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In defense of being pissed off about the blinds, I've had uber-cheap blinds twice, and it really made me made mad the one time I was charged to replace them. These were new. In one apartment four of the five blinds had bends or breaks in them after three months, simply from opening and closing them. I'm not a person that is hard on blinds. I had the same pair in my bedroom growing up the entire 21 years I lived with my parents and did 0 damage to them. Nor has it been in issue in the many apartments I've lived with decent blinds. I don't see why I should be charged to replace something that is so cheap that normal wear and tear leaves it broken. I think the landlord liked them because replacing them when they inevitably broke within a few months was easier than cleaning them and he didn't have to pay for new ones if he just charged people for them when they moved out.
It's been a while since I rented, but one thing I learned the same way was to take lots of pictures and/or video when you move in, and when you move out. Provide a copy to the landlord. At least you have evidence of the condition of the place when you moved in vs. out. If you have evidence, don't be afraid to file a small claims action to correct things. Landloards don't want to deal with this crap and have reason to capitulate then.
So I have been staying in this townhouse for over 2 years now and at the time of the move in there was no walk threw and now I am moving and didn't pay rent or give the 30 day notice, can the LL still bring me to court and make me pay rent plus damages, which is rarely any.
So I have been staying in this townhouse for over 2 years now and at the time of the move in there was no walk threw and now I am moving and didn't pay rent or give the 30 day notice, can the LL still bring me to court and make me pay rent plus damages, which is rarely any.
Yes. You've already defaulted on your lease by (a) not paying rent and (b) not giving the required notice of leaving and any damages you make or cleaning not done before you leave will be added on to the list of things the LL can sue you for. Hope you realize that the filing of a claim against you and a judgment will seriously affect your ability to rent for many years to come and will likely negatively affect your credit rating.
Landlords are not required to do a walk through with a tenant, and a smart landlord will refuse to do so at the end of a lease. All the tenant wants is an assurance that s/he is getting the deposit back, and no smart landlord will be able to determine that from a regular walk through. All states give the landlord a period of time to document damages and deductions to the security deposit and they are not obligated to give you the information beforehand.
Landlords are not required to do a walk through with a tenant, and a smart landlord will refuse to do so at the end of a lease. All the tenant wants is an assurance that s/he is getting the deposit back, and no smart landlord will be able to determine that from a regular walk through. All states give the landlord a period of time to document damages and deductions to the security deposit and they are not obligated to give you the information beforehand.
You bumped an old thread in order to give half truths? What purpose does your very misleading information serve exactly?
Those are actually full truths and I reckon they serve the same purpose as your pointless reply. No, more, because my comment was at least on topic.
It is a half truth because it is very unspecific information that does not conform to every state. There was no apparent purpose to your little rant so maybe you could clarify what you mean/the reason you felt the need to bump a nearly 5 year old thread, as the problem is most likely already handled, with very ambiguous "information".
I don't think that very many states require a pre-move-out walk through. The walk through is basically a big waste of time for everyone involved. The landlord can not assess damage in a house full of furniture. The tenant, by golly, should be able to see any dirt that the landlord can see and point out. It's not like the tenant can't see that blinds are broken and the oven is dirty. They shouldn't need to have the landlord point it out to them.
Most of my tenants try to hide damage, so there can be expensive damage hidden for the walk-through. Just because there is a chair over it and the landlord doesn't see it in the walk-through doesn't mean the tenant won't get charged for it.
There is an amazing amount of dirt that appears when moving. A house might look clean until it is empty and then there are dust bunnies and scrapes on the walls and broken corners.
I bought a house and broke my lease at my apartment. I honored my end of the contract, obviously, by paying a ridiculous penalty fee, etc., because I broke the lease. It was hard to time the house purchase just right so that the lease could end and closing could happen. While I didn't like the fee, I paid it because I signed the contract, after all.
Anyway, I got stranded on the East Coast on December 27 (flight canceled) and missed my walk through and couldn't get back to Denver before the lease ended. Luckily I had already cleaned, primed the walls, and had everything ready to go prior to leaving town for the holidays and called the apartment complex to let them know about my situation. In the past, they've been extremely reasonable and nice, and I always paid my rent on time and never caused any trouble. They said it was no problem but that they would need to enter the apartment to start preparing it for the next tenants.
Today I received my refund from my deposit. They were RIDICULOUS and charged me for just about EVERYTHING even though I KNOW the place was clean and in good shape because I CLEANED IT! Seriously, I spent five days cleaning the place after moving everything out. I shampooed the rugs, washed just about every surface, cleaned the bathtubs with bleach, etc.
I got penalized for:
dirty toilets. I scrubbed them and they looked good as new - seriously.
dirty dishwasher. same thing, I ran the dishwasher when it was empty with just some soap and also washed both the inside and exterior so it would be ready for the next tenant.
'dirty' drip pans on the stove. I washed these, and they were used but not in terrible condition, but I didn't know that I was apparently supposed to replace these before leaving the apartment. My bad, I guess, even though it would have been nice to know that they were looking for this. I could have replaced these myself for much cheaper than what I was charged.
a tear in the linoleum on the kitchen floor near the stove. It happened when THEY replaced the stove in the apartment last year. In fact, I called to have them document the issue when it happened, but it looks like it was never documented.
replacing two sets of window blinds. I lived there for four years. The blinds and just about all of the other finishes in the apartment were cheapest of the cheap and low quality. The funny thing about this is that I asked to have some of the other sets of blinds replaced this past summer and they replaced them -- FOR FREE. So why would I have to pay NOW when they replaced others for free this past summer? Besides, they buy the lowest quality blinds, but certainly charge an amount that would make you think that the blinds are expensive.
'soiled' carpets. Cheap carpet to begin with, but it was definitely NOT soiled. The high-traffic area by the door was evident, but it's not like I was any harder on the carpet than anyone else would be and it's not like the carpet needed to be replaced throughout the entire apartment.
So yeah, just a quick rant. I'm arguing about the tear in the linoleum (They charged me $50 for this) but everything else I'm just going to let go. Word of advice though: ALWAYS do a walk through! I'm SURE my apartment looked much cleaner/better than the majority that they see when people move out, but since I wasn't able to do a walk through, they absolutely scammed me.
I'm glad I own a house now. I'll most likely never rent from or recommend a corporate apartment complex again. The sad thing is that I recommended this complex to a few people here on City-Data, but after this move-out experience, I won't be recommending it again.
You should ask to see the pictures of the filth. Also, hopefully, you took some yourself. Our last LL suggested we pay a $75.00 cleaning fee due to a dusty windsill facing the street. I marched her into the unit, grabbed a nice wet rag and wiped it down. Told her 'there is your $75.00 cleaning fee'. I must have guilted her somehow, when we received our deposit two days later in the mail, she had added an additional $200.00 to it...LOL all the way to the bank.
Koale
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