Unusual Rental Situation

[ferretkona]

Just how much do you figure is coming to you?

The rental agent represents the owner flat out.
Pet deposits are rarely returned as pets do **** in corners and add additional wear to a house.
Of the $2000 deposit you forfeited $1200 for the additional month.
The owner paid $1895 in repairs to the house and only charged you a small percent of.

You gave "written notice of our intent to vacate" for a specific date. You exceded that date by 30 days. The agent really had no idea when to schedule a walk thru as you had exceded your lease. How could they schedule if you had no idea when you were gone? The fact they gave you a check within 28 days seems mute when you violated your own written notice.
Thinking,,, a walkthru on the 5th and a check on the 28th. I bet a judge would see that as 21 days!

I think if you had moved out on your original date you would have likely received the same amount of return. You used your deposit as the last months rent. You left repairs. The owner probably is within rights to have charged you all of his cost of $1895 in repairs. With a flighty date of departure a judge is going to be pissed off at you for sueing over the 21 days.

The owner does not have to consult with you on his choice of contractors. He was under pressure from the 21 day to return your deposit.

[tedluk]

Well, things have been resolved to both parties acceptance.

We received a check for an additional 992.82, bringing our total refund to $1300.00 out of the original $2200.00. We can live with that.

Frankly, I was surprised at the responses I received here. I don't know if you're all landlords or just can't see both sides of the dispute.

Yes, we did not vacate on time, but there were a number of mitigating circumstances that caused this to occur, some of them were within our control, some not. Our single biggest frustration was with our rental agent. Had she done her job competently, almost all of this could have been avoided. Had we known about the preliminary walk-through and done it, almost all of the subsequent problems would not have occurred.

This is an old house that needs a lot of work. It has had problems since we took occupancy. Almost immediately, the water heater went out. We replaced the dishwasher and did the installation ourselves to save the owner money. The electrical in half the house has been out for months. We had missing screens on the windows, damaged carpet, etc. The house was not cleaned or painted when we moved in. All of this we worked with and always were patient and undemanding. We came into our move-out with the same attitude.

Better communication would have prevented this situation from occurring. We did our part by staying in touch with the rental agent. She dropped the ball in not letting us know what was going on.

The rental agent is supposed to represent BOTH parties, not just the landlord. Her failure to keep us apprised of what was happening has made this a much more difficult situation than it needed to be.

Lastly, the laws are supposed to protect the rights of all parties. We were not denying the owners rights to withhold our deposit under the law, but we think that those same laws are there to protect our rights as well. Many landlords take advantage of their tenants and I know many tenants abuse their landlord's property.

We felt the amount of deposit withheld was excessive and unfair. We're satisfied that this conclusion, while not exactly what either party wanted, is fair.

Ted