My Roommate is withholding our deposit! (lease, tenants, security deposit, house)
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I think I have a bit of a unique situation... and I need some help!!
Last year I lived in a house with 3 other roommates. We each made a security deposit of $260. At the end of the year our landlord, Pat (who was wonderful all year) deducted $272.16 to get the carpets cleaned and to do some maintenance. That's all fine. The problem starts when our landlord wrote the deposit check back to one of our roommates for him to split between the rest of us.
The roommate didn't tell us he got a check back, when we asked the landlord about it he told us what happened to it. When we confronted our roommate this is exactly what he e-mailed back (we're e-mailing because we don't live in the same towns anymore)
Here's his e-mail:
------------------------------------
HI Hannah,
Pertaining to the deposit
**Pat cleaned and charged $272.16
**I cleaned 6hrs @ 30/hr (same as pat charges per hour) $180
**$327.84 is left for the three of you or however you think you should split it.
From the deposit I took my share and my charge for communal cleaning. I don't expect to be challenged on this since everybody moved out without a full house cleaning. I can send each of you a check for 1/3 of $327.84 or I can send it all you.
Let me know what you wanna do.
send address'
...
Aaron
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First off, all he ended up cleaning was the bathroom he used, the living room floor, and the kitchen floor/fridge. We lived in a 4 bedroom house with 3 bathrooms and a garage. He was the last one in the house for a week. I don't believe it would've made sense to clean and defrost the fridge with his food still in it, or mop the floors when he hadn't moved anything out yet. The rest of the house was cleaned... the remaining bathrooms, the laundry room, the yard, the garage and the other bedrooms.
I've already explained all of this to him and he remains un-moved. He seems to prefer to believe that he was the only one who did any cleaning. He won't reply to my e-mails or phone calls anymore... so I am about ready to give up on trying to civilly convince him to pay us back. I am not afraid to take the matter to small claims court.
So this isn't about 'who cleaned what' and 'what is fair', it's about legalities. My main question is, does he have any legal right to withhold that $180 for cleaning from us?
I'd also like to point out that his numbers do not add up to the deposit check he was given, which was $767.84 (I had to call the landlord to get that number). Even after he deducts his fee for "cleaning" there is still $113.04 not accounted for. I also asked him to explain where this money went, and why we haven't seen it. He hasn't responded.
I know to a lot of people this seems like a small amount of money, but we're college students and the money he is withholding (I feel, unrightfully withholding) could feed me for a month.
What do you think I should do? Am I being too petty? Does he have a legal right to that money?
You are right in that his math is way off. I would take it to small claims court as well and let the judge look at his math. I don't think that final cleaning will fly.
Oh! I jut figured out his math...He took out his full $260 plus the $180 for cleaning. So he's saying you three have to absorb Pat and his cleaning fees. That's why he's saying there's only $327.84 left. Jerk!
If you each paid an independent deposit to the LL, he is responsible to refund each of you separately. He was wrong to make out one check, and could probably be held responsible for the missing funds.
As far as your ex friend, take him to court. You already know he isn't going to budge on this.
The only way he can charge you for cleaning is if he had hired a service and received a receipt. His word as a non professional cleaning service, means nothing. Courts want to see proof of his costs. He has none.
He also should have given the others the opportunity to help with the cleaning. Having roommates is a great way to learn how petty people can be. A life's lesson....
If you each paid an independent deposit to the LL, he is responsible to refund each of you separately. He was wrong to make out one check, and could probably be held responsible for the missing funds.
As far as your ex friend, take him to court. You already know he isn't going to budge on this.
The only way he can charge you for cleaning is if he had hired a service and received a receipt. His word as a non professional cleaning service, means nothing. Courts want to see proof of his costs. He has none.
He also should have given the others the opportunity to help with the cleaning. Having roommates is a great way to learn how petty people can be. A life's lesson....
To be honest, I don't think we're hearing the whole story here. I'd bet the guy who's keeping the deposit would tell us that his messy roommates trashed the place, then moved out early to get out of having to clean up. He busted his tail end cleaning up their mess, and now they want to share in the fruits of his labors.
I mean come on. You couldn't mop because he was going to move furniture a week later? Doesn't that sound like a copout to anyone but me?
To be honest, I don't think we're hearing the whole story here. I'd bet the guy who's keeping the deposit would tell us that his messy roommates trashed the place, then moved out early to get out of having to clean up. He busted his tail end cleaning up their mess, and now they want to share in the fruits of his labors.
I mean come on. You couldn't mop because he was going to move furniture a week later? Doesn't that sound like a copout to anyone but me?
You're right, there are two sides to every story.
The condition the house was left in is a very difficult thing for me to prove via the internet. If my word means anything the rest of the house was cleaned, it's not as if we trashed the place. There were 2 floors left to clean and a bathroom... his own bathroom. It's a relatively large house. To give you an idea of what kind of person he is let me tell you that all year he refused to clean anything that wasn't directly his mess... I'm not talk about doing my dishes or picking up after slobby roommates. I mean general upkeep: sweeping, dusting, taking out the trash, he wouldn't take a turn mowing the lawn, or shoveling the snow. He called us a bunch of communists for wanting to make a chart splitting up household chores.
Last night I gave our landlord a call, and he's on our side. He said that he saw little to no evidence of that extra 6 hours of cleaning. He also said that the roommate had moved out without vacuuming or dusting his own room. Which leads me to ask Why would he spend 6 hours cleaning the rest of the house but not an extra 10 minutes on his own room?
We didn't leave a week early to get out of cleaning, at least I didn't, I left because classes were over and the extra week would've been better spent back home where I had a job waiting for me. And I didn't mop because his furniture was in the way.
In all honesty, this isn't about roommates bickering about who cleaned what.
It's about if what his is doing is legal... I feel like I'm being robbed... and maybe I'm wrong, maybe he has a right to that money?!
You are right in that his math is way off. I would take it to small claims court as well and let the judge look at his math. I don't think that final cleaning will fly.
Oh! I jut figured out his math...He took out his full $260 plus the $180 for cleaning. So he's saying you three have to absorb Pat and his cleaning fees. That's why he's saying there's only $327.84 left. Jerk!
Oh my goodness!!!! Thanks for figuring that out!! I understand him now
... and I cannot even begin to describe my distaste for him.
Take him to small claims and please let us know how it turns out.
It's shocking really as the exact same thing happened to me and my three roommates.
I never did anything about it. He had made my life hell and my dad had just died, so i never followed through on holding him responsible for what really amounts to theft, and if I could do it all over again, I would.
We also make deposit checks payable to all adults who lived in the unit at the time of lease termination. ie Joe Smith AND Mary Jones. That way, no one can cash the check without the other parties signatures.
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