Real Estate Law USA.com

this is a repost of sorts because i did not give all the information. my gf and i had a rental house together. both of our names were on the lease. the utilities were in my name. we broke up, under good terms, i thought, no cops or court orders. she has three daughters so it made sense should she stay and i stay with friends. she asked me to move out (nicely) and asked that i keep the utilites on in my name because she was unable to afford to get them in her name and that she would pay the bills. im not sure where else but in nc after x amount of months that you have left a property you legally abandoned the property even though that was not my intent. after the break up i tried to get my name off of the lease. the real estate company wouldn’t allow it. i couldn’t get my name off the lease nor could i stay there. there was a bit of a domestic issue when i tried to get my stuff back. the cop said i had legally abandoned the property and would have to get her permission to get it back. two days later she allowed me to go back in while she was at. work. so you see i was in sort of a catch 22 as far as the lease was concerned. i need to know what sort of recourse i have in an upcoming small claims court action i have against. her. i need to know what part of the law i have on my side so as to say i’m not legally obligated to the property. and by the way i’m taking her to court because she bailed on the property and the deposity( which was loaned to us by my mother) was taken and the utilities i let her use she ran up and did not pay. any advice. and thanx to those out there who just assumed i had some sort of restraining order against me