Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The landlord loses the right to keep your deposit because of failing to do these things:
1) the landlord did not do the inspection required by law under subsection (C);
2) the landlord did not send you an itemization, including all charges to be made against your security deposit within 45 days, nor any additional days allowed for utility bills (10 additional days only);
3) the landlord only gets to wait the additional 10 days if they gave you written notice of your rights, and otherwise did everything according to the law; and
3) the landlord did not send your itemization of deductions in writing by any of the acceptable means according to section 55.248.6, which states the LL must have sent it with proof of mailing.
Because the LL didn't do the above, the court will credit your full deposit amount to any debt you owe. Plus your attorney's fees.
There is one sentence that says the landlord can still come after you for rent owed, if I am interpreting it correctly. But, let's say they want to sue you for supposed rent you owe.
The problem is, you will counter-sue them for your security deposit, and your attorney's fees, which you will win, according to the law.
So, let's say they sue you for $1500, including their attorney's fees.
Now, the court will deduct the $400 deposit, and your attorney's fees.
$1500 - $400 = $1100. Less your attorney's fees, which would probably eat up the rest and then some.
And this assumes the judge would even say you have to pay their attorney's fees, which I seriously doubt.
This post is getting too long, so I will write another letter for you below.
This post is getting too long, so I will write another letter for you below.
Rather than giving him even more to worry about, maybe further advice should be held until he hears back from the owner in a couple of days, viz:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fizzle13
Well I emailed the head huncho (owner) instead of dealing with the management company. Hopefully he will help resolve this, he is going to follow up with the management company when he returns next week.
1) print out both of the links above - both the code on the security deposits and the code on "notice."
Then send this letter:
Dear LL:
I have sought legal advice and have been advised of the following regarding your claim that I owe you money related to my tenancy at __________________________________________(former address) which was terminated on ____________________(day you moved out).
According to the Code of Virginia Sections 55-248.15:1 and 55-248.6, you have no right to keep any of my deposit because of failing to do these things:
1) you did not do a move out inspection per the requirements under Section 55-248.15:1 (C);
2) you did not send me an itemization, including all charges to be made against my security deposit within 45 days, nor any additional days allowed for utility bills (10 additional days only) required under Section 55-248.15:1 (A);
3) you were only allowed to wait the additional 10 days if you gave me written notice of my rights, and otherwise did everything according to the law, and you did not as required under Section 55-248.15:1 (A); and
3) you did not send an itemization of deductions in writing by any of the acceptable means according to section 55.248.6, which states the LL must have sent written notice with proof of mailing.
Because you did not do the above, the court will credit my full deposit amount to any debt I owe, plus my attorney's fees.
Should you choose to pursue suing me for money you claim I owe you, please be aware that I then plan to counter-sue you for my full deposit plus my attorney's fees.
As you claim I owe you a total of approximately $1500 including your attorney's fees. Let's look at the feasibility of what you will attain by taking me to court.
The law is clear that I will be reimbursed my $400 deposit. And the court will reimburse me my attorney's fees according to the letter of the law. If my attorney's fees are $1,000, then you would then owe me $1400.
And can you be sure the court would actually require me to pay your attorney's fees? I highly doubt this.
And of course, you will be required to provide an accounting to the court that proves the damages and unpaid rent you are claiming, and as I have stated numerous times now, I did not leave owing any rent.
Therefore, I highly suggest you let the matter go. However, I will now require a written statement from you that my account with you is paid in full and that you do not intend to pursue any claims otherwise in the future.
To be free of this matter, I am enclosing copies of the relevant Virginia codes, as well as a settlement letter in which I offer to allow you to simply keep the $400 deposit, in return for your signing the agreement stating my account is paid in full. The statement also includes your agreement that if you are ever contacted for a landlord reference, you will state that I paid as agreed.
Sincerely,
You
Now here's the settlement agreement I suggest you include:
Settlement Agreement
The parties below are agreeing to settle a dispute regarding rent and damages owed by ___________________(you) further referred to as "Tenant" to ________________________(landlord) further referred to as "Landlord."
Tenant disputes all claims regarding monies owed, and further alleges that deposit money withheld in the amount of $400 is due Tenant. However, in order to settle the matter and avoid court and court costs, Tenant agrees to forfeit any future claim to the $400 deposit.
