Being Sued For Refusing To Pay Rent

0:28Shopping is hard, right? My 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.

1:00specifically for Montessori. And 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. 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. Yeah. But I also get the winter break and the fall break and spring break and all of that.

1:44We had come in$2 ,511. So that's from my old school. Which you were making how much? 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. I 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 in Colorado?

2:244.4. 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

2:43$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 on 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 really scary because there was multiple times where there was violence starting.

4:25The police had to come out a couple times because of gunshots. To you? Violence against you? No, 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. Oh, yeah. It was really traumatizing for both of us because there was a couple of times we had to 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?

4:56Who 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 to, and yeah, they, and I would tell them, I mean, my dog even got attacked by the, uh, cause 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 that summers in Colorado aren't that bad, but still it was 85 degrees in my house and had a kid and my grandma was coming to visit.

5:34And it was just 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 to talk to anyone legally. So I mean, I don't know. Yeah, I tried a lot of the places that I was getting referred to for like low income or just because I I was at the place to like get like a big lawyer. and I've never had to do anything like that before. So I was trying to find like local lawyers, like low income. I got a lot of recommendations from like the community center that I went to and they gave me a lot of like low income housing.

6:15But 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. And did you leave? 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.

6:51Then we had to back rent and late fee and late fee. well I mean you're just obviously not paying it but I mean okay I mean this it gets a little weird I don't know much about the stuff 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 bucks a year or whatever it was after taxes was like you know almost 30 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. But either way. Well, I just started that salary. You broke the contract that you signed, which means that, I mean, yeah, this would be.

7:39Did you give them notice? So what happened was because all that was happening, they came to me and said, well, we're going to 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 i guess i'd 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 where we had to go like oh it's like civil court or whatever um and i showed up and i told the judge i was like hey you know this is all been going on And I, from my understanding was my options where I either just paid the amount of rent that was due, which was like the 3 ,000, 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.

8:36And then it would all be considered like even. Okay. 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 what because the way that it's i don't know how to explain the way that it's worded it's because did they take you to civil court yes they took you to civil court yes okay and i don't have a lawyer like i just i just presented the court with all the photos of all 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 I had to be out by this date at this time.

9:15And 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 were 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 what was going on. Well, they obviously seem like absolutely terrible landlords. They give every one of them are terrible. They have a two-star rating. So that was one.

9:42I'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 or apply it to that. 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 to the rest of the debts. Obviously, your debts really stack up for your income situation as a single mom, right? So, 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.

10:24So what are you doing now? You're challenging it? Yeah, that's why I reached out to them. Who's them? 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 it 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 lower income services as well even if you hire a lawyer just to look over the agreement i mean that could maybe we could find someone to do like a few hundred bucks.

11:13I don't know. It's hard. It's probably going to be a couple thousand. It's a retainer.

11:23So, yeah, I might look for resources to see what you can do because, I mean, at that point, then you're basically just doing this. Saving that 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.

11:55They'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%. And bonuses all the way up to$250. Eventually, it'll go into... 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?

12:29No, I haven't. I don't... I recommend maybe reaching out to the office, you know, that judge's office, if possible. The court office? Yeah. Okay. You know, I was, yeah. Whatever system they were in. Was it like the county? 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 bulls**t. And they probably don't even give a f**k to people who are working.

13:10Obviously, the people managing your place don't give a f**k to them. Well, I mean, in the few months that I was there, they had two different, that's another thing. They had switched over management. So when I moved in, they're like, oh, we just got new management, blah, blah, blah. And then 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.

13:40They didn't tell us, like, oh, we got new emails. We're in new management or anything. So the communication there is also really sh**. Okay, I think first step for this, see whatever community resources 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.

14:17Okay. 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. If we're like two, three weeks in, maybe reach out to the local judge's office there. And if 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.

15:00That 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 help fight it there. Yeah. So I just need help. Do you have it with you? 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 do own some rental properties now.

15:38I actually treat people who rent it with respect and don't around, and also if they just want to leave, I just let them leave anyway. 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 deaths 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.

16:09I think this is it. I think this is it. So, yeah. I don't. All right. Maybe you can help me. Look, it's only one page. that's what they signed or they sent me 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 resources people and they gave me a list of like Bustwood the Boys is here to let you know that every college football Saturday FanDuel's dropping profit boosts that can turn wins into bigger wins.

