My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: Maryland
Multi-year tenant balance grew over time ( From 2011-July 2014). Month after month, year after year, it grew larger til I was fed up with the promises and attempts to have tenant repay little extra each month to slowly catch up. Started eviction proceedings and tenant skipped out. I could not find for 2 years (Oct 2016). When located, I filed civil lawsuit instead of small claims due to value well over $5k. Court date finally coming up (Jan 18, 2018) and tenants lawyer is claiming case exceeds statute of limitations. Statute of limitations in MD is 3 years. My question is: I'm assuming because I filed in Oct 2016 and their accumulated debt and skip out was July 2014, the full amount of balance is within the 3 year statute of limitation. OR... can I only collect for transactions 3 years prior to filing (ie. rent billed-payments from Oct 2013 - July 2014)?