Went to court today
We went to the small claims court today and were surprised that the tenant/attorney actually showed up. This was our first time to actually see and speak with him since our property manager always dealt with him and his wife. He was the egotistical @$$**** we thought him to be!
The judge let me show & tell about evidence that the tenant had not followed the rules about filing this latest small claims case and that he had already sued us last year for the same thing. The judge said he would take some time and look back at the records for the case last year.
Other cases were heard and then the judge called us back up to the desks. In the meantime, while my husband had stepped out of the courtroom to go to the restroom, the tenant approached him in the lobby and said if we would both agree to "walk away" from this issue and the notice on his credit report (amount he owed us beyond what the security deposit covered on the repairs was turned over to a collection agency) was removed, we could be done with all this. If we didn't agree, he planned to sue us in District Court and it would cost us a lot more money.
My husband came back inside and told me this and I went outside and talked with the guy, too. He said he was just interested in getting this "mark" off his credit report and I said if he paid us the $1200 we'd agree to that. He said no way would he pay us anything. He also said we couldn't sue him in small claims court because we should have counter-sued on last year's case & we didn't. He also said something about us not being experienced landlords and not knowing how things worked. We actually have had three other rental properties besides our current residence that was rented to that tenant and two others after him. Over the last 18 years we've dealt with probably 12-15 tenants in rental/lease situations.
When we were back in court and the judge looked over the records of the claim last summer, he said it had been dismissed "with prejudice" meaning the tenant couldn't sue us again for the same thing. Therefore, he dismissed this current case and, we assume, the judgement that went with it. We are to come back in 2-3 days to get copies of the ruling in this case.
I asked the judge, since the prior case was dismissed "with prejudice" toward the plaintiff, did that preclude us from bringing another small claims case against the tenant for the money he owes us. I told the judge the tenant had threatened us with a lawsuit in district court if we didn't walk away from this one. The judge said if we do bring about a new small claims case, the tenant will defend it with the idea that we should have filed a counterclaim when we first were sued. (We consulted a local attorney about doing that very thing, and she said it was best to just answer the first claim and then do a separate countersuit--bad advice we see now.)
I told the judge that this is the third time this matter has come before a court and we've never been allowed to give our side of the story. The first time it was filed in the wrong jurisdiction & thrown out; the second time plaintiff didn't show up and it was dismissed without us being allowed to speak; and this time it was dismissed because the second time it had been dismissed. The tenant started to bring up some issues like the handle of the microwave had broken off and we replaced the whole microwave & we had the whole house repainted for "normal wear & tear." The judge stopped him from going any further and we weren't allowed to respond.
We didn't have a chance to respond that we tried to find a replacement door for the microwave & it wasn't available anymore so we had to get a whole new one. We didn't get to say that the painting estimate was for $1900 and $300 of that was judged to be normal wear and tear and we were asking for just $1600 from him for painting, not the whole $1900. We also didn't get to say that in the past 18 years of renting properties, none of our other 12-15 tenants broke the handle off a microwave, broke cabinet drawers, tore cabinet doors off, left chocolate syrup dripping down the inside of the refrigerator along with other assorted molding liquids, broke the chandelier and left it sitting in the corner of garage, left paint stains and other unknown substance stains on the carpet in every room, left the oven in despicable condition & it's a self-cleaning oven that they never bothered to clean in two years; let the water softener run out of salt so that all kinds of deposits were inside the dishwasher; knocked a chunk off the stucco fireplace hearth, nailed holes all across the front of the stucco mantle, killed part of the grass on the front lawn by leaving big objects on the grass long enough to kill it, left all kinds of trash in and around the house including a 200 lb. clay pot, left big gouge marks on the bedroom wall, left several marks on the hallway that looked like maybe they were doing a height chart on how much their kids had grown in two years, did not return the keys or garage door openers, did not show up for the walk through at the end of the lease after we had flown down from Seattle to be here for it, told the property manager he couldn't have the carpets cleaned because the power had been turned off & he's the one who turned it off in violation of the lease!
After we get the copies back of today's proceedings, we'll file our own small claims case and see what happens. We'll also file a report with the state bar association about the irregular way he filed this case today.
This is still MADDENING!!!
