Being Sued For Refusing To Pay Rent

0:00My name is Daphne. I'm 27 based in San Marcos, Texas and this is financial audit. Thanks for coming up from San Marcos. What do you do there for a living? I actually work in Austin, but I'm an elementary assistant. That's kind of a commute. Elementary assistant. So is that like front desk or like helping in the classroom? Yeah, I'm an assistant in the classroom. Do you have a degree for that? I have my certification. So I'm a Montessori elementary assistant. So it's not public. It's a little different. So you have to go get a bachelor's, and then you have to get like a certification specifically for Montessori.

0:31And I just finished that training in June. And yeah, so now I'm just working my way up the ladder to become a full lead. Oh, very nice. So what do you make right now? Well, I actually just signed a new contract today for a new school, and I'm going to be making$22 an hour. Okay. How many hours a week? Is that 40? Yeah, full time, 40. Okay. But it's only nine months, right? No, it's year-round. It is. Because they have summer camp, so I get the option to work in the summer. okay so with no time off which i assume is not a thing would be 45 ,760 dollars yeah but i also get the like the winter break and the fall break and spring break and all of that so we had come in 2 ,511 that's so that's from my old school which you were making how much um i was salaried at that position it was like 43 ,000 a year yeah it's 43 ,000 so this is going to be similar then Yeah, it's a little bit less, but my take home is more just because here in Texas, they don't have the state tax.

1:35I was in Colorado. Oh, this was Colorado. Yeah, I just moved back like maybe two weeks ago. So you're from here and you came back? Yeah, I went to Colorado to do my training for the Montessori. And then I did my internship out there. And then I decided to move back for reasons. What's the state income tax and tolerance? 4.4. So I'd say you're probably going to bring home. Let's include those vacations. and everything on a monthly average. $3 ,200 a month? And I get$380 in child support a month. So there's that.

2:13$379. Okay,$379,$3 ,200. So$3 ,579 we can call your income? Yes. Okay, cool. So welcome back, and I'm glad you got a new job. and you're starting to climb the ladder, so that's good. What the fuck is going on in Colorado, though, is immediately what sticks out of my head because we have an outstanding balance, an outstanding balance for an apartment of$3 ,060.01. Outstanding balance. And you weren't making nothing. I mean, among the higher wage earners, no. But what is going on? um yeah there was a lot of things that were going on prior to this and um i was having a lot of issues with the apartment complex i had moved there at the beginning of the year um and within i want to say was it like april i started having had a few months in okay yeah i had a really bad rodent issue like it was yeah for two months i had this giant rat in my wall and i kept telling them there's a rat in my wall they didn't believe me and i showed them the videos that i had of this rat and then they had the pest control come out and then they're like well it's not that big of a deal it's not a yeah it was so that was one issue and then underneath me was basically like a trap house and so that was the big yeah like there was always random people coming in at random hours of the night very sketchy things so drugs and insertions yeah yeah it was yeah it was really scary because there was multiple times where there was like violence threatened.

3:55The police had to come out a couple of times because violence against you. No, like the person that lived there and then the random people that were coming in and out because of whatever they were doing, they were just always threatening violence against each other. You told me you had kids too. Yeah. How many? I have one. How old are they? She's six. And that was, it was really traumatizing for both of us because there was a couple of times we had a hide in the closet because of the shooting. What the fuck? Yeah, the cops had come out, and it was, so that was scary. How were they not kicked out immediately?

4:27Who would want this in their property? Yeah, that's what I, my neighbors were also said that they had been there for like a year, and. Was this like a lower income community, by the way? No, it was a regular apartment complex. I had a, and yeah, they, and I would tell them, I mean, my dog even got attacked by their, because the random people are always coming, and then they had random dogs, and just really scary. Yeah, and then summer came around. I didn't have AC. I kept telling them about that. They were ignoring me. They didn't do anything about it. I went the whole summer without AC. Granted, the summers in Colorado aren't that bad, but still, it was 85 degrees in my house.

5:04I had a kid, and my grandma was coming to visit. So I kind of got to the point where I was probably not the best choice, but I kind of got to the point where I was like, hey, I've been trying. Did you talk to anyone legally? I mean, I don't know. Yeah, I tried. Um, a lot of the places that I was getting referred to for like low income or just cause I, I wasn't at the place to like get a, like a big lawyer and I don't, I've never had to do anything like that before. So I was trying to find like, like local lawyers, like low income, a lot of, I got a lot of recommendations from like, um, the community center that I went to and they gave me a lot of like low income housing.

