Can or Should we file a complaint against our landlord/leasing company??

By 1st time renters

Hi,

We’re almost at the end of our lease and have never been late on rent before until this month. Rent was due on the 1st, as it normally does, but we weren’t able to pay because of some unexpected expenses that came up. We were, however, planning to pay within the following two weeks once our finances catches back up. So we called the leasing office to check for any late fees that we’d incur for paying late, but they told us that we had til the end of the month before we get penalized with late fees. And to refer to our lease agreement to confirm. Which we did and it does state that we had 30 days after the 1st to have our rent paid in full. We reviewed our agreement further and didn’t find anything regarding evictions or anything relating.  Then monday of the 3rd week, we get served a summons to housing court for a complaint for eviction by the leasing company for not paying the rent, we were actually waiting for payday (fri) of that week to have enough for rent since we thought we had 30 days to pay. So friday, we pay the past due rent, filled out our answer to the court and sent it certified along with a copy sent to the leasing office. Now we’re just waiting for the hearing in two weeks. So my questions:

1) Was the 30 days that was stated in the lease agreement our grace period before any consequences can be persued by the leasing company? (Ie. late fees, eviction, etc..)

2) If so, are they in the wrong for filing the complaint before the 30 days was over?

3) If the answers to the above are Yes or close to it, then can we file a complaint against them for wrongly doing the above?

4) Once this is settled in court, will future landlords see this complaint and what avenue can we persue so that it doesn’t look so negatively against us?

Thanks in advance and we look forward to be a bit more educated about these things.. 😉

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