Ok-Landlord is trying to screw me...... (rental, bad credit, attorney)

[stickbsgirl]

Sorry folks, this could be a long rant about my former landlord. My husband and I and a good friend decided to move into a house together. Everything was fine and the landlord agreed to let us pay the security deposit in payment in which we payed half. I dont have the best credit, so the landlord wife told me that she does credit cleanup and could do it for 1000. I was super excited and dumb enough to give her all of the money plus an addtional 180 for "finance charges". I kept checking in with her regarding my credit and she kept telling me excuse after excuse. Finally I decided that until my credit was started I would not pay the additional security deposit on the house. I just had a bad feeling that I was being scammed. Furthermore, the landlord never did a walk through of the house with us, however I noted all the things that were wrong with the house. At the time of move out, my credit still hadnt been touched nor did she have any info on the person who was supposedly taking care of it. I told both my landlord and his wife that I was withholding my prorated last months rent because they hadnt returned my 1180 to me for my credit. FYI our prorated last months rent equaled 1180 as well. Per our telephone conversation with the landlord, he agreed that was fine. We repeatedly tried contacting the landlord for our final walk through, but he decided to send his wife instead. She told us that she would send us a bill for any damages done to the house. I know it wasnt right on our part to not completely pay the security deposit, but good thing we didnt. The landlord reimbursed our other roommate his complete deposit back to him, but now is trying to charge us for damages he claims he had to repair. Just today which I might add is over 2 1/2 months since we moved out, we got a letter with a bill attached to it. He is trying to charge us for painting doors and sod in the backyard from our dog, but never gave us the opportunity to fix "his so called repairs" ourselves. My husband and I only live 2 blocks away and could of easily gone to the house and repaired these things. He is also trying to charge us for rent and late fees?? Is this legit????????HelP!!!

[Paula Lynn]

You're "memo" was too difficult to read. Don't put everything in on paragrah.

[WonderWoman13]

NO, its not ok ,but not for all of your reasons.
In other words, take this guy to small claims court, you've got a case.
The fact that you gave them and were out $1180 is a separte issue and you won't win based on the fact.
What you can win on
- he didn't do a final walk through, you'll have to prove that you attempted to contact him on more than one occassion (emails, phone records etc)
-did he give you an itemized receipt for every penny he's saying you owe? he has to.....
-also if you can prove that he withheld your deposit maliciously, you can tack on more money, it's like 2 times the deposit??? something like that

Hope this helps for now. I am not an attorney but I study the laws regarding tenants & landlords and counsel others on their rights as renters.
P.S. my landlord tried something like this, only worse ,
i took him to court and won $3500.
All i wanted was my lowsy $800 deposit and he wouldn't give to me.
so i took him to court and won $3500!!

[Twinkle Toes]

Um ........ the OP posted this in 2007. I'm sure he/she has resolved this by now, seeing as how it's now 2011. Let's hope so.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by WonderWoman13

NO, its not ok ,but not for all of your reasons.
In other words, take this guy to small claims court, you've got a case.
The fact that you gave them and were out $1180 is a separte issue and you won't win based on the fact.
What you can win on
- he didn't do a final walk through, you'll have to prove that you attempted to contact him on more than one occassion (emails, phone records etc)
-did he give you an itemized receipt for every penny he's saying you owe? he has to.....
-also if you can prove that he withheld your deposit maliciously, you can tack on more money, it's like 2 times the deposit??? something like that

Hope this helps for now. I am not an attorney but I study the laws regarding tenants & landlords and counsel others on their rights as renters.
P.S. my landlord tried something like this, only worse ,
i took him to court and won $3500.
All i wanted was my lowsy $800 deposit and he wouldn't give to me.
so i took him to court and won $3500!!

Like twinkle toes pointed out, this is a 4 year old thread, any reason you choose to bring it back up? The Op never came back, we have to assume she worked things out or gave up. It is too late for her to take action now.

Nita

[agnt.starling]

I agree w/ Twinkle Toes & Nmnita, in regards to the date of this thread.

I do however want to bring up my past experience being screwd over by a former landlord,
as this will probably get read (Sorry its long, but every detail matches the whole story).

To those Renting, please be aware of your rights and read everything, question everything......., as similiar to the situation w/the OP, it happened to me/us too. The landlord lived out of the area (up north to be exact) and we never did a walk through, she was suppose to meet us out there & now knowing that was just an excuse to get out of doing it. It was a middle house (big mistake there i know now!), and it was in an area that we never thought we would ever live at, nice expensive area, in the foothills w/gorgeous views of the higher hilltops, afterall we came from renting crappy apts, one after the other (its always been what we can afford) and the price was right at the time. The only reason we fell into the trap was because we also had bad credit & were tired of living in crappy apts.

She knew that, and she took advantage. She let us make arrangements as far as paying the deposit. Once that was paid off, all of a sudden she was hard to get a hold of. Problems arose w/both front & back tenants. Front meaning a house that was suppose to be 4 adults w/kids living in, turned out to be 15 to 20 ppl. The back tenant took it upon himself to get in our space, including parking and was also a creep (I have teenage girls & always caught him trying to talk to them when they came home from school).

But the clencher was when we got our first few monthly electric & gas bills, we questioned why so high, when all of us was hardly there, & my husband (whose knowledge of Electrical came in handy) realized that we were connected w/the back tenant to the same Electrical Utility Box. Yes the back tenant had free Electric & Gas, courtesy of "US".

So in short, aside from seeking reimbursement for both Electric & Gas, which took forever but we got back, Never got back our Deposit, as she claimed we "damaged" the middle house, which was pure "BS", but unfortunately we didn't have the funds at the time (still don't have funds now , to fight it, even for small claims. And we did do something, that we shouldn't have, but had no choice, we had a washer & dryer, and my husband made our kitchen into a laundry room as well, (done it before, piece of cake, if the landlords cool w/it though..) however, she dinged us on it, because we moved out fast & hastily, he forgot to remove some of the lines/tubes he ran (??), and to justify why we did it, because the 20 ppl living in front of us were constantly hogging up the laundry room that was behind us -- actually the back tenants neighboring room, which were all garages at one time (yes we paid for that too & believe me combing the bill, we got it back). That back tenant who also hugged it up, also invited all his friends to partake of the usage.

Yes we regret ever moving in there, and now are on guard about renting. God willing someday we can just buy a house and do away with ever having to rent again........

So If your Renting, Read everything, Question Everything, and Don't Allow Yourself To Get Screwed, but don't let it go, definitely fight back or try to.

[Lovehound]

There are simple lessons to be drawn from this entire topic.

1.) Never ever agree to anything unless you have it written down on paper and signed by the other party. Read and understand the agreement and keep your copy.

2.) Whenever there is any question about the condition of a rental unit take pictures and/or otherwise document the situation. If repairs are necessary get written estimates.

3.) Always make all payments (rent, deposit) by check and save the cancelled checks. If you don't have a checking account use money orders. (You can get them at the USPS office.) In my opinion paying in cash and getting a receipt is a poor third choice. Paying in cash with no receipt is little different than giving somebody free money.

Do they teach personal finance in school? Perhaps not. My parents taught me this stuff.