5:45but anybody that lives in Denver knows there's a huge housing issue out there. I'm not just talking about that. I'm talking about legal help with them not fixing AC, trying to get you out of, you know, contract, maybe even more with all the dangerous stuff that was going on and obviously not holding up their end of likely the contract that you signed. Yeah. Because I assume you just left. Is that what this means? Yeah. You just left. Yeah. When did you leave? The end of September. So you made it all the way to September. Okay. Wow. Yeah. And then, so, like, there's a utility bill that came in, and it was a late fee.

6:22Then we had to back rent and late fee and late fee. But, I mean, you're just obviously not paying it. But, I mean, okay. Yeah, I mean, it gets a little weird. I don't know much about the stuff. Instead of you pursuing them to try to get out of a contract, it sounds like, in any kind of way, which is hard, because you're just a person, you know, making$40 ,000 a year or whatever it was after taxes, was like, you know, almost 30. Well, I mean, that doesn't make sense. I don't think you're working as many hours as you, but it was salary. I'm a bit confused on the income that came in, I'll be honest.

6:57But either way. Well, I just started that salary. You broke the contract that you signed, which means that, I mean, yeah, this would be, did you give them notice? So what happened was, because all that was happening, they came to me and said well we're gonna evict you and then that's when the whole evict you yeah and then that's or why because i wasn't paying rent and that's when why weren't you paying rent because of all the safety issues and they were ignoring me so i went like i said probably not the most like the smartest move um i would have rather you talk to someone yeah yeah i in retrospect that probably would have been best instead of just not paying rent yeah so yeah and it got to the point we had to go like oh it's like civil court or whatever um Um, and I showed up and I told the judge, I was like, Hey, you know, this is all been going on.

7:50And I, from my understanding was my options where I either just paid the amount of rent that was due, which was like the 3000, not without the late fees or anything was either to pay that to the property to be able to stay or to get my stuff and just leave by a certain date. And then it would all be considered like even, that's what I understood. but now I have this bill that they sent me. What do you mean that's what you understood? Was that the decision that was... So, because the way that it's, I don't know how to, the way that it's worded, it sounds... Did they take you to civil court? Yes.

8:27They took you to civil court? Yes. Okay. And I don't have a lawyer. Like, I just presented the court with all of the photos of all the damage that my apartment suffered. What did the judge decide in the end? They gave me, it was a stipulation agreement is what they gave me. Okay. and so that's what I signed and it said that you know how to be out by this date at this time and you were yes okay and I had my keys and that's a funny thing too because a week later they called me and said well we need your keys you're not out of the unit and I told them I said yes I did return the keys there were two people there and they're like okay well we'll see if we can find the keys and they didn't seem to believe me but I haven't heard back from them since then I also emailed them about that and asked um well they obviously seem like absolutely terrible landlords They give every one more terrible.

9:10They have a two-star rating. I'm not surprised. Total unpaid charge is$3 ,910, even though it says outbalances. I'll say any balance is$3 ,000. I think they took my deposit. That makes sense. Okay. Well, yeah, you're probably not going to get your security deposit back, but obviously you're just trying to get$3 ,000 off the bills, especially when we go through the rest of the debts. Obviously, your debts really stack up for your income situation as a single mom, right? Okay, I don't have the judge's decision in front of me. I have no choice but to just take your word and just, you know, your hopeful understanding of the situation.

9:54So what are you doing now? You're challenging it? Yeah, that's why I reach out to them. And yeah, I just, to the apartment complex. I sent them an email and it's like, hey, you know, I signed this agreement. it's from this is what it said i kind of quoted a little bit but i also don't understand legal wording that well um and i just that was last week i haven't gotten anything back so i don't i don't know um they may have sent it to their lawyers and it could take a bit yeah so i'm not i'm not sure what to do about this and i don't i don't like have a lawyer or anything i don't really know i know and there might be people who are willing to do low lower income services as well.

10:36Even if you hire a lawyer just to look over the agreement, I mean, that could, maybe we could, we could find someone to do like a few hundred bucks. I don't know. That's hard. It's probably going to be a couple thousand. It's a retainer.

