CA and SOL for Texas

Feb 102010
 

In December 2005, my husband was put on active duty orders to attend a school in Texas. We had to rent an apartment for him there and entered into a lease. At the end of August 2006 he was told orders were being cut to send him back to our home state of CO in September. He provided the letter the unti gave him stating this would be happening and the apartment complex refused to acknowledge that notice stating that they needed “Official Orders”. When the orders were finally cut, he provided them and apparently (we’ll get to this in a minute) signed a notice to vacate.

 

He moved back home. We never heard anything further from this apartment complex. Fast Forward to January 2010….My husband gets a call on his cell phone (which the apartment complex had BTW) from a collection agency looking for rent for that apartment complex for October 2006!! WHAT???? So he says, I don’t have any knowledge of owing anyone anything and asks thm to send proof of this debt. A week or so later we receive a letter from the CA with a photocopy of the lease and the notice to vacate. Once I got a good look at the notice to vacate, it would seem that he signed a notice that committed him to paying October rent even though he did not occupy the space based on some Texas law that allows “the Lease Contract will be terminated under this military clause 30 days after the date on which your next rental payment is due”. It pains me no end that we would need to pay for  month that he didn’t occupy the space and that they likely got rent for from a new tenant.

 

We NEVER received anything from the apartment complex even though they had our Colorado address and my husband’s number and now three years later we get a call from a CA. I am assuming this was because the Texas SOL is 4 years and will be up in October of 2010 (if I understand corectly).

 

My questions are?

1. Because they sent copies of the signed documents, does the SOL clock start all over again? 

2. If not, should we just wait it out?

3. Is there any recourse against the apartment complex for not attempting to collect this debt timely before dinging our credit?

 

Thanks in advance.