FingersCrossed
Junior Member
Southern California resident.
BELOW IS THE STORY IN DETAIL AND I HAVE BOLDED THE QUESTIONS SO YOU CAN SKIP THE JABBER AND GET TO THE POINT, IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT.
We have lived in our previous residence for 7 years. The house is right by the beach. Part of the downfall to living by the beach would be that everything rusts and warps with the salt air and humidity. Our communication history with the landlord was not much. My husband is handy and when something needed to be fixed we would tell the landlord about it, just to keep him updated, and fix it ourselves. If something was broken or going bad (like rusted out metals), we told him or warned him and we got responses like 'Yeah, i know, i need to fix that' and that was pretty much the end of it. We never 'rode' him on these issues because our rent was $1800- for living by the beach. He did not raise the rent on us and we thought it was a good arrangement.
After 7 years of great rental history we had to break our lease. I told the landlord that we were forced to leave and we would have someone sub lease under us. He understood and was in agreement with all proposed transactions. After much searching I found the perfect new tenant. After a few tours with her and her begging me for the place, I got all of her paperwork together and invited her over when the landlord and I were doing the final walk through, so we could all be on the same page. When he met the new tenant he was so impressed with her that he asked if he could just sign directly with her. He would let us out of our lease and if she was fine with the house with the way that it was, he would give us our full deposit back. There were 6 people who witnessed this agreement on that day. Then, At that time he did something strange and demanded 3 months advance rent in addition to the deposit from her, which really embarrassed me in front of the new tenant because I would never have asked for that nor known that he would. She was able to comply, so it was out of my hands. They walked off separately at that time and discussed the details of the house. We passed the keys off to the new tenant and actually to help her out we moved out of the house 15 days earlier. We had a few odd n ends things in the home that were holding us up from making that 15 day early departure that she stated she would work with us on as far as timing (like selling our washer and dryer etc.) She wanted to be in the home so bad she said she would sell it for us and send us the money.
SO now here we are 29 days after our move out date and we still do not have a deposit from the landlords. No receipts or anything. They had not been in communication with us either, which was odd, until tonight when I got an e-mail stating they do not plan to give us any of the deposit. The reasons they stated are very strange and really sound made up.
EX: A few years ago we took the vertical blinds down, which we discussed with the land lord at that time, because the metals were all rusted out and were inoperable. They want to charge us to replace the rods that we put up, with more vertical blinds.
They made a dump run to dispose of our washer and dryer, which I did not know about. Had they told me this was an issue, I would have sent someone over to remove it for us. Our last communication with the tenant about it was not to worry, she was taking care of it.
There were several screens that were rusted and needed to be replaced, they want to charge us for.
Landscaping, which is something the new tenant asked us specifically not to do as her sons are landscapers and they wanted to totally change it around. The landlord was involved in this part of our dialog and thats when he said "If she pays the full deposit with everything the way that it is, I will give you your deposit back". Aside from that we had already arranged a landscaper that we called off in front of them. If this became an issue they did not give us the opportunity to fix it ourselves.
SO most of what they are saying is nonsense. None of these items they listed would equal up to the amount of the deposit anyhow ($2050).
-My main question is, if they do not respond with in the 21 day time frame, aren't all of their concerns void anyway? I know what the law says but do people really stand firm on this?
-What is the best way to protect myself about the sub lease - lease exchange? I have the new tenant as a witness to confirm that he asked to sign a lease directly with her and stated that if she paid the full deposit we would get a full deposit in return, but I dont want to get her involved. What if he tries to say my rights are waived for breaking the lease? Although he has not tried to say so, Im worried he will do anything to keep the money. I seriously did everything for this man to make this transition easy. I feel offended and really confused by his actions.
I do have some pics that show the general condition of the house but I don't have anything to compare them to as none were taken 7 years ago. The pics show settling cracks, rust, rust, rust and everything else in decent condition.
-Now that we live 8 hours away would it be worth the hassle to go to small claims court? Do these things take several court visits or can it be handled in one visit?
I have sent an e-mail to them debating what they say they are deducting for. They sent me back another email not acknowledging anything i said but reiterating that there will be no deposit for the same issues. I have a nice and handy response that is very straight forward but kinda harsh. I am waiting till tomorrow to send it pending some feedback.
