Judgement against primary tenant

By Carmel26

I have been subletting an apartment(in a private house) from the prime tenant for about two years.  The primary tenant moved out of the apartment over a year ago and I as well in another tenant is still living in the apartment. The owner(landlord) of the house started a non-payment petition against the primary tenant even though she knew this tenant is no longer living in the apartment.  The landlord claims to still have a lease with prime tenant(which i was unaware of) and is using the lease as way to get an eviction case against me and the other tenant who is still living in the apartment.

Although the landlord has this lease with the primary tenant, she has been collecting rent from us(subtenants) for the past two years. Because she was collecting rent from us, we were no longer subtenants…we became her tenants. Infact she has been collecting the rent in cash without providing receipts. Whenever i asked for a receipt, she refused to provide one. I sent her a certified letter threatenent to withold a percentage of the rent due to problems with house and requested that she provide a receipt.  Ever since thin she has refused to collect the rent from us and has attempted to illegally evict us. Now she has this non-payment petition against a tenant that is not physically living in the apartment.

the first court hearing the Primary tenant never appeared.  I think the landlord planned it that way. I think the landlord is trying to get a default judgement against this tenant in order to start an eviction case without having to take her us(the subtenants)to court

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Related posts:

Holy Cow, we couldn't find any other related post. Sorry. :(