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Whatever you do, make sure you document it. I would not do it by phone.
I recently settled out of court with my former LL for a somewhat similar issue. Because of the dates, I could have sued her in court for twice the deposit. I sent her a letter that stated what statues she was in violation of and how much in damages I could recover if we proceeded to small claims court. In the letter I was very specific with what I would do if my deposit was not returned by a certain date. I got my deposit back after she consulted her own attorney. If you have EAP benefits through your work (or your spouses, if applicable) you can have a free legal consultation. We also have a nice website for tenant rights in Oregon with sample letters that you can use and customize before sending out.
I would not hesitate to send a letter at this point. I didn't catch what state you are in but check with an attorney or in your state statutes as for how a LL needs to document the necessity of repairs done with security deposit money - do they have receipts proving how they spent that money? Unless there is more that you aren't telling us it sounds like you have a good case.
Cleaning the vents...since when is that a tenants expense?
You chose to move out earlier so that is not on the LL to pay you back and the 30 days start to count from the day you ended the lease and not from the day you gave back the keys but that might be something one judge may look at differently than another but to be safe I would go by 30 days of the end of your lease.
If the owner fails to be in compliance with your state laws than you win and if the LL deducts money she or he shouldn't than it will be added to your side.
You chose to move out earlier so that is not on the LL to pay you back and the 30 days start to count from the day you ended the lease and not from the day you gave back the keys but that might be something one judge may look at differently than another but to be safe I would go by 30 days of the end of your lease.
Incorrect. The OP's state requires 30 days notice. The OP says he gave almost 60 days written notice, reconfirmed in writing at 30 days AND, even though he left as scheduled on the 20th of the month and turned in the keys, paid through the end of the calendar month which he wasn't required to do. The LL is in breach by not returning the deposit within 30 days of regaining possession. The OP did everything by the book.
, even though he left as scheduled on the 20th of the month and turned in the keys, paid through the end of the calendar month which he wasn't required to do.
I don't see where the OP provided written notice that he was vacating on the 20th, seems the original notice was for "the end of the month", then he proceeded to leave earlier. Based on that, I don't believe the OP is entitled to any pro-rated rent returned.
I do agree that the security deposit accounting timeline starts once the tenant has returned possession to the landlord.
I don't see where the OP provided written notice that he was vacating on the 20th, seems the original notice was for "the end of the month", then he proceeded to leave earlier.
Not sure what you don't see:
"Upon us making the decision to move out we notified the owner via email almost 60 days prior to us leaving. We confirmed again 30 days prior to move out. This communication was via email - as all communication has been with him and he acknowledge our emails and stated he would be sad to see us go."
and,
"Upon moving out on the 20th of the month we sent an email letting him know we had moved out, surrendered the keys and left our forwarding address. Again we got a reply to this email.
So we paid through to the 30th of the month, but surrendered the property and keys on the 20th and did not request to be reimbursed for the 10 days we had left in the month."
The OP appears to be in a state which requires 30 days notice, not a calendar month.
1st email sent 1/2 to let LL know we were moving out end of February (buying a home so we wanted to give a heads up)
2nd email sent 1/20 to reconfirm we would be moving out end of Feb
"End of Feb" does not equal the 20th, you can't provide two written notices to vacate (with a relatively specific date) and move early and expect to be refunded rent.
Somewhat moot since the OP is not contesting the rent but the deposit deductions and seems to think the landlord is taking advantage of them because they were nice enough to leave early when rent was paid. Either way, landlord did not follow proper accounting timeline if they did indeed return posession on the 20th.
We aren't expecting a refund of the rent and we did return possesion on the 20th of the month and this was confirmed - I have never heard of a tenant being responsible for cleaning vents or outside windows myself until the LL listed it on this itemized list.
I think our next goal will be to send a certified letter requesting receipts for these items he is claiming monies for and also bring to his attention that he is also requesting these monies outside of the allotted 30 day window in Texas. I believe the LL thought that since we paid through to the 30th that he could post-mark it for 30 days out, but the he didn't realize it was when we surrendered possession.
It's really quite a shame, we spent quite a long time cleaning the home and took very good care of it while we lived there - we can't help but feel like we are trying to get taken advantage of in this situation - especially since receipts for these repairs were not supplied - and coincidentally he is doing major renovations to the home now and attempting to raise the rent $1000 for the next tenants.
If we left things in a terrible state or destroyed anything we would have been 100% willing to make it right, but these charges came out of nowhere, so we feel.
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