Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Georgia
Stuck like a duck in the mud
I lived in an apartment complex from 6/21/97 � 5/31/98 with my ex, the end of the lease was soon to come and I had notified the landlord that I was leaving at the end of the lease but my ex decided to stay in a month-to-month lease, to make a long story short when she left 2 months after the yearly lease was up and I had left to live my life, there where damages to the apartment totaling around $3500 bucks.
These charges where placed on my TRU back in 8/98, so I had contacted the apartment complex about a 4weeks ago to see why I was being charged this damage fee for something that I had nothing to do with, but to my surprise the complex was sold to another management company and any records over 3yrs old were disposed of, and they didn�t know who the collection agency was , �.but through a lot of research I found out who the collection agency was and after playing phone tag I finally got through to the CO and he states �it doesn�t matter if you where there or not ,your still responsible since you were on the original lease�. So that leads to my question�.Am I still responsible to pay this debt.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Stuck like a duck in the mud
Unfortunately, the property manager may well have a valid argument, given the way this was handled. Since you were a signatory to the original lease, your ex's holding over was treated as an "extension" of the original lease, rather than a new leasehold in her name alone. In retrospect, you should have tried to get a release from the landlord when you moved out, though he probably would have refused. The alternative would have been to work out an arrangement with your wife for her to take sole responsibility for the additional rent and any damages as a condition for holding over.
To avoid responsibility, you would have to be able to demonstrate that the property manager, upon your notification that you were departing, agreed to treat the tenancy thereafter as a sole month-to-month tenancy for your ex.
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