Hello,

I moved out of a townhouse in April 2004 after living there for 2.5 yrs. When I handed over the key to the landlord after he inspected the house, he said he will settle with me later. He had my security deposit of $950.

Mean while I found out that a new tenant had already moved in within a month.

After I didn't hear from him for 2 months, I called him so many times and finally got him. He said there are 3 red stains and the present tenant does not like the stain marks. He said he would get back once the issue is resolved. 2 more months passed and I didn't hear anything from him. I tried to call him and got hold of him after so many repeated phone calls. He told me that he would send me a letter indicating the situation.

A few days passed and I received a first class letter from him indicating that there are 3 stains and that he would have to replace the carpet because the tenant has an issue with it. And that replacing new carpet would cost him more than the deposit amount. This did not look like an itemized list.

I sent him a certified letter indicating I am willing to replace the portion of the carpet that is stained at my own expense, but at the end of this he would have to give me my deposit in full. He did not call back or respond and the certified letter returned to me which I still have unopened. So I filed a suit again him in small claims.

The first court date was in December 2004. After receiving the court notice my previous landlord called me to resolve the situation and as verbally agreed I set up an appintment with his present tenant to have a service man come to the house and patch the stained carpet. (Keep in mind that almost 6 months had passed and the carpet was not replaced.) In 2 days the tenant called me to tell that she would not be at home that day. So I called my previous landlord and told him that I tried to resolve it and it could not be done. Then I offered him to Pay me 800 Dollars which includes the court costs. He didn't agree and indicated that he would have to replace the carpet and that would be more than the deposit. I said okay, i will see you in court.

When I went to the court in December the landlord had already requested to reschedule the date. The next scheduled court date was Feb 25.

I didn't get a chance to retrieve my mails until Feb 7th for some reason. When I did get my mail on 7th Feb, I found a letter mailed my my previous landlord which had a line:

"Please take notice that on February 4, 2005, 9.30 AM the undersigned will move the court to continue this case because of unavailability due to business trip."

What does it mean? Should I have done something before 4th February? What should be my next course of action?