Trying to Live Rent Free

0:01 This is the plaintiff, Diane Reed.

0:04 She says she met the defendant and one

0:06 [music] thing led to another and he moved in.

0:09 Things went downhill, however, after a few years.

0:12 He never paid her the rent he owed

0:13 and she's not about to let bygones be bygones,

0:17 so she's suing for the $4,283.56 she's owed.

0:28 This is the defendant, Anthony Johnson.

0:31 He says he was never her tenant.

0:33 He was her boyfriend.

0:35 She's simply a scorned woman who has no right

0:37 to sue and he's pretty darn sure the judge will agree.

0:40 [music] He's accused of trying to live rent-free.

0:49 All right, Diane Reed?

0:50 Yep.

0:51 You are suing Anthony Johnson, your former boyfriend?

0:55 At one time, yeah.

0:55 Okay.

0:56 For $4,283.56 in unpaid rent.

1:01 Mhm.

1:01 And uh damages to your place and to your car.

1:06 Tell me what's going on.

1:07 Correct.

1:08 Okay, I came home from lunch on the 18th

1:11 of June to find a U-Haul truck in my driveway,

1:15 all his furniture packed in the truck,

1:17 and him trying to repair the railing on my sliding glass door.

1:21 Okay.

1:21 Why don't we rewind a little and tell me how you two know each other?

1:24 Oh, okay.

1:24 Um well, we met back in '99 in the state of New Hampshire.

1:29 He worked with my daughter and she worked third shift and used

1:32 to give her a ride home or vice versa and we

1:35 started to hang out and get to know each other

1:38 and then we started to become boyfriend and girlfriend since that point.

1:42 My mother passed away in 2001 and the year before that my father had passed,

1:47 so I had to inherited some money.

1:50 So, I wanted to move out of the cold

1:51 winter and all that and decided to move to Florida.

1:55 He, you know, went with me, bought the house,

1:58 went back to the Wait, wait, who bought the house?

2:00 I bought the house.

2:00 The house is in my name.

2:01 Has nothing to do with him.

2:03 No.

2:03 Okay, so go ahead.

2:04 And things went great.

2:06 2002 January, Anthony takes off and leaves.

2:10 He goes to South Florida to live with his brother.

2:13 And hopes to find a job.

2:14 What what part of Florida were you at?

2:16 Tampa.

2:16 I live in Tampa.

2:17 Okay, and so he comes down to what part of Florida?

2:19 Uh, Fort Lauderdale.

2:20 Fort Lauderdale.

2:20 Hollywood.

2:21 All right, and then

2:22 with his brother.

2:22 His brother got him a job at the house.

2:26 up?

2:25 Yeah, basically.

2:27 Okay.

2:27 And lived there 2 years.

2:29 Memorial Day weekend, uh, 2004 he job wasn't going too good at the time.

2:36 He asked me if he could come back and move

2:39 in and rent the room cuz my house has three bedrooms.

2:42 So, I said, "Sure.

2:43 I was by myself.

2:43 Sure, come on." You know, I'll rent you the room.

2:46 getting back together?

2:47 Well, occasionally, you know,

2:48 we've gotten together in between over the years and Meaning benefits?

2:54 [laughter] Benefits, yeah.

2:54 Okay, but And he agreed to pay $100 a week for rent.

2:59 Okay, [laughter] and did he pay $100 a week?

3:01 Uh, when he was working, yes, he did.

3:03 Okay.

3:03 Do you have any proof of the $100 payments, like a photocopy of a check?

3:08 No, we always paid cash and it was on the Would you end up giving him a receipt?

3:12 Would you get receipts for the $100?

3:15 No.

3:14 Did How would it How would it work?

3:16 I just I would keep track.

3:17 Hold on, hold on.

3:18 Once I got paid I just gave her the money.

3:22 And I kept track.

3:23 I keep my life on a calendar, basically is what it is.

3:26 Each week he paid, I would write paid $100.

3:29 Each week he didn't pay, I would pay write no

3:32 ever get a receipt for the $100 that you paid?

3:34 I never got a receipt.

3:35 How are you going to prove now what you paid and what you didn't?

3:39 I guess I can't really, but I paid her everything.

3:41 And and and and top of it all,

3:43 uh this last time where she's suing me is when uh I paid her.

3:49 I got in an accident and I lived at her at her house.

3:52 I got in an accident.

3:53 January 31st Wait a minute.

3:56 I was at her house.

3:57 I had an accident with my new girl's boyf- uh new

4:01 what are you have a new girlfriend?

4:02 I got a new girlfriend.

4:03 She's classy.

4:04 Uh All right.