Landlord agrees to forfeit any right to any additional money owed to the Landord, and further states that the account related to the Tenant's tenancy at ________________________________________(rental unit) and any and all past and future claims regarding this rental agreement, are settled in full.
Landlord further agrees to state to any future potential landlord asking for a reference regarding the Tenant, that the Tenant paid as agreed and the account is paid in full, with no further embellishments.
The purpose of this agreement is to end any and all monetary claims or negative references between the two parties.
Hi, Thank you so much for taking the time to look up that info for me. It is very appreciated! They have credited my $450 to the bill with a balance of $1041 remaining (not including the $235 in their lawyers fees). I have been in contact with the property and offered to pay the missing months rent and utilities. However, I stated I do not feel I should be held responsible for the extra pet rent or rent increase ($20 and $25 monthly respectively) as I was never informed during the year that these payments were late, and therefore was not given a chance to rectify them. I feel this is more than fair and probably more than they deserve. But I strive to be responsible and clear my debts that I believe I am responsible for. I requested a payment plan if they agree to this.
After I asked for a copy of my lease and proposed the above, the contact with the management company went MIA. I contacted her again the following day, and she responded saying she was getting the documents together for me as they were at another location. So we shall see what comes of this next week. Ive kept everything to written email so I can have a paper trail if it comes to it. Hopefully this will also show the judge that I did try to work with them prior to summons date.
I will also be asking for any proof I was notified during the year of my lease and the following year as to my debts owed. Should they not accept, they will be seeing your letter, and I will be contacting an attorney and seeing them in court.
Looking at the summons, I do not see the requirement to respond, just a date and address for the summons. You can bet your butt I will be there if need be.
I think you should go ahead to court, then. You sound much more confident.
I'm confused, though, as to why you offered to pay some missing rent. I thought you said you were sure you didn't owe any?
I'm confused on all of the facts now. But, just take all your info to court and tell the judge the truth, and ask the judge to get proof from the LL on everything they are claiming. And that you are happy to comply with whatever the judge determines to be fair.
My experience is that judges are fair. But, not all of them know all areas of the law, so it never hurts to go ahead and print out the relevant codes and ask the judge if you can hand them in as part of your case. This is especially true in small claims court, at least here in CA. Small claims court judges are often full time lawyers who may specialize in some other area of law. Might as well make it easier for them to look up the codes you give them, and it helps your case in the event they are too lazy or busy to look them all up themselves.
Good luck to you. I'm happy to see you feeling more confident, and at least negotiating rather than letting them walk all over you.
Hi, Its been quite the mess, but let me clear it up.
They sent me a summons for 1041 plus some for lawyers. When contacted they told me the total way 1450ish but they applied my deposit to the balance which was 450. When I finally had them send me the month to month information what I deduced was this
1. Beginning in Aug/Sept they had up'ed my rent $25
2. They had not taken my ex-bfs dog (he moved into another apartment 3 doors down with his dog, so they knew) monthly pet rent off which was $20 monthly
So every month, for a year, I was writting a check that I thought was the correct amount that was $45 dollars short. I was never told my monthly checks were short so I couldn't correct it. Over the course of the year that accounts for approx $400-450 of the final bill.
There were also my utilities (water bill and trash) which I completely agree is my responsibility. I was told they would be taken out of my deposit before it was sent. No problem there. Approx $150
Here is where things get hairy. They had been applying someone elses check to my apartment account for several months (april-may). They state I did not pay for May rent ($900/$945 according to them). I went through my check history and sure enough there is no check from may cashed. Im sure I gave them one because why would I randomly just not pay rent one month out of all the years Ive been there. And this just happens to be the same time period they are messing up accounts? Especially since there was a 10% fee on late payments, I would not risk losing $90 that way, ya know? But because someone elses checks were being applied to my account, they did not send me a notice because it technically was not showing up as missing. Although there had been noted shorts for all the months prior to this, so I should have been notified.
I checked out mid June, was told my account was all up to date, no worries. July 30th (conveniently exactly 45 days from check out) they noticed their mistake and deducted $2400 from my account and claim they sent the statement that day, regular mail.
13 months later.... BAM... summons.
While I believe whole heartedly they lost my check since they obviously had mix up issues around that time, the rent was not deducted from my account. So, because I do believe in paying whats due, even though it was THEIR mistake, I offered to pay for May's rent and all utilities. I disputed the rent increase and pet rent over the course of that year because I was never told my checks were coming up short, so I couldnt fix it at the time. This seems very unfair to me.