10:53So yeah, I might look for resources to see what you can do. Cause I mean, at that point, then you're basically just doing this. Saving that money. Money. I love when my money is making more money and the SoFi high yield savings account I use has 4.6 % interest on that money. It's the savings account I personally use for my tax money that I set aside and other money that I just want to be building while it's just sitting there. And you can get bonuses by signing up all the way up to$250 by using my affiliate link in the description below. And it's not just because they're my affiliate. I personally use them.

11:26They're great. I've had a great experience with them so far. And I only recommend those who I like working with and who I like using. so if you have money sitting in savings have that money make some more money and use that high yield savings account link in the description below 4.6 percent and bonuses all the way up to 250 dollars eventually it'll go into well i'm just adding leafy leafy leafy they might just write off the law sell it to collections if for some reason this isn't so okay you emailed them but you're not pursuing anything you haven't gone to the court i'm like yo what's up no i haven't I don't, I recommend maybe reaching out to the office that, you know, that judge's office if possible.

12:06The court office? Yeah. Okay. You know, I was, yeah. Um, whatever system they were in, was it like the county? Was it? Uh, yeah. The county of that place. Okay. Okay. No, I get it. Okay. So yeah. I mean, maybe we send an email in or leave a call or something like that. Okay. See if we can. Yeah, because obviously if what you said was correct, then obviously these people, they're probably stuck in a big paperwork of corporate bullshit. And they probably don't even give up to people who are working. Obviously, the people managing your place don't give up to their terrible people. Well, I mean, in the few months that I was there, they had two different, that's another thing.

12:47They had switched over management. So when I moved in, like, oh, we just got new management, blah, blah, blah. And then, like, right before the rat thing happened, they switched to another management. That's how I found out because I was emailing them. You don't know who the owners are though, do you? No, it's a big corporation. That property is really big too. But they switched over to new management. And when I went to go tell them about the rat situation, that's when I found out they didn't tell us like, oh, we got new emails or new management or anything. So the communication there's also really sh**.

13:16Okay, I think first step for this, see whatever community resources are there are. I'd maybe reach out to some housing lawyers and just explain your situation. in an email or voicemail and say, you know, I really don't have much, that kind of stuff, and just see who might be able to get back to you. Maybe someone's willing to do it for like$500, something like that. Reach out to a lawyer in Colorado, right, not here? Yeah, probably. That might just make it easier, especially if they have to show up in person or anything. Okay. So, yeah, whatever that town was that you were in, and look around, leave lots of emails and voicemails, try to explain your situation, see if someone's willing to help for a lower income situation, look at community resources, do that for a couple weeks.

14:06If we're like two, three weeks in, maybe reach out to the local judge's office there.

14:17If for some reason, and I really don't think this is going to be the case, but if you can't get any community resource you can't get a lawyer at all and then you just never hear back from the judge office which again i don't think all three of those things would not happen which would that would just be wild there is the potential that eventually this will go to collections and maybe you challenge it you challenge it with the credit bureaus be like yo here's this legal you have a piece of paper right i mean what do you have yeah i have this i have a they emailed me the copy of what i signed or the stipulation yeah so that's what i need to fight it there.

14:49Yeah. So. Okay. I just need help decoding it. It's on my. Can I take a look? Yeah. Let me take a look. I'm curious. I've gone through many, many, many fun legal documents, especially on the real estate side because I am a, I do own some rental properties now. I actually treat people who rent it with respect and don't frown. And also if they just want to leave, I just let them leave anyway. So. But either way Should have moved to one of your properties Well you'd have to live in Michigan for that And I know we haven't gotten into Any of the debts yet except for this one It's an interesting thing to break down that we haven't Had before but while she's pulling this up You should hit the subscribe button We're trying to get to a million subscribers Thank you to everyone who has subscribed so far Love you all so much

15:40I think this is it I think this is it So yeah I don't. All right. Maybe you can help me. Let's take a look. It's only one page? That's what they signed or they sent me. All right. This should be. That's what I signed. This is why you don't sign things that you don't understand. Yes. I would always go in with a lawyer. I mean, you were being sued. Did you look at any public options? Yeah. So the public options that were given, because I went to the community resource people and And they gave me a list of like low income. What do they call it? Low income representation, something like that. And it was like either really low income or free.