4:05 And uh I had an accident because her son had

4:08 to had problems with me and dug my eye out.

4:10 So, I uh Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,

4:13 wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

4:14 Whose son?

4:15 You keep My new girl's son.

4:16 Your new girl's son did what?

4:18 And he still dug my eye out.

4:20 He what?

4:21 Dug my eye out just about.

4:22 I had to go in for emergency eye surgery so I wouldn't lose my vision.

4:26 Oh my god.

4:26 And then this what happened was arrested?

4:29 Yes, he finally got arrested.

4:31 Are you still with this girl?

4:33 Yep.

4:33 Yes, I am.

4:35 [snorts] That's She's psycho.

4:36 I'm not talking to you.

4:38 IS THERE AN OFF BUTTON on you?

4:39 WHAT WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE GUY?

4:40 Uh he he's going through court sees uh court proceedings at this present moment.

4:45 Is he in custody?

4:46 Uh Or are you living like one little happy family there?

4:49 No, he doesn't live with me.

4:51 He lives with his girlfriend in Dade City.

4:53 I moved in with

4:54 living together after this incident?

4:55 No.

4:56 Well, yes, I lived with her I really didn't live with her.

5:00 I pretty much stayed at her house and traveled back and forth.

5:03 That's where she let me borrow her car.

5:06 him your car to Because he just didn't HAVE A CAR.

5:09 ARE THERE NO OTHER PEOPLE IN TAMPA?

5:11 There's no other people Seriously,

5:12 like that you can't like be in the same area with the guy

5:15 who tried to dig your eye out and that you can't,

5:17 you know, not loan a car to your ex-boyfriend

5:19 so you can hook up with his new girlfriend.

5:21 I mean, that's just so bizarre.

5:22 Well, you want to hear something good with that wacko girlfriend?

5:24 Oh, yeah, that psycho girlfriend of his.

5:27 Mind you, the day that he had this eye

5:29 fight with her son was too busy and preoccupied getting

5:33 her dogs than to defend her so-called man against

5:36 her son or to get her son off of him.

5:39 She puts him in the car and she brings him to Tampa,

5:42 35 miles away, to me for me to take to the hospital.

5:46 This is how psycho this woman is.

5:48 No, truth.

5:49 How did you not call 911?

5:51 I did.

5:52 From there, instead of traveling 35 miles

5:54 No, I had her take me right to back to my house.

5:57 You didn't want to go to the hospital.

5:58 to go I didn't want to go to the hospital

5:59 in Dade City cuz Dade City hospital is sorry.

6:03 Right.

6:03 So, sorry Dade City.

6:05 So, I went to the

6:06 [laughter] dropped him off and you know, I'M THE ONE THAT BRINGS

6:08 DIDN'T take you to the hospital.

6:09 Your girlfriend has to take you to the your ex-girlfriend

6:11 has to take you to the hospital.

6:12 told her to take me to the house because the next door

6:15 neighbors from where she lives is she's a nurse and she recommended

6:19 you didn't realize it was as serious as it was?

6:20 Oh, yes, I did.

6:21 Well, then why wouldn't you go to the hospital

6:23 in Tampa instead of Either way it goes, I didn't want her to drive me there.

6:27 I wanted someone else to is his girlfriend.

6:30 [laughter] All right.

6:30 What what hand me over that calendar.

6:32 Why is she not right that you owe her rent?

6:35 Cuz I don't.

6:36 I I paid her every This happened January 31st.

6:40 For 10 weeks he didn't work.

6:41 I didn't get no rent.

6:42 Stop.

6:43 All the times that I've been working I've been paying her cash.

6:46 When I haven't when I wasn't working,

6:48 I still was paying her cash cuz I got unemployment.

6:51 What about the rent from 2008 and 2009?

6:54 What about it?

6:54 Why didn't you go to Why didn't you evict him?

6:56 Like Why didn't you evict

6:58 I told him to get out.

6:59 take you to the hospital.

7:01 Did you guys socialize as well or not really?

7:04 No, I didn't go nowhere with her.

7:05 We went to lots of places.

7:06 She did a lot of Okay, scale of 1 to 10.

7:10 1 being absolute bliss, [music] 10 being war.

7:13 Where do you pull the plug in a relationship?

7:15 Like a seven.

7:16 A seven, okay.

7:17 What do you think?

7:18 I agree.

7:18 Seven or six, yeah.

7:20 So, it doesn't have to be war but it's okay.

7:22 Yeah, I say seven, too.

7:24 Okay, you guys So, so you would So, you would all tolerate a six?

7:28 Okay, you tolerate a six where it's kind of bad.

7:30 Five.

7:31 Okay, now you're going down to five.

