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Do you have good clear move-in photos that show the damage was already there? Because if you go to court, you are going to have to prove that you didn't do the damage.
I'm not sure what you mean by springing material renovations on you. The landlord is allowed to renovate or improve or repair the unit while the tenant lives there. He needs to give you a 24 hour notice. So, I think I don't understand what you are trying to find out.
Can you provide some sort of reference regarding who the burden of proof is on to regarding source of damage? I would think we just have to create any shadow of a doubt that the damage isn't from us, as the lease references tenant responsibility for damage caused by tenant or guest.
Maybe I didn't explain the renovations clearly enough. Prior to move-in we OK'd renovations in the kitchen. These renovations are in the lease and it's stated that these are the only renovations agreed upon. When my wife got there to pick up the keys (Day 1), all of a sudden he showed her that he actually tore down the wall separating DR and BR1 to create a larger room, blocked off the long hallway that ran through the length of the apartment off of which rooms are/were to put in 2 small closets on either side, and now the room we were actually intending as a LR has to be used as the 2nd BR and Den. It's off an extremely noisy street and hard for anyone to sleep there. These changes threw us off, were never mentioned nor OKd, weren't in the lease and STILL aren't in the lease and the whole thing was unethical because he had us sign the lease of a materially different apartment and then sprung this on us. Is that not a violation of some variety, even if we stayed with the apartment? It's not like we had a choice at that point.
1. Can you provide some sort of reference regarding who the burden of proof is on to regarding source of damage?
2. Is that not a violation of some variety, even if we stayed with the apartment? It's not like we had a choice at that point.
1. The burden of proof is on the party which brings the suit to court. If you take the LL to court for not returning your security deposit the burden of proof is yours. If the LL claims additional damages above the amount of your security deposit and takes you to court for that additional recovery, the burden of proof rests with him.
2. Courts will view that you did indeed have a choice but you opted to stay there and paid rent.
2. Courts will view that you did indeed have a choice but you opted to stay there and paid rent.
That's really ****ty. It was day 1 of the lease and we'd already moved out of the other place. Had nowhere else to go with all our stuff and find a place in that time period. In writing though, all we agreed to was the allowed renovations, not what he tacked on.
Well, as I said before, no point worrying about something that hasn't even happened yet. Before you move into another place read your state landlord tenant laws so you have a better understanding of the obligations of both landlords and tenants and how to best protect yourself.
Like I said, though, I read the PA sticky here and got no answer
No answer to what? That you continued to pay rent and have now decided that you really never wanted to live there anyway and are looking for a court to agree with you on something in a hearing which may or may not happen, or the question about burden of proof? If I didn't answer the questions to your satisfaction then I don't know how else to rephrase my responses.
My suggestion to read your state landlord tenants laws was to have you better prepared next time around.
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