Tavia’s day in court with her landlord was Friday.
In the last trial, I took shorthand notes (as fast as I could) during the trial and could actually read a lot of it later so I was able to post a lot of the proceedings on the blog here. I started taking notes this time, and then I saw a court reporter typing away. So, I abandoned my shorthand notes thinking we could get a copy of the court transcript later. It would be good entertainment to read it if we can get it. It would be a look at a devious, lying, crooked landlord at work.
Go to the Comment Section to read more…
And, if you want to see some pictures of the house, click here.
15 comments:
Since I didn’t take notes for the entire length of the trial, I don’t have a lot of details. But, here is some of it. Maybe Tavia and Carol can add more.
At the last trial, Tavia had all of her evidence organized by tabs in a notebook. She had made two copies of it. One for the judge and one for herself so they could both look at the evidence at the same time. Well, guess who showed up with notebooks this time? Copycat Landlord! Can you believe it? Thankfully, Tavia didn’t do it this time.
Tavia was prepared, knowing what to say, pictures in order. She even had a chart listing each of the 13 claims of damage and how they were unfounded, fabricated, and in violation of the Security Deposit Statute. The judge started things rolling by asking Tavia a few questions and Tavia responded with brief, to-the-point answers. He turned to Lynda to ask one question and that was the end of all order in the court. Lynda could not answer a question without going off on a tangent in many different directions. She jumped from one subject to the other.
She told the judge that Tavia had a dog. The judge asked her how she knows Tavia had a dog. Her answer went something like this: “Well, I was sealing the grout in the bathroom and the kitchen. And, I was there one night. And, I went to the store to purchase more grout. I had to come back to check on Javier’s work. And, then I read on the grout that it would take two hours to dry. And, I told Tavia I would come back later and her body just froze up.” That was one example of the craziness.
The judge didn’t know how that proved Tavia had a dog. Lynda said, “I have been renting for over 20 years. And never in my life have I ever had a problem with entering a unit to seal some grout.” Lynda was saying that there were scratches on the oak flooring because of the dog. The judge said, “Have you ever seen the dog?” “No.” The judge said, “Well, you probably have people that work around there. Have they ever seen a dog?” She said the gardener told her that he heard a dog barking inside the house. Judge: “Is your gardener here today?” “No.”
I cannot explain how crazy she was talking. All OVER the place. She says she knows Tavia was hiding a dog because Tavia didn’t want her to come in the house. Judge: “Am I supposed to conclude that there is a dog because she doesn’t want you in?” Lynda: “And there was nails in the hallway, nail marks in the hallway from the dog scratching when Tavia would leave the dog locked up in there.”
She would not shut up about the dog.
Judge: I don’t care if she had an elephant. Concentrate on the damages there. Maybe she was wearing golf shoes.
Lynda: She wears stiletto shoes, like she has on now. And there were all these little hammer marks in the floor from those shoes. The brick floor is eaten away from her heels.
Judge: You are trying to get me to draw an inference that she had a dog. It seems like you two aren’t really good friends and so maybe that is whey she didn’t want you in there.
Judge: You mention something about cat claw damage [to a window shade]
Are you claiming there is a cat there too?
Lynda: Well, I figured she had a cat AND a dog.
She went round and round about damaged bricks and kept telling the judge to look at the pictures. He never took her pictures in his hand. She was saying that the bricks on the front walkway were damaged by Tavia’s outside chairs. [These chairs are aluminum, with canvas seats and very, very light.] She told the judge that Tavia moves the chairs from place to place to sit in the sun and that is how the bricks got damaged. LIES! LIES! LIES! She has NEVER seen Tavia sit outside in the sun. Lynda doesn’t even live in the same town.
There were white paint specks on the floors when Tavia moved in. Lynda had told Tavia that she wanted to have the floors refinished because the painters had made such a mess with the paint. So, that’s why she is saying there were scratches on the wood floor. Well, in this trial Lynda had pictures of the floors being refinished. So, surely, Tavia must have caused some damage. And, Lynda even produced pictures of the floors with scratches. She scratched them after Tavia moved out. Then took pictures of the scratches to show to the judge. Those scratches were NOT there when Tavia moved out.
Lynda told the judge that Tavia “RUTHLESSLY and WRECKLESSLY” damaged her house. LIES! LIES! LIES!