7:32 Okay.

7:32 Do I hear four?

7:33 Going inside the courtroom.

7:35 In 2008, 2009, were you guys Would you guys hang out together?

7:39 No.

7:40 He had his friends, I had my friends.

7:42 I don't like No, so you didn't like any of my friends, so we never hung out.

7:45 So when I bought my jet skis, she wanted to go out with me and do my jet skis.

7:49 I told her no.

7:50 Because I didn't want to hang out with her.

7:51 he met another girlfriend.

7:53 He's always cheating on me.

7:54 Once a cheater, always a cheater.

7:56 on you?

7:56 According to you, you're not even you're not together.

7:59 Like I said, we we were in the beginning,

8:01 and then once he moved to South Florida and came back,

8:04 then he rented the room and Actually, I never did rent the room.

8:08 I had problems with

8:09 Can I ask you a question?

8:11 What am I supposed to be looking at that's going

8:12 to tell me when he paid and when he didn't?

8:14 Uh usually where it says on Usually on the Fridays

8:17 it'll say $100 or it'll say no rent.

8:20 What I see are notes that say to owes 240,

8:23 owes like it just says 340, 440 on Fridays, 540, 640.

8:28 Then it says paid 120, so it's down to 520.

8:31 Is that what you mean is your running balance?

8:33 Right, that's how I kept track, yes.

8:34 Can you disprove Can you prove that you paid You The answer is no,

8:38 you don't have any proof of payment ever.

8:39 of payment.

8:39 I paid her every single time.

8:41 Um

8:42 Did you ever warn her that you were leaving?

8:43 Not at all.

8:45 Let me hear from you.

8:46 Yes, I did give her a notice.

8:48 my gosh, are you a smoker?

8:49 Yes, but what kind of notice?

8:51 can't even go through your calendar cuz it's gagging me.

8:53 Okay.

8:54 I'm sorry.

8:54 Not only my my boss too says I I smell like smoke, too.

8:59 a noxious habit.

9:00 You're going to kill yourself.

9:01 Don't do that.

9:02 All right.

9:03 My boss says the same thing when I walk into work.

9:05 I smell like a cigarette.

9:07 Bad habit.

9:08 In March of 2009 you just stopped keeping track.

9:10 What's going on?

9:12 I'll leave it at a marking.

9:13 It was no good.

9:14 No, you stopped keeping track.

9:16 Every Friday you wrote what you owed.

9:18 yes.

9:18 You're right.

9:18 2009.

9:20 Why?

9:20 Um because I guess he must have been working and paying me regularly and

9:24 you were still Even when he paid you,

9:25 you would still put what the running tally was.

9:28 Was he all paid up?

9:29 Is that why?

9:30 I was paid up.

9:31 I was paid up and I always paid her anyway.

9:33 It was Don't Don't Don't get me wrong.

9:35 When I owed her money, she made sure she told me and I paid her.

9:39 Oh, I understand.

9:40 time her car broke down

9:42 yeah, according to this you were owing her money like a long time,

9:44 many months, many weeks and Oh.

9:46 it go, but then at one point you just stopped recording what it is he owes.

9:50 Every Friday you would write what he owes and then all of a sudden you stop.

9:53 Now, does that mean that he didn't know anymore?

9:54 No, it's cuz he paid.

9:56 No.

9:57 And not only that, you actually you actually wrote out rent paid,

10:01 $100 plus $200 food stamps, $300 balance $23.

10:06 That's in May of 2010.

10:08 When did he leave?

10:09 I left in June 18th.

10:12 June or January?

10:13 June 18th.

10:14 I'm asking you, June or January?

10:16 June, it was June.

10:17 June 18th, cuz that's when I moved into my new place.

10:21 The day I came home for lunch and found the truck in the yard.

10:24 Okay, according to the records you want me to look

10:26 at, in June of 2010 all he owes you is 23 bucks.

10:31 Okay.

10:32 Okay, so now let's talk about stuff after he moves out.

10:35 All right, loss of rent, July, August and one week in June.

10:38 You feel that you're owed that rent because of the fact

10:42 that you weren't able to re-rent it because it was skanky.

10:46 Correct.

10:47 tell me about how skanky it was.

10:49 Oh, you got the pictures there.

10:50 Okay, and what was the problem with it?

10:52 Tell me.

10:52 the rug.

10:53 The rug has three big, big burns.

10:55 You smoke her, too?

10:56 I'm a smoker.

10:57 Okay, one, two, bunch of cigarette burns.

10:59 I think they're the same No, they're three.

11:01 I I I labeled them.

11:03 Burn hole number one, that's good.

11:04 Burn hole number three.

