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potential tenant/former tenant money dispute...

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admoreily

Junior Member
(this is taking place in California, Los Angeles specifically)

I currently live in a two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, and the previous arrangement was two persons (one of which is myself) in one room and another tenant that had a whole room to herself. It costs $2100 for rent, and she paid for half of it. When we first moved in she also a third of the $1000 security deposit, so $333. Also, the lease of our apartment is under my name, so the money for the rent is handled by me.

She decides to tell us at the end of February that she plans on moving out of our place, conveniently the day before rent is due (on the 1st of each month), but won't be moving out until March 8th. She made a verbal agreement with me that the rent for March would be paid in full, and that when we found new tenants to move in that I would refund her the portion of March that tenants lived in the apartment and also her part of the security deposit.

We eventually found two people to move in at the end of the month, and they paid for the part of the March that they actually lived here plus her portion of the security deposit. Their portion of the rent for that month was $304, and so if you add that to the security deposit it comes out to $637.

I sent her an email, a Facebook message, and left a voicemail asking for her mailing address so I could mail her a $637 check and she never responded. This also included calling her many times and not leaving her a voicemail, hoping that she would at least respond to my missed calls.

In the meanwhile, she also had an outstanding debt to my roommate for $180 (for various utilities bills), and he left her a voicemail at least once a day for a week asking for his money and she eventually sent a check with a return address... from Niketown, where she used to work. Obviously I was not going to send a check to Niketown. edit: I should add here that the address on the check was for her parents' house, and I was not going to send it there.

Eventually I got fed up with sitting on her money and decided to give her a week to get back to me with her mailing address so I could send her a check, or else I was going to refund the $637 to our new tenants. This was about two weeks ago when I left her a voicemail, and the deadline was April 21st. She never responds to me, and I eventually refund my tenants in cash.

Finally tonight, she responds to my nearly month-old Facebook message giving me her address and saying that she never checks her email or messages. While this may be true, I know for a fact that she's regularly using Facebook (based on her profile updates and wishing me a happy birthday last week) and as far as I know her phone number has not changed. It's very clear from her message that she did not hear my message about responding to me in time before I refunded the money to our new tenants.

Am I at any fault here? I did not want to sit on that money, and it seemed as though she didn't want it back since she never got back to me. How she acted on this is rather unsurprising to me given her penchant for being very passive-aggressive while we lived with her. Her name is not on the lease and the agreement we made with regards to refunding her the money was merely a verbal agreement. Technically she can still get her security deposit back once the lease ends (this summer).

edit: I have yet to respond to her message; I plan on doing so tomorrow after receiving advice from this thread so I know how to approach this situation.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and helping me out with it. I appreciate any response.
 
Last edited:


FarmerJ

Senior Member
If you do not have a newer address then always send snail mail via USPS confirmed mail delivery or certified to the last known address , even if its the same as your own so this way If it comes back to you , you can leave it un opened and take it to court with you should the person claim you didnt follow your states laws for deposit refunds WICH aplly to you since you acted AS Landlord via your sublet arrangement. Send out the refund to the last known addres and collect back the money and BE super grateful if you dont get sued for failing to follow your states laws.
 

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