Foo - Renter's blues

So the apartment we were in before sends us a letter saying that we owe them money. My wife had a receipt saying that all our due was paid off, no balance, zero. She brings it over to them and ask why we still owe, and the managment people tells her that they made a mistake but we still have to pay. My wife argues that why we have to pay for their mistake, and then the manager starts yelling at her to leave and come back with an appointment on Thursday since they're waiting for a 'customer'. My wife tells them that she's busy too and asks again and no one answers, and finally one assistant tells my wife that they will call the police if she doesn't leave immediately. She tells my wife that she does not have the 'proper attitude'... Geez. Sounded like the way they treated her she had felt 'threatened'.

But alas she didn't bring her voice recorder so there is no evidence to sue them with. Now I'm afraid what they're going to do with our deposit.

Any of you have good example on how to reclaim your rental deposit?

God they're so mean.

Oh man, that's rough. Is it worth the legal fees and investment to get back the deposit or to ignore the latest statement?


Hope you can buy a place now. The buyers market is finally startiing to kick into high gear.

Everything should be done in writing. Your wife getting upset does no good.

I've had to take every single property-manager to court to get my deposit back. It's SOP around here, I think because a lot of students graduate and move off and don't bother with following up on getting their deposits. The management-companies make out like bandits. They spend $100 to get the place cleaned up and keep all of the deposit.

Look up the housing laws in your area. Around here, they legally have to give you the deposit back within 2-weeks with documentation on any deductions for cleaning or repairs. If you've lived in the place for 2-years+ they can't deduct anything for paint and I think after 3-years the carpet's free. It's very tenant-friend here in Cali, don't know what the laws are like in your area though.

If you don't already have it, work up a ledger with all your past payments and balances. Copies of cancelled checks for each monthly payment would help too.

Be careful with your comment about the voice recorder. Different states have different laws, and I'm not sure what state/law you reside under, but in Florida you are not allowed to voice record somebody on phone or otherwise without their consent.

- keep all discussions on the adult level...

- *always* document move-in conditions with a cheap digital camera...

- find a housing advocate at the local or county level... failing that, keep *all* records, canceled checks, original agreements, leases, etc.... then if necessary, file in small claims court...

- my second wife and i ran into this problem when we rented a house from a dirtbag in Braintree, Mass. in the mid-80s... we rented a house and left it in better shape than when we moved in... when we went to move, he would not return our security deposit... we called the local housing authority and found out that we could take him to court for TREBLE damages...

- needless to say, we got our security deposit back... (i had a 35mm B&W film canister showing our move-in condition - we would have nailed him big time)...

How loud were you guys playing music that you were doing TREBLE damage to the house?

The last two places I rented, I didn't pay the last month's rent until I was assured I was getting my deposit back.

But, my landlords were both fairly nice guys and weren't out to screw me...

My wife had a receipt saying that all our due was paid off, no balance, zero.
Take them to small claims court first. They are going to have to hire a lawyer, which may very well cost them more than they are going to get from you, and a receipt is gold in such a case.

I didn't think you can have lawyers in small-claims? But of course, both sides can use attourneys to prep their case beforehand...

- keep all discussions on the adult level...

- *always* document move-in conditions with a cheap digital camera...



Nope want to use film for this kind of stuff. Then you have the negatives to prove that the pictures aren't faked. I have a SIL that is a lawyer, her advice. Seems some clown was trying to get over on his insurance company by providing altered digital pictures of "damaged" property.

Aaron:)

It's apparently SOP for a certain unnamed apt. complex in South Austin to try to screw its tenants when they leave. I got a call one day saying that I still hadn't paid some bill or other. Happily, I just HAPPENED to be balancing my checkbook at the time.

Them: "It's an outstanding balance of $X".
Me: "Yes, it was check #XXX that cleared YY/ZZ. I know most grad students don't keep their statements. I do. Would you like to talk about fraud?"
Them: "Nosorrymymistakehaveaniceday*click*"

I think the receipt saying balance paid in full is sufficient in small claims court or with the state attorney general's office to file a complaint.