11:05 All right, so but what I don't understand is where

11:08 do you figure that you're going to get paid three

11:11 months worth of rent instead of paying a like a couple

11:14 hundred bucks and fixing the problem and renting it out?

11:17 Well, I don't have the money to replace the rug.

11:19 That's not the only

11:20 see an estimate for the replacing the rug and the installation?

11:23 This is one room, right?

11:25 You should have them, but if not, I got them here.

11:27 I'd like to see the originals.

11:29 One from Home Depot and one from Lowe's.

11:32 Okay.

11:32 And what say you to the pictures?

11:34 Did you see the pictures of the damaged rug?

11:36 This probably some cigarette holes that I burned there.

11:38 All right, here's the deal.

11:40 Looking at your own records, which you urged me to look at, Ms.

11:44 Reed, looking at them in your own handwriting,

11:49 documenting what he owes you every Friday, then there's a patch when you don't,

11:53 then you do again right before he moves out, you're documenting.

11:57 Your own handwriting says he owes you 23 bucks the day he moves out, okay?

12:01 I'm going to demand that you pay her those 23 bucks, okay?

12:05 Not 2,500 plus another thousand with those holes in it.

12:08 Hold on, hold on, hold on.

12:09 I'm not done.

12:10 When you have When a When a tenant leaves a a rented space and they do damage,

12:16 the landlord's right is to get recompensed for the damage that was committed.

12:22 It And if the damage stops you from renting it out because

12:27 it's so extensive that it takes 3 months of construction to do it,

12:30 then you're entitled to the 3 months that you couldn't get rent.

12:34 But this isn't that situation.

12:36 It's just a rug.

12:37 It can get done in a day.

12:38 It just didn't because you didn't have the funds or whatever reason you have,

12:41 but that doesn't enable you to then make out of a $500 case a $1,500 case.

12:47 You can't do that.

12:48 The law doesn't let you do that.

12:49 All right, I am going to order him to pay for the replacement

12:51 of the rug and the installation pursuant to the estimate that you have.

12:54 Right, but he owes me rent for 2008 as well.

12:59 Nope.

12:59 I'm looking at the I'm going to give this back to you.

13:00 a different calendar.

13:01 THAT'S 2010.

13:03 I AM LOOKING AT WHAT YOU GAVE ME.

13:04 YEAH, I GAVE YOU 2010.

13:06 OKAY, NOW LOOK AT THE 2008.

13:08 GIANT GRID FOR 2009, and I also looked at the giant grid for 2008.

13:13 Oh, but you didn't look at 2008.

13:15 that's what he owes you.

13:16 You're just confused.

13:16 It's fine.

13:17 no, no, no, cuz the 2008 he owes me way more than that.

13:22 and $84 for the rug is a total of $473.84.

13:28 Verdict for the plaintiff.

13:30 But that's not right.

13:34 Well, what a story and what a complicated relationship the two

13:37 of you had and you come out on losing end of this verdict.

13:39 So, what's your opinion of this?

13:41 Uh it's been over for a while with me and her and I decided well,

13:45 it was time for me to get going.

13:46 Knew when to get in was good and I had no hard feelings.

13:49 Do you think it's over between the two of you as far as she's concerned?

13:55 I don't know.

13:56 I don't know.

13:57 I'm not even going to touch it.

13:58 I got me a new girl.

13:59 She can be off on her own way.

14:01 All right, right down this way.

14:03 All right, so it seems like I'm asking him

14:05 the questions and you're answering them from over there.

14:07 What's Always, huh?

14:10 Well, what's going on?

14:11 Oh, nothing.

14:12 Nothing?

14:12 You still have feelings?

14:13 You still have feelings for this man?

14:15 I don't know what I don't know what I got for him anymore.

14:17 You can figure it's 12 been 12 years.

14:19 It's not You can tell me.

14:20 Come on.

14:21 Duh.

14:22 I'm not in love with him.

14:24 I may care still about him.

14:26 I've cared about him for all these years.

14:27 It's hard to not care about him.

14:29 You miss him, right?

14:30 Oh, guaranteed.

14:31 Yes, I do miss him.

14:32 I do miss him.

14:33 I miss the companionship and things that went along with that.

14:37 But hey, You have to move on.

14:38 Are you going to be able to do it?

14:40 Of course.

14:40 He's been gone since June 18th, so we're moving on.

14:43 Harvey?

14:44 Okay, you know what?

14:45 At a point this case should look like a mirror to you

14:47 that when it becomes bad and it ain't getting any better,

14:50 you got to know when to pull the plug.

14:52 And we'll do it for this case.

14:53 Litigants for the next case are on their way to the courtroom right now.