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As long as its reasonable which would be determined in court he can pay hiself toi do repairs. As far as the yard;he only has to pay if he agreed to or wants to.
The LL can keep money for the work he does him self and show receipts of the purchases and bank statements that it has been paid as proof.
I'm charging my previous LL as we speak for the many hours we worked in the yard to fix everything to the level it was as the tenant moved in, which took 3 of my family members 4 hours (so we charged 3 x 4 hours x $ 10.00 per hour)...I don't think we have to do it for free and for the items we have receipts.
We also have proof of before move in, and on the day of move out to show how much difference it was...
I agree partially with your post THL, however greater nor cheaper equal better and a cost of 50% more than the normal range for the same repair, as another poster suggested, in my estimation is unreasonable.
virgode--I said the 50% +/- is a good rule of thumb. Every judge and every case is different. But it is a good rule of thumb when considering whether to go to court over the issue.
Remember even if the judge decides the deduction was unreasonable--that doesn't mean you're getting your whole deposit back. If the LL decides that, say 25% more is 'reasonable', then you only get a refund of 25%. Your court costs could easily exceed any amount you win in court.
OP needs to estimate not only if the LL's deductions were reasonable, but if not, by how much would a judge consider the deduction to be unreasonable.
I don't have a lack of understanding of what would take place in a court hearing, I normaly never suggest this to posters, but personally, if an LL did this, I'd take him to court on principle alone, I can't stand greed.
In case the OP isn't certain how a court hearing would way out, this gives him a good understanding.
quote=kodaka;13875463]virgode--I said the 50% +/- is a good rule of thumb. Every judge and every case is different. Butit is a good rule of thumb when considering whether to go to court over the issue.
Remember even if the judge decides the deduction was unreasonable--that doesn't mean you're getting your whole deposit back. If the LL decides that, say 25% more is 'reasonable', then you only get a refund of 25%. Your court costs could easily exceed any amount you win in court.
OP needs to estimate not only if the LL's deductions were reasonable, but if not, by how much would a judge consider the deduction to be unreasonable.[/quote]
If we do any work ourselves and charge the tenant, we'll likely be at the low end of "reasonable," rather than the high end. I agree that 50% more than you'd pay an expert is too much. I'd be more likely to charge 50% less.
Just because the plumber quotes $200 does not mean it finishes out at $200, it is usually at least twice that by the time they finish. Plumbing is rough, you remove one 12 inch pipe and ten feet of pipe falls apart.
Why is it that tenants always remove all the interior doors??
Given that landlord doesn't have marketing cost and other overhead cost built into his labor, it should be below the going rate. A contractor may charge $50/hr, but he only pockets $25 because much of his time is spent bidding jobs and on other costs. It should be closer to what an employee would be paid per hour. So if you would pay a contractor $50 per hour, then I think about $25 per hour would seem reasonable.
If the tenant put a hole in the wall, the LL wouldn't be expected to fix it for the cost of materials which would be about $20, if he spent 3 hours patching and painting it. That would be working for free and no one does that. He should charge about $100 instead of the $150+ a contractor would charge.
And I bet you can go out and find 20 different professionals that would all charge a different amount. So while the LL may be charging more than one professional he may be charging less than others. Not something I would want to hang my hat on in court. Obviously the better move would be for the tenant to get it fixed himself if possible and then they don't have to worry about if they are getting ripped off by the LL (they just have to worry about getting ripped off by the professional ).
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