Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It seems like we're going to have a dispute with our previous landlord. The story (apologies for the long story):
We've singed a two-year lease for a house in California starting in August 2008, ending July 2010. Upon moving in, there was no walk-through as our landlord was otherwise engaged at the time. The house was cleaned but not perfectly, we kept on vacuum up dog hair from the previous tenants for months after.
Due to the recession, my husband lost his job in June 2009, as we are on a work-visa, losing the job also meant moving back to Europe. We informed our landlord by e-mail and phone of this situation half June and finally moved out mid-July this year, one year short of our two-year lease.
He asked us to help him find new tenants to take over the lease. We put the house on Craigslist and had various showings of the house. Everyone that we showed the house to was interested and they all filled out a lease application that the landlord received. There were several people who were interested in moving in the day after we moved out or from August 1 on.
Our landlord however found none of the applicant suitable (due to various fact, never a financial one though) and decided to continue the search himself. Upon moving out, we've asked him over for a walk-through but he failed to stop by before we had to leave to catch our flight.
In the beginning of august, I've tried to call him to see how he would arrange to pay back our 2-month security deposit, he was on vacation at that time.
I have sent an e-mail asking about the security deposit and he responded back that he found new tenants that were ready to move in but that they claimed the carpets needed to be cleaned. We did not argue that they needed some cleaning and asked for an estimate in the cost to be deducted from the deposit.
Two weeks passed by and we did not hear anything. At that time, the 21-day period of us moving out has passed so I sent another e-mail with the details of our bank account for him to return the deposit. A week later, still no word. Today I've sent another e-mail asking if it might have slipped his mind and reminded him we wanted the deposit back. An answer finally came and I'm not too happy about it:
He wants to deduct a months rent as there was no tenant in August and we had a lease agreement for 2-years, he wants to deduct some money for cleaning the carpets and other cleaning things, even though we left the house in a good, clean state. He has not mentioned how much he wants to deduct, nor did he sent an itemized list of things that have been done. The landlord is a lawyer so he knows the laws and knows what he can and cannot do.
I have the feeling though that he thinks we might not know the law and as we're located far away now, he can do what he wants with this. We always had a good relation whith the landlord and are very disappointed in the way things turn out.
As far as we know the California tenant/landlord law gives us the right to have our full deposit back as:
a: the landlord did not provide us with any responses from his side within 21 days of moving out, depsite us trying to contact him
b: the landlord did not agree on suitable tenants we found for the property, having it vacant longer than necessary
c: finally does come back with deductions he wants to make without a proper list of what has been done and what amount he wants to deduct.
Is there anyone who can let me know where I stand in this?
Even though you tried finding a tenant, final approval is the LLs.
You still broke the lease, that means you forfeit the security deposit plus
another months rent until new tenants signed their lease.
As someone who was in a similar situation many years ago, except I wasn't moving back to a foreign country and I was going up against a landlord who just happened to be a JUDGE I can tell you right now you might as well kiss your money goodbye. Just one of those unavoidable combination of circumstances in life that successfully conspire to part you from your money.
Totally depends on what state law and your lease say.
Our lease says that if a tenant breaks their lease, they forfeit their deposit. We aren't required to give them any documentation further.
In some states, the LL has an obligation to attempt to rerent, in other states they do not. They should, ethically, but not always legally.
In addition, since you broke the lease, the LL doesn't know what they have for related expenses until they have it reoccupied, so the 21 day part of the law probably doesn't apply.
As virgode said, they are not obligated to accept just any applicant to get it renrented, they are allowed to look for someone who meets their requirements. Financial reasons are only one reason we turn people down. A couple other really common ones are bad references, unacceptable pet types (aggressive dogs, for example), or bad attitudes. (Attitude is not a protected class, you are allowed to reject someone just because you don't like them).
It is entirely possible that legally you are not owed anything, and any money that the landlord refunds is done because he is a "nice guy". It is also entirely possible, but extremely unlikely that you are owed your entire deposit in full because the landlord didn't follow the rules.
I would just be happy that he let you out of the lease and saved you 10 months rent (12 months left on the lease minus the 2 months of rent he's keeping). Is it really worth flying to California for court dates?
land lords are only abiding by local laws,not a inch more, would he find somebody else right away and you are going away and you have no legal ground or some other means to take the money back he would still keep your money ,if you cant take them to court even you are right he will keep your money,i have seen it so many times,do not be fulled by smiles a shark is a shark in the world we live in
land lords are only abiding by local laws,not a inch more, would he find somebody else right away and you are going away and you have no legal ground or some other means to take the money back he would still keep your money ,if you cant take them to court even you are right he will keep your money,i have seen it so many times,do not be fulled by smiles a shark is a shark in the world we live in
And then there are those that will make every effort to have a check in the tenant's hand at move-out...
And then there are those that will make every effort to have a check in the tenant's hand at move-out...
We've done that from time to time and it always comes back to bite us. Some utiltities in our area are ultimately the owner's responsibility, and we've often had bills come due after a tenant moves out because they didn't bother to give a forwarding address to the utility company, or just didn't pay the last bill.
A tenant would have to have left the place literally "move in ready" and have proof that utilities were dealt with in order for me to cut a check that day.
Write it off, you broke the lease. Depending on the lease contract you could be liable for more than the deposit but I dont know how the LL could recover the fees unless you decide to take em to court.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I can tell you right now you might as well kiss your money goodbye. Just one of those unavoidable combination of circumstances in life that successfully conspire to part you from your money. 
