I read an article recently about how a man tried to sue God because of all the problems in the world. I know this has happened several times before, but I thought this one was particularly funny because it had a slightly different ending than most. The judge actually ruled that though the man could sue God in a local court because God is everywhere, the case would have to be dismissed because God could not be served papers.
This reminded me of good Old Terry Coffman II, the owner of the lovely Vellegia's restaurant and my former landlord. Because he is such a sneaky weasel, it is really hard to serve him with papers so I have had to temporarily abandon my lawsuit. I will pick up the suit again next summer when I have more free time to collect the money that he rightfully owes me.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Monday, September 3, 2007
To Catch a Thief. . .
I just found out that despite me sending summons to two different addresses, Terry has successfully avoided them. This is a problem since he owns multiple properties around town and if I don't get someone to personally deliver a summons to him within the next month, I will have to refile my case at the courthouse. I am tempted to hire someone privately (not just the sherriff's service) to spend some real time hunting him down. Needless to say I've already exhausted my other options and Terry has not returned any phone calls. On the positive side, this blog has started to appear whenever anyone googles "Terry Coffman II". I hope that those people who are thinking about renting from him read this and learn from my mistakes.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Lawsuit has been filed
So I filed the lawsuit a few days ago. Terry should be receive papers both at his PO Box and at his office. I am asking for the full amount that I think I am reasonably owed ($5,000). I will post another update as soon as I hear more about my trial date.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Background Info
I live in Baltimore, MD and I used to rent a decent place on the east side of town from a man named Terry Coffman II. He didn't seem like a bad landlord at first. He gave us the washer and dryer that he had promised within a week or two of us moving in. He finished installing the extra kitchen cabinets and countertop within 6 months. Ok, that second part was kind of annoying, but the fact is that the place was fine and located right by Patterson Park so we ignored the minor annoyances and installed our own phone lines, cable lines, extra locks for the back door, etc.
Unfortunately, as time passed these annoyances became harder to ignore. Our roof had a slight leak that was never fixed. Then we were robbed after someone kicked in our flimsy basement door. Terry seemed to respond immediately, but after surveying the damage he had his father nail up the old (broken) door with four nails. Since he never replaced the door, I was forced to install bars across our basement doorway that made it unusable.
The biggest problem that occurred while we lived there was that a pipe burst and flooded our house with 500+ gallons of water. It was a disaster and it ruined the top to our very expensive dining room table that was on loan from my parents. My parents actually took back their table and paid $1300 to have it repaired. Terry said that this was not his concern.
Still, none of this warrants me creating a blog. The decision to actually create this blog came after months of trying to get our security deposit back from Terry. Though he originally said we were model tenants and that the deposit would come back to us within three weeks, we still had received nothing after six weeks. Terry never gave an explanation for the delay and instead just stopped answering his phone. Finally we got through to his father who is in business with him and his father came up with some lame excuse about how we forfeited our deposit by having a dog. It did not matter that we faxed over a copy of our lease that showed we were allowed to have a dog. It did not matter that the dog did not do any damage to the property. It also apparently did not matter that they legally had only 45 days to either return our deposit or provide a detailed list of expenses along with the receipts to prove that they were incurred.
It has now been 7 months since we moved out and we still have not received our security deposit. I will therefore be suing Terry Coffman II in small claims court. This is the man is listed on my lease, though I actually have some evidence that this may be the father and no the son. I have created this blog in the hopes of venting some of my frustrations that a couple of men would choose to try and cheat a teacher and honest tenant out of money. I also hope that other tenants will come across this if they google Terry Coffman and hopefully they will seriously think about whether it is a good idea to have a dishonest, lazy landlord. I hate that I am being punished for doing the honest thing here by trusting my landlord, obeying our lease agreement, and paying last month's rent. Maybe others will learn from my mistakes.
Unfortunately, as time passed these annoyances became harder to ignore. Our roof had a slight leak that was never fixed. Then we were robbed after someone kicked in our flimsy basement door. Terry seemed to respond immediately, but after surveying the damage he had his father nail up the old (broken) door with four nails. Since he never replaced the door, I was forced to install bars across our basement doorway that made it unusable.
The biggest problem that occurred while we lived there was that a pipe burst and flooded our house with 500+ gallons of water. It was a disaster and it ruined the top to our very expensive dining room table that was on loan from my parents. My parents actually took back their table and paid $1300 to have it repaired. Terry said that this was not his concern.
Still, none of this warrants me creating a blog. The decision to actually create this blog came after months of trying to get our security deposit back from Terry. Though he originally said we were model tenants and that the deposit would come back to us within three weeks, we still had received nothing after six weeks. Terry never gave an explanation for the delay and instead just stopped answering his phone. Finally we got through to his father who is in business with him and his father came up with some lame excuse about how we forfeited our deposit by having a dog. It did not matter that we faxed over a copy of our lease that showed we were allowed to have a dog. It did not matter that the dog did not do any damage to the property. It also apparently did not matter that they legally had only 45 days to either return our deposit or provide a detailed list of expenses along with the receipts to prove that they were incurred.
It has now been 7 months since we moved out and we still have not received our security deposit. I will therefore be suing Terry Coffman II in small claims court. This is the man is listed on my lease, though I actually have some evidence that this may be the father and no the son. I have created this blog in the hopes of venting some of my frustrations that a couple of men would choose to try and cheat a teacher and honest tenant out of money. I also hope that other tenants will come across this if they google Terry Coffman and hopefully they will seriously think about whether it is a good idea to have a dishonest, lazy landlord. I hate that I am being punished for doing the honest thing here by trusting my landlord, obeying our lease agreement, and paying last month's rent. Maybe others will learn from my mistakes.
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