Force them to provide you a detailed bill outlining the "new" charges they discovered AFTER signing you out and paid in full. Sounds like a typical scam car dealers do: call you after the deal's done saying they made a mistake and you owe them $500 or $1000 or something more. Amazing how many people fall for that scam!

Call the apartment company's bluff.

the managment people tells her that they made a mistake but we still have to pay.

WTF!? These people are idiots. You shouldn't have a problem sorting this out. If the people you are dealing with are only the "property manager(s)", figure out who the actual owner is. Contact THAT person directly explaining the situation to them, with documentation, and get these ******* in trouble and possibly canned.

The laws vary between municipalities. What is your city and state? Are you a student at a major university? They sometimes have free legal council. If you fulfilled your contractual obligations, there is no need to pay more. It sounds like the management company issued you a paid in full reciept, but is now saying that you own more. Is the amount that they claim you owe for rent, or to fix something?

In the areas that I have lived there is pretty specific information about how to handle the security deposit. For example in some areas if they do not return your security deposit in 14 days, they owe you tripple. Do they still owe you a security deposit? Finnally, do you have a copy of the lease?

Thanks all for the comments. We live in Reno by the way. Rib festival going on. Yum yum.

We just got a mail reluctantly saying that we won't have to pay anything.

However as some of you mentioned, it's been a month now and we haven't received our deposit back yet. Gotta check on that as well.

I had a statement from the apt. supervisor saying my apartment was clean and I'd get my deposit back. I made a copy of that statement. The management company says I won't be getting my deposit back as the apt. wasn't clean. I asked them who made this determination and when. No answer. I replied I would be down there to speak to someone and that someone better be there to speak to me and to hand me my check.

Got down there, manager was gone. I told the secretaries that I would have to talk LOUDLY to them since the manager had left. They got him on the phone quickly. They showed me the statement where the apt. was inspected but strangely, the signature had been whited out. I wanted to know who had whited out the signature. No answer. I then produced my copy of the statment and told the manager over the phone that this situation smelled really bad and that oh, by the way, it is rather convenient that your office is right next door to some lawyers' offices.

I got my money back and the prospective renters in that office got an earful over the way I was treated.

35mm negatives can be forged as well. On any picture taken by a digital camera, EXIF data exsists...this will tell the date the photo was last altered, and how. This is reasonable enough, as even photoshop jobs can be fingered out with a good eye.

Sometimes you have to be a bigger b*stard than they are to win in situations like this. It feels weird at first but it's kinda fun in a twisted way. I leaned on my last landlord pretty hard because she


forced us to move under false pretenses 1 month after we signed a new lease
was stupid enough to list the house for sale with photos taken no more than a day after we moved out
did landscaping to beautify the house for sale and tried to take it out of our deposit
tried to take an outrageous sum for carpet cleaning out of our deposit after listing the house for sale with photos of the house in its "unclean" state
tried to bill us for two bull**** items that were worth $20 tops
was a patronizing ***hole


I have never been a bigger thorn in someone's side in my life, but her arrogance was pretty good for motivation. Basically, in a series of (civil) e-mails I called BS on all her claims, threatened to involve renters' rights organizations, and if necessary drag her sorry butt to small claims and/or civil court. I believe in our situation we might have had a civil case and could have sued for damages, but that would have been expensive and time consuming. We just wanted our deposit back and this jerk out of our lives.

One day after not hearing anything for a while an envelope showed up at out new place. In it was a check for the full amount of our deposit. I took my share and bought a bike :D

I'm not saying it will always work out this way, and there are costs involved (financial/time/aggravation), but if there is sufficient evidence that you are in the right - especially photographs and documents it is worth pursuing. In most cases landlords try to pull stuff like this because they think they can get away with it.