I feel like this is more than fair to them.
Ive now been informed from my Ex (we are still very amicable) that when he went in to talk to them about the pet rent thing, he was told they had found an additional $400 they could charge me for!!!
I have not heard from them since Thursday when they told me they were getting things together for me. Would have been nice to do this BEFORE sending a summons. And I would think if they had sent a statement, that would have all been collected already.
What a mess. I thought this kind of thing only happened to irresponsible people. How naive of me.
Well, they have to reimburse you your deposit, as we've covered.
But, how can you not have noticed that there was an extra $900 in your checking account? C'mon.
And you never got a notice that your rent was going up? If you were properly notified that your rent was going up, the fact that they didn't catch you paying less than you owed is irrelevant. You owe it. And all the late fees associated with not paying what you knew you owed.
I think you took advantage of their poor bookkeeping skills, now that you have explained more. And you almost got away with it. But, they have the right, under the statute of limitations, to sue you up until that time frame is up. It's usually around 3 years.
Now, they will have to deduct the security deposit money from what you owe them. But, you owe them.
Sheesh, it's so annoying to spend so much time looking up laws, writing letters, etc., etc., only to find out you do in fact owe the money they say you owe.
For goodness' sake. At this point all you can do is negotiate to have them deduct the $400 from what you owe, and work out a payment plan. The court will help you work out a payment plan, if you end up in court.
And a $200 attorney's fee is nothing. Now that I see the true picture (at least the new picture), you better pay up before you owe a hell of a lot more in attorney's fees, if they take you to court.
No judge is going to believe you never noticed that you had an extra $900+ in your bank account. And if they can show you had proper notice of a rent increase and gambled on paying the old amount, he/she is going to think you are a very sneaky, untrustworthy person, and I seriously doubt they'll give you a break.
Nice try on getting away with this, but you do owe the money. Really? Because they didn't catch you sooner, you think you shouldn't have to pay? Try that on the judge. Good luck.
I dont see the need to be rude. But yes I did not notice the check was not cashed, believe it or not. And Ive stated multiple times I am ready to pay what I owe. I am upset about those extra monthly charges that could have been fixed at the time, but I am more-so upset at the lack of communication, over the year of the lease, and the year following. You would be surprised/panicked, and looking for answers too if you had checked out with the front desk and told everything was in order, only to receive a summons a year later.
I do appreciate you took time to help me out, and I sincerely hope you dont think it was a waste of time, as I was honestly looking for answers on the right thing to do, including whether I should fight or pay. I was just looking for some guidance. I did not know where these charges were coming from until I emailed the rental company back and forth, I've stated the story as I learned it.
Again, thank you for all your help so far. But please do not try to type cast me as some deadbeat. It is far from the truth. The gist of my posts since the beginning have been what are my rights and RESPONSIBILITIES, not help me get out of paying this. Again, if in hindsight, now that I have all this information and have passed it on, this payment is my responsibility, please state that, as that is the guidance I was looking for. But no need to be rude or insinuate I was trying to do something that was not my intention.
But yes I did not notice the check was not cashed, believe it or not.
It happens to the best of us. Several years ago I wrote my annual cheque for my business license renewal, obviously made a note of it in my cheque book and then just didn't check to see whether or not it had cleared. Eight months later I got a notice from the local licensing body that I'd failed to pay my renewal and that I had to pay it right now along with some hefty fines.
I checked with the bank, quickly discovered that my inattention to detail was to blame and immediately called the licensing department to apologize. Had a nice chat with one of the officers and I did ask him how this hadn't been discovered for eight whole months! Two days later, he called me and said that the cheque had been found amongst a pile of others. An employee had left and just thrown her uncompleted work into some old file drawer. She had entered the cheques into the computer and the discrepancies weren't discovered right away.
It was nice of him to call and let me know. They returned my outdated cheque, I wrote a new one and they knocked off all the fines they'd slapped on (several hundred $$s)! Thereafter I paid more attention to my bank statements and balance!
Just keep your cool, remain quietly professional, civilly do what you have to do and this too shall pass!
I think you need to stop offering to pay them money. Because they did not send you a statement as to how they were using your deposit, you are entitled to the full deposit - and they are SOL on the other issues. GO TO COURT and stop making offers.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