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17:13Low income. What are they called? low income representation, something like that. And it was like either really low income or free. And 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.

17:55I'm inclined to think you may, so I'm going to do rent,$3 ,060.01. Just slightly leaning towards that. I'm not 100 % sure. I'll let the actual expert in the field of law decide that. We have a 2019 Toyota Corolla. you got a car that was basically half the income that was coming in the loan the loan itself was half the income that was coming in in terms of the overall balance why'd you get this 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'd we go and go essentially twenty thousand dollars in debt when you did this journey date twenty twenty six so you know we're waiting a few years still yeah um so i got that car in 2020 um six year long yeah um in june of that year i actually got in a wreck my car got totaled and um insurance cover up yeah so the total amount due for like the total amount and the amount that there was left on it was basically the same so i got like a 40 um check for the difference so they just like totaled it out so they paid the rest of that loan and then gave me the 40 extra dollars what's the interest rate on this thing?

19:16it's I think it's close to like 18 % oh why? and why did you get a car that was obviously well beyond where it should be for your income yeah just I was like everybody else just desperate for a car at the time my single mom didn't have a car my grandma gave me some money to put a down payment and 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 downtrend of more money going towards principal than interest.

20:04Yeah, 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. What's your credit score? So on average between the three, it's like 600 because one's like 595. 600? 6-0-0. Yeah. So one of them is 595. One's 6-11. 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 bucks before. Is that what it was? 2 ,600, 2 ,500? Yeah. But, yeah, I wasn't working here when I got that, but yeah.

20:44I 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 this 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 tech 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.

21:38Okay. So, I mean, your minimum monthly payment across all these is probably what? 150 bucks. 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. That's my monthly amount due right now. It says zero. 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'd 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.

22:14But I was trying to look, because I logged into my student loan account, and 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 do you have so much in collection? 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 that just screams irresponsibility so one of these this 1000 and this 373 I'm fighting those because I did have my identity stolen in 2020 and they went to Banfield Vet Clinic I don't know I don't go to Banfield so and then the other one was I think the other one's I do have a pet but I don't I always pay out of pocket for her, which sucks.

23:02Well, 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 private. Well, at this time, because I was living in Colorado, I wasn't going, but I've always taken her to this private. 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.

23:41Never paid. Went to collections. I don't think that's something you can fight. I mean, you just answered it right there. Okay. Maybe. Maybe. Probably. A thousand. Thirteen. Now. Okay. If you're identity. First of all, lock your credit. Yeah. I have a pin. So this year when 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 had filed them.

24:13I said, no, I haven't. And then, so I had to go, I had to go through the IRS and somebody else got paid. I'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 them.

24:48Yeah, someone tried to get your refund. Yeah, they did get my refund, and so the IRS said that my identity was stolen, and they locked my account, So now that's why I have a pin for both of my daughter and I both have pins on our things now because of that. 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 but 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 stolen that's terrible obviously that's a yeah because that 1000 is from like 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?

26:06no social security number my mom knows my social security number she's my mom 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. She might. This is a real good story about Bronx and his dad, Ryan, real United Airlines customers. We were returning home, and one of the flight attendants asked Bronx if he wanted to see the flight deck and meet Captain Andrew. I got to sit in the driver's seat. I grew up in an aviation family, and seeing Bronx kind of reminded me of myself when I was that age. That's Andrew, a real United pilot.

26:43These small interactions can shape a kid's future. It felt like I was the captain. Allowing my son to see the flight deck will stick with us forever. That's how good leads the way. My own card, but either way, 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. Again, 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?

27:24What 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 on my first apartment and I moved down 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 a little oh oh yeah that was um that was victoria's secret card that was that was me yeah kill me now yeah yeah that one went bad because i was paying on it because i've had that 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 told that i would let that go so that was 100 me so i made a i made a payment to this one recently so my total balance day right now is 250 one 251 and interest is a career now it's a synchrony card did you finance something yeah it was care credit because that's how i always paid for my dog um but you said you paid cash no like i paid out of like that's what i meant okay that wasn't cash but like i didn't dude i know she's getting old she's had a lot of stomach issues and yeah i'm sorry i mean that sucks but please with me say what's this from this summer okay the other times yes i did pink cash this was from the summer i can show you the statement i didn't open this when was the statement when was the statement this statement was from the end of september okay so last month last month guess what amount Pass due$30.