Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia

confused, probly need to be represented
my landlord sued me for leaving apt early (I did) 2 months early after a pay or quit, and many issues with her, (no making repairs, harrassement calls to my employeer, her never removing her belongings out of unit, after written promises to do so). Okay I agree I left in Sept, lease was up in Oct 30, $1190.00 was rent, she sued for $2785.00, and because I was ill, I asked court for postponment, Didn't recieve she won, She has since garnidhed me for $3850.00 . She never applied security deposit to said amounts ($1190.00). When I asked about deposit she stated I don't deserve it. She doesn't have to apply it to the amounts, She listed the apt as move in ready on Sept 24th, I have the proff yet she has added on 800.00 to garnishemnt because she now says she didn't get in unit until Oct 3rd, that it is when she was alerted to fact I was gone, She also relisted it on Sept 24, sept 30 and Oct 1st. And everytime it goes up for garnishement again, I am charged another 600.00 for intrest and 100.00 for garnishment cost and another 53.00 for cost. I have offered to make payment arangements, No I was yelled at.

Asked on 1/09/09, 11:39 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Jonathon Moseley Moseley & Associates Law Firm

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Re: confused, probly need to be represented

I am confused about whether she has already received the money or whether you have simply been notified with garnishment paperwork.

Has she garnished your wages or your bank account? (You should probably change banks, because there is a perverse problem with the rules for wages which allow a debtor to keep enough money to live on, once you put your pay check into your bank account, this protection goes away.)

A creditor definitely CANNOT garnish you for more than the amount of the court judgment.

The garnishment can add interest in accordance with what the court judgment says and actual costs.

However, how could there be $600 in interest since October? Was the judgment this year or a year or two ago?

You need to get a copy of the actual judgment, which you can get from the Clerk of the Court.

I also do not understand how her garnishment costs could be $153 in General District Court. I have done hundreds of those.

So I don't know but it would seem to me that she is unlawfully padding the garnishment. There is no way of knowing that without examining the file and calculating the interest.

I am confident enough that $153 is excessive that I would challenge that. (Or has she filed several garnishments?)

If you look at the paperwork, there are instructions on how to challenge the garnishment. EVEN IF this does not fit one of those categories, if the creditor is asking for too much, I would immediately demand a hearing. The Court woudl invalidate the garnishment and direct her to try again.

In making that objection, you can also make the objection that she has already applied $1190 from the security deposit toward the judgment. You would want to present this as a sort of self-garnishment by her. She has on her own initiative taken the $1190 out of the security deposit account (by law it is supposed to be in a bank account gaining interest). So she has effectively garnished that account herself and applied it to the judgment. So you would say that the garnishment is also incorrect and invalid because it does not show all credits / payments against the total. This would also change the calculation of interest.

Now, this might not work, if the deposit was part of the original lawsuit, such as she presented to the court that she had damages to the apt exceeding the apt.

You could file a separate small claims case against her for the return of the deposit, but this might not work for the same reason. Of course, you weren't there to know what was said.

Answered on 1/10/09, 10:50 am

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