other people got hurt then my landlord pummeled on my boyfriend for a bit more before he pulls a knife out and hold it by my boyfriend’s eye and warned if everyone didn’t leave, he’d crave his eyes out. That’s when everybody left.
My boyfriend have a fractured sternum, bruised kidney, torn liver, and some damages to face.
I’m living with my mom now and trying to get $800 deposit from my landlord and trying to find an attorney to take on this case because polices classified it as self defense. He was unsympathy at all. He says since my boyfriend threw up on the carpet and everything on the table fell onto the floor, he has to use the moneys to clean the place up.
I can’t believe someone could be such a jerk! What is his issue? We just wanted to have some fun and he did this. Now he’s just making things worse.

I moved out that night without telling him.

I have a situation I am hoping someone can help me with or at least point me in the direction of help. I have a small 401 k plan with the City of NY. I made contributions to it while employed with the city but all contributions stopped once I left my job in 2006. Recently I decided to withdraw $1000.00 and roll the rest over into my new 401 with my new employer. I filled out the necessary paperwork with the city and received a letter stating my request was denied due to a pending domestic order. I called to find out what they were talking about and was told that since I had a “divorce pending” they needed a domestic order to proceed with my application. In 2008 I had made a hardship withdrawal request to avoid eviction. I explained in the letter that I was a victim of domestic violence and financial exploitation at the hands of my husband and was in process of divorcing him. In the interim, my husband and I separated but I did not divorce nor did we legally separate. I have not considered divorcing at this time and have no idea if I will in the future. They explained that I was “flagged” as a result of the letter thus their domestic pending order request. (I never received any correspondence from them in regards to this back in 2008 nor did they every respond to my request for a hardship withdrawal. I am only learning all this now). I have explained that I am not divorced but they said they still need a waiver signed by my husband. I explained that attempting to approach him may put me at risk but they still said I need his signature. Today I received the waiver form in the mail that he is to sign. One of the statements in the waiver they want him to sign says he is acknowledging that he and I are “contemplating the commencement of a divorce or are in the process of a divorce”. This is not the case and I have repeatedly told them this. In addition to having the waiver notarized, they want my husbands phone number ” so he can be contacted” as well as a copy of his ID. I dont understand what they are trying to do. Why have him sign the statement about a divorce that is not happening? The rest of the statements in the waiver are fine and basically says he waives his rights to my money, I can do what I want with it, etc. I do not want them to call him. I feel this is unnecessary and intrusive and worry they could say something that would push him over the edge. I really need some guidance and assurance that the fund is operating within the confines of the law and my rights are protected as well. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Thank you for the responses. I understand the law as it is written, although I dont agree with it. My issue is the fact that they want me to have my husband sign this waiver which states “{my wife and I} are contemplating the commencement of a divorce or are in the process of a a divorce”. While I did take insignificant steps towards a divorce in 2008 (really just speaking with a lawyer), I never went through with anything and have never filed any paperwork AND my husband is unaware of this.