My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: North Carolina
Hello, my name is Stephanie and I have a question regarding billing from my previous apartment complex. They are trying to charge us $938.80 for not giving them a 30-day notice. When we got the apartment 8 months ago, it said in fine print that we should give a 30-day notice at time of check-out, but of course we did not see this because it was in fine print, so hidden that you wouldn't think twice about it, and because we were not given a copy of the lease to refer back to months later. We went into the office a month before our lease was up to get a cleaning list so we knew what to do when we move out, and apparently the 30-day notice was on the back of that cleaning list (NOT labeled that it was a 30-day notice), so of course we held on to the cleaning list so we could reference to it at the time of our move-out. About 6 days before our lease was up we reserved a bill in the mail for $1300 for next month's rent, so we went to the office to question this. The lady said that there has been problems with their billing systems and that we should void this bill and that we did not owe anything, and while we were there we also turned in the 30 day notice (which, at that time, we still did not know it was a 30-day notice). The lady took the notice and asked us when our official move out day was and we told her about 6 days, and she said "Awesome! Well we enjoyed having you, and have fun moving!" and made another statement how we did not owe a dime. On the day of our move out we went by the office and turned in our keys and another lady told us that we are all set and ready to move out. A few hours later we receive a call that we owed them $1300, we explained our situation and the lady seemed to be okay about it. A month goes by and we don't hear anything from them, and then we finally receive a bill in the mail for $938 (our security deposit lowered the cost), and that it was due in 2 days. On the bill it charges us for water usage, sewer usage, and cable usage. All of which we were not there to consume. So in a legal stand point, can we fight this? It seems like they are just trying to get more money than they need, and we really can't afford $938. My boyfriend just got out of the marines and that's the whole reason we moved out of the apartment, is because we couldn't afford it anymore. Thanks.

