Legal Help Needed

[Chris Seveney]

All,

This one is a doozy. I have a family friend who leased an apartment in maryland then sub-leased it to another person . (I guess they did a sign an agreement but never got it blessed by the property manager which was stated in her lease she needed to do). She left town and now he stopped paying rent and is living for free. . She now has gotten an eviction notice and has a court hearing this week. 

She is afraid of a civil suit from this person if he is evicted because his agreement is with her even though he has not paid rent and also has not paid the utilties (which they are going to shut off), but she left them in her name but he is responsible.

Long story short, anyone know a good tenant/landlord attorney she could call.

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by @Chris Seveney:

All,

This one is a doozy. I have a family friend who leased an apartment in maryland then sub-leased it to another person . (I guess they did a sign an agreement but never got it blessed by the property manager which was stated in her lease she needed to do). She left town and now he stopped paying rent and is living for free. . She now has gotten an eviction notice and has a court hearing this week. 

She is afraid of a civil suit from this person if he is evicted because his agreement is with her even though he has not paid rent and also has not paid the utilties (which they are going to shut off), but she left them in her name but he is responsible.

Long story short, anyone know a good tenant/landlord attorney she could call.

  I don't think she needs to spend money on an attorney.  With or without an attorney, in my opinion, she will have an eviction on her record, and she's going to owe the landlord money.

My advice would be to have her send a letter with the copy of her sublet agreement to her manager/owner, along with a letter saying that they need to name the subletter in the eviction.  That she sublet the apartment and didn't expect any problems, but that she will show up in court and cooperate in the eviction of the subletter.  The only way for her to get this guy out of her apartment is to evict him. In my opinion, she might as well let the landlord do it.

Then, after the subletter is evicted, and she's hopefully made a payment arrangement with the landlord for all the money owed on her lease, she then turns around and sues the subletter, for rent he owes her, the utilities he owes her, and her court costs.  She can do this in small claims court.

The subletter has no grounds to sue her.  He agreed to pay rent and utilities, and did not.  I can't imagine what she thinks he can sue her for. 

But, the fact that she's now been named in an eviction action means that she will have an eviction on an eviction report now, as well as a judgment.  She can ask for a stipulated payment plan through the court, so she can make payments.  But, the judgment will likely show up on her credit report, anyway.  So, I really don't see what an attorney could do for her, except add to her debt.

Anyway, that's my opinion.  If I was her, I'd give the name of the subletter to the landlord, and a copy of the sublease, too, which would show good faith in cooperating, then throw myself on the mercy of the judge.  No need to pay an attorney, if you're just going to say "I sublet the apartment, I knew I wasn't supposed to, it's obviously back-fired, and I intend to make it right, and I will trust the court's decision.  I hope you'll take into account that I've given all of the sublease info to the landlord, and I'm hoping you'll allow me to make payments.  I intend to sue the subletter for what he owes me separately."

For what it's worth, that's what I'd do.