Q: After I move out during an eviction, with no scheduled court date, do I need to pay the remaining rent balance?
I’ve recently been evicted and I have no known court date. I am 18 and have no idea what I am doing or what’s going to happen. I have a place to live but I need to know if I’ll need to pay my remaining rent due which I was evicted for not paying rent. The balance is a lot and there’s really no way I can afford to pay it.
A: If you don't pay the rent that you owe, the landlord might decide to sue you for it. Usually that claim for money is filed along with an eviction lawsuit. So you might get a notice of a future court hearing on how much you owe. Or the landlord might not bother to pursue that unpaid rent, if you advise him or her that you have no money and can't pay. If you don't give the landlord your forwarding postal address where you move, it will make it a bit more difficult for the landlord to try to track you down to collect it. But the landlord could, depending on how much you owe. The landlord could get a court judgment against you, and use that to try to collect from you if you even do have money to pay. The landlord can wait and try to collect on that judgment years from now. But that is a lot of legal hassle for a landlord. Unless you owe several thousand, most landlords will just write it off and move on. But your landlord could be the exception.
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