Any opinions or help would be so greatly appreciated. I am up much later then I need to be, just stewing about this issue.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
BELOW IS THE STORY IN DETAIL AND I HAVE BOLDED THE QUESTIONS SO YOU CAN SKIP THE JABBER AND GET TO THE POINT, IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT.
We have lived in our previous residence for 7 years. The house is right by the beach. Part of the downfall to living by the beach would be that everything rusts and warps with the salt air and humidity. Our communication history with the landlord was not much. My husband is handy and when something needed to be fixed we would tell the landlord about it, just to keep him updated, and fix it ourselves. If something was broken or going bad (like rusted out metals), we told him or warned him and we got responses like 'Yeah, i know, i need to fix that' and that was pretty much the end of it. We never 'rode' him on these issues because our rent was $1800- for living by the beach. He did not raise the rent on us and we thought it was a good arrangement.
After 7 years of great rental history we had to break our lease. I told the landlord that we were forced to leave and we would have someone sub lease under us. He understood and was in agreement with all proposed transactions. After much searching I found the perfect new tenant. After a few tours with her and her begging me for the place, I got all of her paperwork together and invited her over when the landlord and I were doing the final walk through, so we could all be on the same page. When he met the new tenant he was so impressed with her that he asked if he could just sign directly with her. He would let us out of our lease and if she was fine with the house with the way that it was, he would give us our full deposit back. There were 6 people who witnessed this agreement on that day. Then, At that time he did something strange and demanded 3 months advance rent in addition to the deposit from her, which really embarrassed me in front of the new tenant because I would never have asked for that nor known that he would. She was able to comply, so it was out of my hands. They walked off separately at that time and discussed the details of the house. We passed the keys off to the new tenant and actually to help her out we moved out of the house 15 days earlier. We had a few odd n ends things in the home that were holding us up from making that 15 day early departure that she stated she would work with us on as far as timing (like selling our washer and dryer etc.) She wanted to be in the home so bad she said she would sell it for us and send us the money.
SO now here we are 29 days after our move out date and we still do not have a deposit from the landlords. No receipts or anything. They had not been in communication with us either, which was odd, until tonight when I got an e-mail stating they do not plan to give us any of the deposit. The reasons they stated are very strange and really sound made up.
EX: A few years ago we took the vertical blinds down, which we discussed with the land lord at that time, because the metals were all rusted out and were inoperable. They want to charge us to replace the rods that we put up, with more vertical blinds.
They made a dump run to dispose of our washer and dryer, which I did not know about. Had they told me this was an issue, I would have sent someone over to remove it for us. Our last communication with the tenant about it was not to worry, she was taking care of it.
There were several screens that were rusted and needed to be replaced, they want to charge us for.
Landscaping, which is something the new tenant asked us specifically not to do as her sons are landscapers and they wanted to totally change it around. The landlord was involved in this part of our dialog and thats when he said "If she pays the full deposit with everything the way that it is, I will give you your deposit back". Aside from that we had already arranged a landscaper that we called off in front of them. If this became an issue they did not give us the opportunity to fix it ourselves.
SO most of what they are saying is nonsense. None of these items they listed would equal up to the amount of the deposit anyhow ($2050).
-My main question is, if they do not respond with in the 21 day time frame, aren't all of their concerns void anyway? I know what the law says but do people really stand firm on this?
-What is the best way to protect myself about the sub lease - lease exchange? I have the new tenant as a witness to confirm that he asked to sign a lease directly with her and stated that if she paid the full deposit we would get a full deposit in return, but I dont want to get her involved. What if he tries to say my rights are waived for breaking the lease? Although he has not tried to say so, Im worried he will do anything to keep the money. I seriously did everything for this man to make this transition easy. I feel offended and really confused by his actions.
I do have some pics that show the general condition of the house but I don't have anything to compare them to as none were taken 7 years ago. The pics show settling cracks, rust, rust, rust and everything else in decent condition.
-Now that we live 8 hours away would it be worth the hassle to go to small claims court? Do these things take several court visits or can it be handled in one visit?
I have sent an e-mail to them debating what they say they are deducting for. They sent me back another email not acknowledging anything i said but reiterating that there will be no deposit for the same issues. I have a nice and handy response that is very straight forward but kinda harsh. I am waiting till tomorrow to send it pending some feedback.
Any opinions or help would be so greatly appreciated. I am up much later then I need to be, just stewing about this issue.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?