I just got a form from my rental office, what do I do?

I got a 'rent arrears' form from my rental office. They say I owe $1150.41 and if I don't pay it in 5 days they'll take me to court. However I do not owe such amount, I have all my receipts (I pay in money order), etc. Now I don't want to go to court and I don't have/want to pay the $1150.41 what do I do? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Call them and ask what the charges are for. Say you have all your receipts and see if it isn't a clerical error. That would be the first step.

Take your receipts over to the rental office and ask them for a print out of the payments that they've received. Do you get a receipt when you pay your rent (you should)? Take those, too. Ask why they think you have a delinquency. They may have made an error, I've had landlords do that in the past.

Don't ignore the notice, but actually go over - in person - and talk to someone and say "Hey, I paid all of my rent on time. I've not been late (and if I have been, I paid my late fees) and here are my money order receipts. I've been here 11 months, and here's 11 receipts. Now, can you provide me with an account history so we can see where the problem is?"

Chances are that it's an error and they'll see that quickly. If it's not an error and they do have a problem with your account (and you agree) then they'll probably work out some form of payment plan and not evict you. It costs landlords a lot of money and time to evict tenants, so they really don't go through with it unless they absolutely have to.

I would go to your rental office, if it's local, and show them the receipts for payment. If they are located far away, call them and see if you can fax them a copy of your receipts showing that you paid your rent.

do you have the money order "stubs" or actual receipts from the rental office? here in OK where I am a judge will tell you that any cash payment or money order payment that you made and did not ge a receipt for can be considered a contribution to the managers retirement fund. You must have an actual receipt in order for it to be legit. Go to your rental ofice and ask them to print out your ledger and go over it with you, you must be behind to some extent. go and see what you can do. it never hurts to try. otherwise it sounds like you better be packing up

If you owe no such amount, call and try to clear up the misunderstanding.

If you owe no such amount, and you can't clear things up, the court system is not your enemy.

If you pay by Money Order, they are suppose to send you a receipt.

Go to the rental office and ask them to show you where this amount comes from. Give them copies of the money orders stubs.

Also go to whereever you purchased the money orders and see if they can verify that the money orders were cashed.

Remember, if the MO is lost in the mail or something its still your responsibility.

Hopefully you can resolve this before eviction process is started