My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Virginia
So this is a long story but I'll try to make it as short as possible. A few months ago we were served with a notice to vacate the property we were renting. We had an issue with our neighbors and had to call the police, landlord got mad that we called the police and decided we should leave. We were on a month to month lease so he can pretty much do as he pleases. Anyway we found a new place to live shortly after we got the notice and did as requested by moving out before the date on the notice to vacate (which was May 31st).
Well today at our new place, we got a forwarded letter which contained a photo copy of a summons from the Property Management company. The summons is for an "unlawful detainer" which makes no sense at all. To our knowledge an unlawful detainer is to take possession of a property that is occupied by tenants who are in violation of a lease or behind on payments. Basically it gives the landlord the ability to boot someone and regain possession of his property. Doesn't really seem to make sense in our case, we left voluntarily before the date we were given. The summons is post marked weeks after we had already vacated, so basically he is filing for possession of a property that is vacant.
I suppose the question is, do we even bother going to court? We gave up possession of the property long before the deadline, we don't have any reason to plead our case or anything, we have nothing to do with the property anymore, we don't really have a horse in the race. We just don't get why he would file an unlawful detainer on a property that is vacant? How can one be evicted from a home in which they no longer reside? According to the stuff we read on the Virginia law pages, an unlawful detainer is the first step toward an eviction. How exactly can someone file to evict a party that no longer lives in the home in question. Isn't that filing a false document or something like that? Wouldn't that be the same as lying to obtain a warrant? Or maybe like if one party gave false information to incriminate another party?
The whole thing just doesn't make any sense to us, we left on our own long before the deadline. Why would anyone file an unlawful detainer when the home is no longer occupied and has been forfeited?

