Landlord coming after me for damages (Ohio: apartment, lease, tenants)

[yankran2601]

Ten months after moving out of a rent stablized apt (was in apt for 40 yrs), the landord is claiming that I owe damages.

The majority of claims reflect wear and team on apt that occured for 40 yrs, additionally several of items that they are charging for me are repairs that i request for several years.

example : both of bathroom floors they want to charge to put new floors in, but made requests for several years to fix and they refused

what are my rights or options to fight these charges, as said most reflect wear and tear for 40 yrs.

thanks

[Robhu]

You were there for 40 years?
You must have a been very good tenant.
Sounds like the LL is nuts.
Let the LL sue for any damages and then make a fool of him/her in court.
Take any documentation you might have to court as far as reporting anything that needed repaired and never got repaired.
I would think that any judge would take into consideration that if you lived there for 40 years you couldn't have been much of an undesireable tenant.
Most LL's wish they had tenants that they could keep for 40 years.

[yankran2601]

thanks,

but issue for is when management was up in my apt doing various stuff, I requested new floors in bathroom or a new vanity and it was refused. That stuff was never put into writing so I don't have documentation on this stuff.

Also, I refuse to pay I am assuming the landlord would then sue and not sure what my options are to defend myself.

thanks for all help

[lamontnow]

Originally Posted by Robhu

You were there for 40 years?
You must have a been very good tenant.
Sounds like the LL is nuts.
.......
I would think that any judge would take into consideration that if you lived there for 40 years you couldn't have been much of an undesireable tenant.
Most LL's wish they had tenants that they could keep for 40 years.

You obviously have absolutely no idea of what the rent stabilization system is. Probably because you're from Ohio.

[yankran2601]

I don't that why I am asking the question?

[mathjak107]

depends if its normal wear and tear vs out right damages.....

normal wear and tear is expected and is given to a landlord as a deprciation allowance.....

if you damaged things beyond wear and tear then you are held responsible

[anders]

Originally Posted by lamontnow

You obviously have absolutely no idea of what the rent stabilization system is. Probably because you're from Ohio.

Well, yes -- _rent stabilization_, not necessarily tenant saintliness, facilitates long-term tenancy. But you still have to pay the rent and keep the rules, which the OP did for 40 years.

When long-term tenants vacate, landlords normally do a lot of renovating and wear-and-tear repairing, out of necessity. They recoup the cost via vacancy-lease rent increase (for the next tenant).

Here, it sounds like the landlord is sticking the _ex-tenant_ with the renovation bill, under the guise of "damages":
-- The tenant requested these repairs when he still lived there. But landlord didn't fix the wear/age-damaged floors, since he couldn't bill the tenant for normal repairs; tenant paid below-market rent; and rent couldn't be raised, due to stabilization (and due to age, if tenant is 62+).
-- The landlord _knew_ about the floor damage, and if it were really caused by tenant's bad acts (not just wear-and-tear), he'd have hit Housing Court and sought reimbursement/eviction. But landlord didn't do this.

So the landlord took the E-Z way: Let apartment molder during low-rent tenancy; keep deposit, so ex-tenant "pays" for normal renovations (which benefit landlord); and make ex-tenant jump through hoops to get the money back.

For general info, I'd contact the rent-stab. office at Division of Housing and Community Renewal. The number is somewhere in your lease, but you also can check:
Contact DHCR
I'd also contact local tenants'/social-services organizations and (if applicable) senior-citizens' groups -- which can help you directly, or tip you off re: free or lower-cost legal services.

[anders]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

if you damaged things beyond wear and tear then you are held responsible

A lot of normal wear-and-tear can happen over 40 years, esp. if there's minimal maintenance.

It's unlikely that the tenant was using two bathroom floors for jackhammer practice.
And if he-she let water overflow so often that it destroyed those floors, seems like the landlord would've taken action sometime since 1968.