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I would ask full deposit, ask the maximum for all items removed and not recovered. Ask rent back for the days you weren't there and they started cleaning, since they aren't allowed to start cleaning while you were still officialy renting the place. If they give you a hard time, than go to small claims court and file additional cost for the days it will cost you to spend in court and not being able to go to work.
First send them a certified letter!
This is unheared and I wonder if you even could have called the cops that people are in your appartment, since officially you are the tenant!
If you wrote them a letter telling them the date you were moving out and they moved someone IN before that date, they were breaking and entering and stealing your belongings.
Have you found out if they have thrown your things away yet or not??
If you wrote them a letter telling them the date you were moving out and they moved someone IN before that date, they were breaking and entering and stealing your belongings.
Have you found out if they have thrown your things away yet or not??
That is not true. In the eyes of the law, the exchange of keys represents possession. So since the roommate turned in 2 sets of keys, the possession was granted back to the landlord. People leave items beind all the time, so that wouldn't be seen as "stealing." Not saying what they did was right, just saying it's not as extreme as you're making it sound.
Probably extreme, but considering that they returned two sets of keys and three were given out, then the office didn't even collect all keys and should not have assumed the tenants were out, especially without a conversation such as, "We gave you three sets of keys, what happened to the third set" etc.....
This brings me back to another post where I asserted that landlords might try to rent out an apartment for a portion of a month that was already paid for by someone else that had vacated early. People acted like I was a crazy conspiracy theorist. They said collecting rent from two parties for the same apartment was illegal. This just goes to show that what I said does happen.
The worst part of this whole story is how the keys still worked in the lock!
I can't even imagine being the new tenants when someone unlocked their apartment door!
I agree with the OP that if he or she hadn't come back to the apartment, management would have gotten away with this completely.
Again, I'm not defending the management, but let's not jump to conclusions here. First off, it doesn't matter in a large apartment community if you collect 2 sets of keys or 3. Locks will be changed and it's really not necessary to return all of the sets. And typically roommate's will turn them in at one time, just like they're suppossed to pay all at one time.
Secondly, just because the landlord rented out the apartment early doesn't mean they didn't intend to refund the original tenant. I know I've personally rented out a unit and sent a refund to the tenant if applicable without them even having to request it. Since this just happened, we have no idea what the landlord's intentions were.
And finally, we don't know the keys still worked. The OP said nothing about unlocking the door, just opening it. It was likely unlocked as any reputable management company changes locks.
Again, not defending them, let's just not be so quick to jump to conclusions and fill everyone's unsuspecting minds with beliefs that "all landlords are shady."
Probably extreme, but considering that they returned two sets of keys and three were given out, then the office didn't even collect all keys and should not have assumed the tenants were out, especially without a conversation such as, "We gave you three sets of keys, what happened to the third set" etc.....
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I agree with the OP that if he or she hadn't come back to the apartment, management would have gotten away with this completely.
I've gotta go with Babytarheelz and bentlebee. 2 keys is normal, if they got 2 keys back, they may not have even looked at how many went out. Especially if they were changing the locks anyway. If the roommate didn't say "my roommate will be out on Friday" or something, they probably assumed you were all done and out. That's what I would have assumed, given that situation. Especially if they got there and found most of the cleaning done (don't know how much had been done already) and most of the stuff gone. We've had many tenants leave stuff behind and leave it not really clean.
Anyway, I don't think "Management" was trying to purposely "get away" with anything. It was the end of the month, and they had a tenant ready to move in. I think they just counted their blessings that the prior tenant had given them an extra day or two to clean (happens a lot), and moved someone in. Most likely it was totally a misunderstanding.
That said, you are still justified to ask for compensation.
As others have said, I would turn in a list of belongings that were still in the house, and a cost estimate to replace. Be honest, they may have kept a list also, or may even still have the stuff. Then I would ask for rent prorated for the days of the month from when the LL took possession back to the end of the month. And I would ask for the portion of your deposit that you would normally be owed. Don't ask for your deposit back in full if you did damages to the property, just ask for what makes sense.
Finally, be nice and polite when you go to talk to them. Don't be a pushover, but don't be rude either. Plenty of time to be forceful by going to an attorney if you get denied. You'll have better luck, and be more likely to get what you want, and get it more quickly, if you are nice.
Well, first off, yes my key still worked in the apartment. And yes, I told them in my 60 day notice that was not leaving until the 31st. When I went in to talk to the management she was extremely rude to me and never offered an apology. In fact, she made me wait around while she talked to her friend about weight loss and gave someone a pool pass even though I had been waiting for her to return from lunch.
I gave her a list of the missing things and she assumed thats all i wanted and tried to run me out. When I then told her I wanted the rent back she just stared at me. It took me mentioning that it is illegal for her to collect double rent and mentioning filing a police report for her to agree to give me back my rent from when they entered to do the maintance. So I have no doubt that they were not expecting us to find out about this.
I'm a resonable person, and had she had any kind of remorse I could have understood if they made a mistake. But her atitude just proved to me they thought they could get away with this and walk all over me. She seemed especially suprised when I had a formal letter citing the tenant laws for my state. She finally called me back today to say she couldn't find my stuff and asked if I had reciepts. Which of course, I don't so because I bought most of the missing stuff when I had moved in a year ago. Well see what they do now.
Do you know how to contact their corporate office? I definitely think a letter or call to them is in order. My dad had a similar circumstance and was reimbursed by the company as well as given a little extra for his inconvenience (not necessary legally, but a good faith gesture on their part).
What part of NC are you in? Maybe I can help. I'm an apartment locator in the Raleigh area and know a lot of people in the industry. PM me the name of the community if you'd like.
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