Gorenter.com Charging Additional Rent

[tminervini]

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: AZ


I rented a home in Goodyear AZ from Gorenter.com. The lease ended in Feb, 2009.
I sent my notice to vacate in Dec. 2008 and indicated I would be out by Feb 2009.
I thought a security deposit was in their possession, but turned out I was wrong and was garnished for Feb 2009's rent.

In the mean time, Gorenter sent a letter indicating they were not managing the home as of Feb 18th 2009 and filed for garnishment on that same day???

I wasn't aware of the court date, so I didn't show up. (Nice of them to tell me.)
The garnishment has been completely paid and now (20 months later) Gorenter is asking for
rent for March 2009 (1 month past the expiration of the lease) for the following reason:

"Your lease ended in February, you turned in your 30 day notice, but you didn’t paid February
so you were sent to legal in the middle of February, you didn’t turn in keys, we received the
judgment in March and that is the reason why you were charge March rent."

Keys were turned in. I have a ledger from Gorenter dated July 2009 (five months after the lease expired) with no additional charges for March 2009. They sent me a new ledger in Oct 2010 showing the new charge. Is this legal?

[Mr. Knowitall]

Keys were turned in when?

We cannot look at the court pleadings from the case for which you defaulted to see what the claims were in that case. It's possible that the present claim is precluded by that case - that it was or should have been litigated at that time. We also cannot read your lease to see any provisions in relation to keys. If you were out by the end of February and the lease says that there's a penalty for failing to return your keys, their claim would likely be limited to the amount of that penalty (assuming they can document that you did not turn in your keys). You will have to investigate the prior case and your lease.