16:23And then some of them, they were like, yeah, we can help you. We can't help you until like this day. And I was like, well, that's going to be too far after the whole thing. It's hard for me to read on the phone. Can you email that to us? Yeah. Okay. We'll see what he says. see if he has time to get to it before you leave if not i'll just text you later and i'll probably leave a pinned comment if it's not included in this episode with what happened so beyond that we might owe that i'm inclined to think you may so i'm gonna do rent three thousand sixty dollars and one cent just slightly leaning towards that not 100 sure or let the actual expert in the field of law decide that.

17:13We have a 2019 Toyota Corolla. You got a car that was basically half the income that was coming in. The loan itself was half the income that was coming in in terms of the overall balance. Why did you get such, okay, this is a good car. It's a good, reliable, safe. It'll get you a point A, point B, and it'll last a while as long as you take care of it. Could have gotten a little older version. Why did we go and go essentially$20 ,000 in debt when you did this? Journey date, 2026. So, you know, we're waiting a few years still. Yeah. So I got that car in 2020. Six year long. Yeah. In June of that year, I actually got in a wreck.

17:52My car got totaled. Insurance cover up? Yeah. So the total amount due for the total amount and the amount that there was left on it was basically the same. So I got like a$40 check for the difference. So they just like totaled it out. All right. So they paid the rest of that loan and then gave me the$40 extra. What's the interest rate on this thing? It's, I think it's close to like 18%. Oh, why, why? Because. And why did you get a card that was obviously well beyond where it should be for your income? Yeah, just, I was like everybody else just desperate for a card at the time. My single mom didn't have a car.

18:36My grandma gave me some money to put a down payment. And, yeah. Yeah, it was a very hard time for the car market especially. Yeah, this was September of 2020 when I got that. So you got gifted some money for the down payment? Mm-hmm. You don't have to pay that back? No. My grandma's awesome. 518 % death, though. That's death. Yes. At least you're kind of on that down trend of more money going towards principal than interest. Yeah, I keep getting prompted to refinance my loan, I guess, because I've had it for so long. I just haven't done that because I don't know how to do that. With what your credit score may be.

19:14What's your credit score? So on average between the three, it's like 600 because one's like 595. 600? 600? Yeah. So one of them's 595. One's 611. I don't know. So, yeah, they're right around$600. $526.06 minimum monthly payment. It's a lot. Yeah. Especially for, you were bringing in$2 ,000 before. Is that what it was? $2 ,600,$2 ,500? Yeah. But, yeah, I wasn't working here when I got that, but yeah. I know. You have student loans. I do. They're all at 5 % or less. 4.5, 4.5. What is that? Yeah. 12 ,000 for the certification that you got? No. So some of those are from a community college and then the this one where is it?

20:11This this one. The larger one? Yeah, that one's for the certification and these two are from Certification was 9 ,500? Yeah. Man, this is why this is why I like talking about my boys over at Course Careers for tax certifications because so much cheaper than that. Me. $9 ,500 you borrowed. Did you put any money actually towards it, or was it just$9 ,500 to complete it? No, that was the complete total. Okay. So, I mean, your minimum monthly payment across all these is probably, what, $150? I don't know. I logged into it because I knew that in October the nail net, it was said, so I'm not, so if I look on my thing right now, it says that zero is due.

20:54That's my monthly amount due right now. It says zero. Oh, when did you get your certification? I just finished it in June of this year. So, yeah. You do get a few months. Yeah. And then, yeah, these ones are. But I would look out for it. It's going to start very, very soon for you. Well, yeah. So, yeah, the two of those start in April. The one starts in January. But I was trying to look because I logged into my student loan account. I was trying to look to see what the minimum monthly payments would be. And right now it all says zero on everything. it doesn't give me like an estimated minimum monthly payment yeah about 150 probably across the board what what do you have so much so much in collections um see this is why all of a sudden i'm even more skeptical on the rent thing because you have four things in collections here so so that just screams irresponsibility yeah so one of these so actually two of these this 10 this 1000 and this 373 i'm fighting those because i did have um my identity stolen in 2020 and they went to Banfield Vet Clinic?

21:52I don't know. I don't go to Banfield. And then the other one was... Do you have a pet? I do have a pet, but I don't... I always pay out of pocket for her, which sucks. Well, you know what could have happened is she went in a little more... It was... A little more happened in the visit. Maybe you signed something, and that's what you ended up owing, and you just didn't pay it. I go to a... At this time, because I was living in colorado wasn't going but i've always taken her to this private but you've never been to a banfield in your life my mom's taken her but i haven't taken her now yeah okay so your mom i mean that could explain it your mom took her but it's still your dog on your account and likely the payment was still owed on your account never paid went to collections i don't think that's something you can fight.

