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.
We rented a single wide trailer in desperate need of some TLC, because we fell in love with the location. the landlord bought the paint and we painted througout and cleaned thoroughly. The floor in the bathroom was soft and the roof leaked but the landlord said he would repair these, this was in July when our contracted started. We moved out 4 months later as the bathroom floor completely went through and was growing mushrooms and the roof didnt get repaired. The landlords would never return our calls and lived 2 hours away. the final straw came when we were without water for 24 hours, so we wrote out a 30 day notice of our intent to vacate as of November 1st. They agreed to meet with us the next day but cancelled and kept cancelling our appointments to do a walk through. I wrote them a letter letting them know they had 30 days to return my depost and sent the keys with a delivery confirmation. They finally came up to meet with us but were very hostile and told us we didnt clean, so we are not getting our deposit back, we were mortified as we had cleaned put up new blinds in all rooms and painted throughout, they told us we did all that because we wanted too not because they asked us too, we explained that we did it becasue we planned on staying long term but we had to move because of the repairs. I have picture of the trailer after we moved out showing the cleanliness of it and also the repairs that needed to be done. Do you think we will win in a small claims court we live in Oregon. Oh and another thing, they said we left straw all over the place, we had a pile of straw compost, but we didnt leave it all over the place, and we built a small fence for our two little dogs, but when we left we didnt fill in the post holes. When the landlord mentioned this to my husband, my husband told him we would go and do it, he told us he didnt want us on his property and not to trespass. Anybody gone through this, im thinking of taking them to small claims court
To the OP
The LLs continued cancellation of move out inspection may be in your favor,
however, for small claims court, proof of the condition when you left
would have been a good way to cover yourself (photos), but not proof of everything;
ie clogged drains ( anything pictures wouldn't show).
If your willing to take another possible loss of court costs, take him to small claims.
By this joker living 2 hours away/absentee/AWOL, he may not show up for court and you could win an automatic judgement as a result of his failure to appear, I think it's worth it
And if you didn't do anything wrong, why walk away from your hard earned money?
Plus you can always include court fees in your suit, and if you win he can be orderd to pay them, I say go for it! Unless for some reason the deposit is 200, and it will cost 150 to sue, I personally would sue him in small claims
We rented a single wide trailer in desperate need of some TLC, because we fell in love with the location. the landlord bought the paint and we painted througout and cleaned thoroughly. The floor in the bathroom was soft and the roof leaked but the landlord said he would repair these, this was in July when our contracted started. We moved out 4 months later as the bathroom floor completely went through and was growing mushrooms and the roof didnt get repaired. The landlords would never return our calls and lived 2 hours away. the final straw came when we were without water for 24 hours, so we wrote out a 30 day notice of our intent to vacate as of November 1st. They agreed to meet with us the next day but cancelled and kept cancelling our appointments to do a walk through. I wrote them a letter letting them know they had 30 days to return my depost and sent the keys with a delivery confirmation. They finally came up to meet with us but were very hostile and told us we didnt clean, so we are not getting our deposit back, we were mortified as we had cleaned put up new blinds in all rooms and painted throughout, they told us we did all that because we wanted too not because they asked us too, we explained that we did it becasue we planned on staying long term but we had to move because of the repairs. I have picture of the trailer after we moved out showing the cleanliness of it and also the repairs that needed to be done. Do you think we will win in a small claims court we live in Oregon. Oh and another thing, they said we left straw all over the place, we had a pile of straw compost, but we didnt leave it all over the place, and we built a small fence for our two little dogs, but when we left we didnt fill in the post holes. When the landlord mentioned this to my husband, my husband told him we would go and do it, he told us he didnt want us on his property and not to trespass. Anybody gone through this, im thinking of taking them to small claims court
Maybe you should try to get on one of the judge shows on tv...but first you have to file in small claims court...if you have enough proof you have a good chance.
The landlord failed to conduct a walk-thru. And they failed to issue an itemized list of repair deductions within the required time-frame. And they withheld the entire deposit amount which is rarely legal (usually courts only allow them to deduct only part of the deposit). And a rotting floor and leaking roof are not your responsibility. And you have photographic evidence of the condition of the property when you vacated. It sounds like any evidence they might have justifying the witholding of your security deposit would be weak at best.
Here is the website for filing a complaint against a landlord in Pennsylvania:
Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System (http://www.aopc.org/Forms/Default.htm - broken link)
You will need to use the word document called 'civil complaint.'
You don't have to do the walk through with the tenant present but on the same day or the next day. I never do a walk through with the tenants present, that but I do it when I receive the keys and start making pictures of everything....it can be very weird doing an intensive check while the tenants are there....
I won't mind doing it, but won't sign off on anything till I have a chance to see if the A/C is working, all sinks aren't clogged, etc...which can take a while...
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.
