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Hello, my girlfriend and I recently broke our lease one month early so we could move into a beautiful home. We forfeited our deposit, paid a lease break fee and last month's rent. We did not fully clean the place because we had to forfeit our deposit and didnt think it would be necessary. I am having regrets and stressing over it now. Worrying that they may try and charge us extra for things. There was normal wear and tear although this was my first time renting. In the lease it mentioned there was possibly black mold. It started showing up and eas extremely hard to keep out. It is one reason we moved out as well as our neighbors allowing their dog to use the bathroom on our shared back porch. The landlord at the time did nothing about it. This is another reason we moved because of the lack of care to help repair things such as mold and keep the neighbor from allowing these things to happen. We gave a months notice and it is all in email although we received a call that there is a new landlord. She stated that there was no record on her end left by the old landlord that we had moved out. I am not worried about being able to show prove through the old emails but just want to know were I stand. Should I be worried about anything at all? Are there things I can do to make the situation better? We do not have the keys to the place anymore or I would go back and clean. Just need some advice. Please and thank you!!
Sincerely,
JD
Hard to give accurate advice on this particular situation, but legally a landlord in Washington state can't charge you for wear and tear, and I would doubt that they can hold you accountable for black mold unless you lived in a total cesspool and never turned on the bathroom fans, for example.
The damage deposit is supposed to cover cleaning, but if the place was left as a dump that took the person they hired to clean it up a significant amount of time, then I would be worried that they would try to make you pay for any costs above and beyond the damage deposit. They would, however, have to provide you with an itemized list of charges, and those charges have to be reasonable (the landlord can't hire his brother to clean the carpets, who charges 3 times as much as Zerorez or Servpro would charge, for example - that wouldn't be reasonable charges).
It's a little late to remedy this - but hopefully you took lots of pictures of the condition of the place as you left.
I would hope for the best, but don't discount hiring an attorney, if it comes to that.
Why in the world did you forfeit your deposit, pay a lease break fee and last month's rent to move out just one month early. Just pay the last month's rent and take a leisurely month to move out and let it sit vacant. How recent did you do this? Possible to back out and just keep it for the full term?
Yes, of course you are going to be charged for cleaning. You didn't clean.
Your deposit went as part of your lease break fee. You are still responsible for leaving the apartment in the same condition it was in when you moved in. You should have move-in photos that show the condition when you moved in.
As for the rest of it, I haven't seen your paperwork or the conditions that you left, so I can't answer any of that. But you are out and it is done, so a bit late to be asking advice on how to change it. What happens now is going to happen.
Why in the world did you forfeit your deposit, pay a lease break fee and last month's rent to move out just one month early. Just pay the last month's rent and take a leisurely month to move out and let it sit vacant. How recent did you do this? Possible to back out and just keep it for the full term?
Yeah, last-month was likely already paid, so more likely they broke the lease with two-months remaining (one month unpaid). For many of these "complexes" this is part of their business model - an invitation to charge double or triple because they know you'd have to hire a lawyer to fight it.
Yeah, last-month was likely already paid, so more likely they broke the lease with two-months remaining (one month unpaid). For many of these "complexes" this is part of their business model - an invitation to charge double or triple because they know you'd have to hire a lawyer to fight it.
Even if that's the case....still would have been cheaper to pay the two months rent.
That was a horrible move OP. You ended up paying your last month anyways, so you just gave them your total deposit and lease break fee for the luxury of having to get out fast. And now you might owe them more in cleaning fees. You really should have thought this over a bit.
Based on what you said, you definitely overpaid. You shouldn't have to give up the deposit, pay the last month, and pay the lease break fee. At best, one of those should have applied, not all three. Lease break fees are most commonly two months' rent, in which case just paying the last month (which you also did) would have been cheaper. On top of that, you gave up the deposit? Why? Is that all in writing and already paid, because you should be challenging that.
If anything, you should politely ask for a refund of the deposit (minus reasonable cleaning and damages) and the lease break fee. If they challenge it, they have to defend to a judge that they charged you a lease break fee even though you paid for the full duration of the lease. That will be a tough sell for them and few judges would let that stand.
Are they even allowed to rent to you with known black mold issues?
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