Lynda had someone from AASH Construction give her estimate for repairing the brick den floor and the brick porch walkway damage Tavia supposedly caused. The estimate was $9565 to remove, demolish, and replace 500 square feet of brick. I called AASH Construction to find out they actually did the work. No, of course. The guy there told me that he knew ahead of time that Lynda was just trying to get money from the tenant and he told her at the time of the estimate that he didn’t see any “abuse” of the brick surface, other than normal wear and tear, if that. But, that would have just been hearsay. Besides, Tavia didn’t get a chance to say hardly anything, anyway.
Lynda told the judge that she had to do the repairs herself (buffing the wood floor) because she could not afford to hire professionals. And, she did not repair everything because she didn’t have the money. But, the damage was extensive. The judge asked her how much she is collecting in rent right now. She said $2100. That is MORE than Tavia was paying. The judge brought up a good point. That if the house was so damaged, why is Lynda getting paid more rent for it? She said it is because there are two children there.
She brought up the bricks again. The judge was irritated. “If you show me the bricks again ….”
She was relentless, rambling, talking nonsensically, disjointed subjects, etc. The judge kept telling her, “I HAVE OTHER CASES TO HEAR!”
When he finally got sick enough of her, he said, “I have information overload!” Then he turned to Tavia and said, “Do you have anything to say in closing? But, make it brief. And, please don’t talk about the bricks.”
What??!!!!!???!?!?!?!?!? This is Tavia’s case. Tavia is suing Lynda. Why did he allow Lynda to ramble on and on and then not have time to hear what Tavia had to say. Tavia had kept silent the whole time Lynda was ranting. I think Tavia thought the judge would come back to her and allow her to refute Lynda’s charges. Same thing happened last trial – Lynda took over and wouldn’t shut up! She gets the judges so frustrated that they just want to end it. Even while Tavia was adding her last few remarks, Lynda kept interrupting, making remarks to Tavia while she was trying to speak and talking to the judge about more damages.
Tavia asked the judge if she could show him some pictures of the way she left the house when she moved out. He flipped through the pictures pretty fast then he said he would mail the judgment.
So, we didn’t know what to think. Did Lynda, craziness and all, convince the judge she had a case? Apparently.
The judgment was posted online the following day. Tavia wins $2485. Her security deposit was $3100. I guess Lynda’s crazy antics in the courtroom worked to some degree. But, Tavia is very happy with the outcome. She is glad it is finally over. Lynda cannot appeal anymore.
Wouldn't you like to get that judge alone and ask him how he logically came to the conclusion to give Tavia only part of her deposit back? I would. Lynda had no proof and no witnesses, and Tavia had pictures disproving what Lynda was saying. So how could he not give her the whole amount back? Justice can be blind and deaf and dumb.
Well at least Tavia got something back. She didn't have to go this far, but she stuck it out. What a relief it's all over, huh Tave?
Lisa's a glass half full type of gal.
I am just so relieved that it is over. I didn't sleep for three nights leading up to it beause I was SO MAD that I had to go back.
So, maybe I could have done a better job stating my case but honestly, I don't care. Because, in her mind, if she has to pay me anything, she will consider it a win for me. That is all I care about - her knowing I WON.
She will go nuts when she finds out I won and she can't do anything about it this time.
That's the way I feel, too. If Lynda considers it a loss to herself, then I am happy. Because, honestly, she is the most devious, lying, person I have ever seen in action. She even showed the judge pictures of the front lawn where Tavia's "dog" peed.
I wondering if the new tenants know they are the next victims!
In my opinion,the judge was not doing his job! Someone should send him a nice letter stating facts and let him know how everyone was very disappointed that he shirked his duty in letting Linda take over the court.
Im glad its over for you Tave but you may NEVER get that money from herThis will come back to her some
day. Grandma
I love you!
Yeah, I agree with Mom, the judge was not doing his job! And Lynda will probably ignore it for as long as she can, and maybe even get away with not paying Tave the money. That's a whole new problem, I'd think, but maybe the court follows up on cases and sends notices, then warnings? Linnette needs to research that online.
But anyway Tave, if you can look back over the experience and see what you should have done (like speak up, or listen to your instincts, or whatever it is), or shouldn't have, then you'll know what you need to do the next time a situation requires you to handle it a certain way.
I mean, one would think...
This judge reminds me of Judge Ito, in the OJ case who was accused of not having adequate control of his courtroom.
So, what kind of dog do you have? And it gets along with the cat?
JK
Pryndada, don't worry about the present tenants, I plan to make sure they know about this, after Tavia gets her money, (if she ever does).
I think the best lesson to be learned from this is: You have to advocate for yourself, no one else will.
Post a Comment