22:45I mean, you just answered it right there. Okay. Maybe, probably a thousand, a thousand 13. Now, okay. If you're identity, first of all, lock your credit. Yeah. I have a pin. So this year when X, um, we're in 20, so this year I did 22 last year we did 21. Yeah. Last year is when I found out I had my identity stolen. Cause I went to go cause the lady who does my taxes, she's always done my taxes every year. And when we went to file, it said that I couldn't file it because it had already been filed. And she asked if I I had filed them. I said, no, I haven't. And so I had to go through the IRS and somebody else got paid.

23:18I'm still waiting on like 10 grand for the IRS to pay me from that year. That's what makes you conclude that your identity was stolen. No, no, no. When I went, or not me, when my CPA lady went and did it, it said that it was already filed. Yeah, but it being filed is what made you determine it's been stolen. So her and I called the IRS and we spent several weeks and several hours talking to everybody. And they said that it had been filed, that it had been paid out to somebody. And then they told someone to get your refund. They did get my refund. And then so the IRS said that my identity was stolen and they locked my account.

23:55So now that's why I have a pin for both of my daughter and I both have pins on our things now because I'm so I'm sorry for just playing devil's advocate. This is what I do. I push back on everything, but it's okay because it creates more open-minded conversations, hopefully. Sounds like you also just really don't know what the f*** is going on. Like, it sounds like you're all over the place. Money's mismanaged. You don't know what's happening. What if you accidentally went through TurboTax, did a couple clicks, did just a very easy, quick-minute refund? I'm not saying it did. I'm very skeptical that that would be the choice.

24:31But again, with the Banfield thing, you said your mom has taken them there. It's like you weren't able to get to there mentally until I was able to walk you through it. So just a slight bit of skepticism when it comes to this. I bet it probably was. It probably was stolen. That's terrible. Obviously, that's a... Yeah, because that$1 ,000 is from a phone bill that they said I opened. And I know I've never had a phone bill with that company. So I'm fighting AT &T. I do not have AT &T. I've never had AT &T under my name ever. Your parents have access to your credit score? No. Credit score. Social security number?

25:10Yeah, I mean, my mom knows my social security number. She's my mom. Okay. Well, I don't think mine knows my social security number off the top of her head. I don't think she wrote it down when I was a kid. Well, I know. She might. I mean, I have my own card, but either way. What's going on? I'm Arch Manning, Viore athlete and college quarterback. Whether I'm running, training, traveling, or just unwinding at home, I love doing it in my core shorts from Viore. With a breathable boxer brief liner, they're quick to dry, super versatile, and stand up to even my most intense training sessions. Plus, they come in three inseams and a ton of colors.

25:44Ready to try a pair? Go to viore.com slash arch and get 20 % off at checkout. I think you're going to love them as much as I do. That's viore.com slash arch and get 20 % off your first order. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. Not only will you receive 20 % off your first purchase, but enjoy free shipping on any U.S. orders over$75 and free returns. Have a great day. What unfortunately is very, very, very, very unfortunately more common than I'd like it to be. Someone in the family going on the road of applying for things using a social security card of a kid, a relative.

26:27Again, not saying that. I'm just bringing up potential things that may have happened. I don't know. Can you ask her? Is she the only one that would know your social deal besides you? What about the ex? Okay, so we did cut something from the episode. We won't talk about it, but we may have found a potential person that has access to your socials that you're not in contact with. Yeah. Could have happened. I know communication with that individual is difficult I would try our best to at least try to hunt it down and then offset energy you at least accept responsibility for this one yeah that was when I was 19 and I moved in my first apartment and I moved out and I just decided to not pay it so yeah that was me being young and stupid so yeah that's young dumb full of complete stupidity young dumb and broke versus VS?

27:27Oh, yeah, that was a Victoria's Secret card. That was me, yeah. Kill me now. Yeah, that one went bad. I was paying on it because I had that card for like six years, and it went bad because over the summer when I was doing my training, I wasn't working, and I let that go. So that was 100 % me. So I made a payment to this one recently. So my total balance day right now is$250,$1,$251. An interest is occurring on it. It's a synchrony card. did you finance something? Yeah, it was care credit because that's how I always paid for my dog. I thought you said you paid cash. No, like I paid out of, like, that's what I meant.