Joshua's Defense Fund
A lot of people know parts of this story, but about two years ago, I relocated myself and my business, Batfish Aquatics, to a house in Burtonsville, MD. This was supposed to have been a great move for me -- having Batfish at my fingertips, constantly, and personally getting out of living in a very small apartment.
In fall of 2014, this turned into a disaster, as I made the discovery that the house was essentially uninsulated. Heating bills skyrocketed, to the tune of $2000-3000 monthly. Even with these ridiculous costs, the upstairs of the house became unliveable in winter -- I took to sleeping on the couch downstairs. Worse, the basement, which contained all of the fish for Batfish, was impossible to keep above 50-60°.
After a county inspection in January found the house to have a number of code violations, and the Landlord's adamant refusal to repair them, I chose to vacate the property, in accordance with Montgomery County (MD) laws.
What very few people know is that, by the time I was moved out, I lost approximately 80% of the fish in Batfish's 'inventory.' Ich, fungal infections, and just plain cold killed countless tropical fish -- 60° is simply not "liveable" for tropical fish, and below that is lethal. Needless to say, sales were near zero, as well, as I am not going to sell stressed or sick fishes. My own personal tanks were the hardest hit; my beautiful reef tank completely crashed during the move, and I lost almost all of my personal freshwater fish, including a pair of 12" L025 Scarlet Plecos.
In the next few months, the Landlord had the audacity to take me to court, twice, for less than $2000. Each time, his case was dismissed. He then upped the ante and filed an approximately $15,000 lawsuit against me, which went to trial in July.
I went to court pro se.
Without going into details as to why, the court found in favour of the Landlord. I'm in the process of filing an appeal, and quickly running out of time to do so. I need another $600 to file the appeal, and I also need to hire an attorney.
To make matters worse, the Landlord's attorney has acted upon the Judgement of the previous trial. Today (8/31), I discovered that my bank accounts had been "garnished" of every penny in them.
