Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia

Re: writing grounds for defense

You could attach the affidavit from your former roommate to your Grounds of Defense, but, assuming the case actually goes to trial in the general district court, the affidavit would not be admissible as hearsay evidence in your case in chief.

From your description of matters, it sounds as if your adversaries will be able to prevail(after trial) not only on the charges for the 10 days, but most probably on the rest of their claim, including, in all likelihood, the majority of the cleaning costs.

A Grounds of Defense is a responsive pleading document normally prepared by an attorney for a defendant being sued in civil court in Virginia and is particularly tailored to the relevant law and facts which apply to the defendant's case.

It would simply not be feasible to attempt to instruct you in this particular forum as to how this particular legal document should be prepared for this particular case.

Furthermore, I would suggest that even a cursory cost/benefit analysis of this case situation, considering your time as well as monetary expenses, would very likely indicate that it would be more advantageous for you to settle this matter before going trial as the outcome is not likely to be in your favor.

Re: writing grounds for defense

You are not required to include all of your evidence in the grounds of defense, nor attach documents, although you SHOULD (1) state categorically that you do not owe the money, except for any amount that you agree with, (2) If you do agree that you owe some of it, make it clear that you offered to pay that amount before the lawsuit was filed and therefore you DENY that attorney's fees or court costs are warranted because you offered to pay that much without a lawsuit being filed, (3) completely summarize EVERY reason why you do not owe the money. You do not have to go into every detail of proof. This is not a "trial in a box." However, you want to cover the TOPIC of every reason why you deny you owe the money. You do not want to be raising a new topic at the trial that you did not include in your grounds of defesne.

On the other hand, there is a specific rule -- flagrantly ignored by nearly every court -- that a plaintiff cannot put in any evidence or argument in the trial that the plaintiff did not include in the bill of particulars, if you asked for a bill of particulars (which you always should).

In general, affidavits have no value unless the person is willing to come to court. The real world runs on documents. However, courts run on live testimony by actual people who testify under oath. So you must drag your roommate and any other witnesses possible to the actual trial. Bear in mind that the plaintiff has the burden of proof. If it is your word against theirs, they lose. However, if they say something strongly, and you don't explicitly deny it, the judge can believe them over you.

I don't know what days they are charging you with. If you had the right to terminate on 30 days notice, then fine. However, normally, you would have to pay until they find another, replacement tenant, or until the lease ends, whichever comes first. However, that is what trials are for. The judge will read the lease and hear the evidence and sort it out. Unless you have a choice of paying less in a settlement, there is nothing wrong with letting the judge sort that out. That's what the judge is there for. If they offer to settle with you, then you mght have to think about this in advance more carefully.