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Old 09-20-2015, 02:31 PM
 
15 posts, read 38,481 times
Reputation: 22

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So I posted on here about me and my boyfriend looking for an apartment. Well turns out our credit check was approved and everything but here's the catch in all this:


Originally before the credit check, my mom went with us (Because it's our first time renting and were college students. My moms a pro) and she asked what would cause an additional deposit on a credit check. Well one of the people who was assisting the manager told us that they look for "3,000 dollars or more of debt in collections, any bankruptcies, any evictions etc." My mom, my boyfriend, and I were happy because we're like "Oh! We don't have any of that! Awesome." So we paid her 250 holding fee and she was having a conversation with us about how much we'd pay at move in which is 1,200 once we put in the rest of the deposit and that's our first months rent. She also gave us the paper for what electric bills we'd need turned on etc...

Flash forward a couple days later when we hear that our credit check was approved, over the phone she called my boyfriend and said "You were approved but your first month is actually going to go up and you're going to have to pay 1,700 for the first month at move in since your credit, we have to charge you an additional 500 deposit." And me and my boyfriend were like "uh what?" Because none of our credits would warrant an additional deposit.

So my boyfriend went in and asked her for a paper with our updated charges and she whited out the old charge and put in the new one. My mom noticed that we had signed the old charges but she didn't give us a new sheet with the new charges to sign, she just whited out the old paper that we signed and wrote the new first month total at move in. And then right after my boyfriend says "So rent is 1,125 right?" And she's like "Oh, no it went up to 1,150 now." And she was serious.

I don't know this whole thing seems sketchy. My mom doesn't even want us to move there now nor does my boyfriends mom because they say they've been renting forever and haven't seen this type of thing happen, especially how she told us at first that we'd have no additional deposit. They keep changing prices with nothing to back it up.

Oh and they gave us a copy by email of our credit check and it turns out that they put our social security number on there twice and they got my boyfriends wrong on one side and right on the other. Wtf?


Any suggestions / input?
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Old 09-20-2015, 02:41 PM
 
5,214 posts, read 2,979,870 times
Reputation: 7021
No legal advice for you. However, don't move in. Something is wrong.
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Old 09-20-2015, 02:57 PM
 
2,928 posts, read 3,535,237 times
Reputation: 1882
Without knowing the monthly rent and the market you're in, there's no way we can say if this is fair.
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Old 09-20-2015, 03:13 PM
 
15 posts, read 38,481 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ddrhazy View Post
Without knowing the monthly rent and the market you're in, there's no way we can say if this is fair.
The monthly rent she said originally is 1,125 for a one bedroom one bathroom apartment in California. San Diego to be exact. But she changed it to 1,150. I believe I wrote that in my post. Sorry if it got confusing.

The deposit she originally said was 500 dollars, and we put down 250. So we only had 250 left to pay with our first month but due to a sale she gave us a discount so it was supposed to be 1,200 first month. But on the paper for deposit she added 500 deposit PLUS an additional 500 deposit.
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Old 09-20-2015, 03:20 PM
 
2,928 posts, read 3,535,237 times
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$500 deposit for a place that rents for $1125 is low. Normally landlords get at least 1 month rent as a deposit and in California the norm is actually 1st month, last month and security so you would be looking at 3375 as your move in cost for a lot of places in San Diego.

Raising the actual rent is unfair. Tell her you're willing to pay higher security deposit but want the place for the advertised price. Of course if she already has a prospective tenant that is willing to pay 1150 then things change a little.
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Old 09-20-2015, 03:32 PM
 
Location: West Virginia
13,914 posts, read 39,159,498 times
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What is your FULL deposit? LL I have had with charge what the rent is as deposit. No More unless its Pet deposits. Added rent could also be Pet rent. Do you have Pets?
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Old 09-20-2015, 03:36 PM
 
15 posts, read 38,481 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Katie1 View Post
What is your FULL deposit? LL I have had with charge what the rent is as deposit. No More unless its Pet deposits. Added rent could also be Pet rent. Do you have Pets?
I don't have a pet at all. It's just us. And our FULL deposit was 500 from what she said originally.

My problem isn't that the rent went up, my problem is that she keeps changing these fees without any reason to back them up. Like I said, she told us there's no need for us to pay an additional deposit if we didn't have 3,000 worth of debt, bankruptcies etc which we don't but she still added an addition deposit.


A couple of my friends / my mom said it's very unusual for a landlord to continue changing prices with no backing it up. She told us the first month would be 1,200 and that's including the deposit because they have a sale (200 dollars off). My mom/ friends has never had to pay more than 600 dollars for a deposit and they've lived in San Diego their whole life. We're not moving to a rich area, we're living in one that considered "less than desirable."
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Old 09-20-2015, 03:37 PM
 
15 posts, read 38,481 times
Reputation: 22
I should note that on the application it did say that they can't charge us 2 months rent unless we had those bad things on our credit, which we don't .
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Old 09-20-2015, 03:45 PM
 
9,864 posts, read 14,033,524 times
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1) Don't move to this place.
2) Stay in school and focus on grammar, although this is something you should have mastered before college. Punctuation is your friend.
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Old 09-20-2015, 03:50 PM
 
2,928 posts, read 3,535,237 times
Reputation: 1882
It doesn't matter what the rental application or lease agreement says. California law says that landlords may collect up to 2x rent as a deposit. I understand her reasons why she would want to do it. It is less risky for her if she has to eventually evict someone(especially in California where evictions can take months).
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