Preparing for Rent Court

If you are a tenant behind in rent, bet that a rent court notice is bound to show up on your front door sometime soon. Perhaps it already has. The rent court notice is a summons to district court where you can defend yourself against a landlord or property manager, who may be charging you for rent already paid or items not awardable in rent court. It also offers an opportunity to complain about dangerous or unhealthy living conditions from lack of management maintenance.

Go to court and come prepared. Bring your lease and a most recent statement of your account (or at least receipts for what was paid). Prepare what to say when the judge asks why the rent wasn’t paid. Finally, have a plan for repayment in mind.

If the rent truly wasn’t paid, many tenants just don’t go to court. Some don’t want to lose a day of work, and others just admit defeat. But this is a bad approach, because your attendance just might get part or all the debt paid!

When your case is called, the judge will ask if the amount on the rent notice is owed. Saying yes, the judge will want to know why you’re in court. The answer to that question should always be “Because I want to stay in the apartment (or house)”. Then, the most amazing thing may happen. The judge will ask how much money you have toward the rent, then direct you to see a court official about county social programs that can help pay that balance. Be careful, the amount paid has a limit and it can only happen once a year for you.

Prior to court also look into other sources of financial help: Churches and private eviction prevention services. Take some initiative, and a solution is at hand. Give up, and in a short time the sheriff will be knocking on your door and an eviction crew close behind.

Paying rent on-time and in-full is the best policy. Partial payments are second best. Not communicating with the property management will only land you in court or worse yet, standing on the street looking back at the house you slept in the night before. 

77th Meridian, LLC manages rental property in Anne Arundel and surrounding counties and part of Baltimore City for a monthly fee of 7.7% of collected rent.  
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