Security Deposit issues / thieving landlord / No lead paint cert

[moosirin]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maryland

Hi, I have a question regarding the specifics of the Maryland Department of Environment Lead paint certificates in regards to landlord/tenant law.

We recently moved out of our apartment near Baltimore after a 1 year lease. Our landlord was very casual with us and made us trust (too much) and in the end it is coming back to get us. She allowed us to paint the walls in some of our rooms and we did pick somewhat bold colors for two rooms. She never told us we'd have to paint back over them but we kind of figured that would be the case. Anyhow after we painted she was constantly asking us to show other tenants and prospectives our apartment to see how good it looked, etc., and when it was about time to move out she suggested we leave the paint up while she showed the apartment to prospective future tenants.

Right before we were about to move out (That weekend) I was calling her and asking her what to do with the colors, which walls to paint, which rooms etc., and she never responded. We also had bought a dishwasher (portable) that was very convenient to use there and had asked her if she wanted us to leave it for her, maybe in exchange for some painting or repair costs if there were any (all we left were some small nail holes in the walls, and in a couple places they were a little larger, the walls were old plaster and very brittle in parts). She never responded. We moved out, didn't hear from her for a full week. I started calling her several times a day. She left me one voicemail saying that the paint looked bad and was done poorly and it was just bad. She said in the voicemail that the paint in the kitchen was fine but in other rooms she mentioned it was bad. Still no mention of the dishwasher, etc. I called her back immediately, no answer, my husband called her several times, we sent her an email and a text message that day and the next day.

Two days later, at about week 1.5 after we moved out she sent us a curt email about how we should have known better that we needed to repaint the whole apartment to white and that we left the place messy in the kitchen and had not cleaned properly and she had already had someone in there the previous week cleaning the kitchen and that the painters were painting the very next day and had already begun working on it. In the email she said she would be using our security deposit to pay for all the work that needed to be done including cleaning, painting and repairs, and if there was any charges in excess that we would be responsible for paying it. She then said we were supposed to have returned the keys and that anything we left behind was considered abandoned and was now hers (the dishwasher). She also said that we were fools and why would anyone else want our second hand appliance that we didn't even want any more, after previously saying how valuable it was.

She completely did a 180 from being a nice reasonable landlord that we were working with into someone trying to rip us off for our full sec. deposit.

We found this unfair and called her immediately to talk about this at which point she hung up on me twice and refused to answer the phone for my husband. We had left the refrigerator uncleaned but were planning on cleaning when we came back to paint, and were just waiting on the word from her (For two weeks!). Now that we were scared by her I checked our lease (dumb me) and it said we needed written permission in orer to paint so I"m sure she'll claim never to have given permission even though she touted our work so highly before.

Our security deposit was $1100, no small amount. Our landlady was even in foreclosure at some point. It is clear to us and all previous tenants who were cheated from their security deposits that she doesn't have any money and is doing whatever she can to keep the cash to afford to pay bills, or she's a scam artist I don't know.

I'm angry because we put up with a lot of **** while we were there, she lied, did shoddy work, told us she was coming all the time when she wasn't, had us show apartments for her when she made appointments but couldn't make it, never answered the phone when we needed her, took weeks to fix our a/c when it was 110 degrees outside, etc. You can also see my other post about how we were paying for a neighbor's electricity and gas for three months until we found out about it on our own and she showed no concern about that and tried to tell us we were wrong, etc.

We are almost 100% sure she will either A) not get back to us ever about our security deposit, b) tell us we owe the full amount or more or c) charge us almost the full amount, making up bogus charges for "repairs cleaning and paint".

I checked into lead paint laws and found out that since the property was built prior to 1950 (in the 1800's , the addition was at least prior to 1930), it was required that she furnish lead paint disclosures and pamphlets, as well as a copy of a lead paint certificate she needed to get between each tenant in each unit. We never received this or signed off on anything that said we did, and I called the Maryland Department of Environment's lead line and found out the last certificate was from 2001. We lived there from 2007-2008. So she was in violation and still is.
Not only am I concerned a bit now about our health (I don't know much about the dangers) but I am angry that she didn't take care of these requirements and is trying to cheat us in other ways.
What can I do with the information that she is in violation of the MDE lead paint laws? Is it possible to use that information to receive a full refund of our security deposit? We were prepared to pay to paint and to clean the apartment ourselves but not to be paying whatever crazy costs she's thinking of ($1100 for three rooms??? small ones? We only painted two walls in one of the rooms!)..

Can she try to get us for not having returned the keys until 2 weeks after moving out since we were waiting to come in and paint? She could claim we hadn't moved out or something, right? We sent the keys certified mail or something so that she couldn't claim we never returned them. But does noncompliance void our lease?

Unfortunately our crazy lying landlord is also a lawyer now, just recently. She's been involved in a few lawsuits to say the least (one over 120k) and we don't want to get in deeper. But we do want some of our money back, if not all of it, for having to put up with everything we did in that apartment, and for not being told or warned of lead paint in our apartment.

Can we call her and tell her we know of these lead paint laws and tell her to return our money or will that get us nowhere? Will that information only be useful if we want to take her to court or if we want to get her fined? Help us take care of this, it's not fair for a broke landlord to cheat all of her tenants, and she's been doing it to everyone that's moved out since we lived there.
Thanks!!!What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[HuAi]

I am sorry to say, but it appears that the landlord may be in the right here.

As a tenant your obligation is to deliver to the landlord on the day you move out they keys to an apartment in the same condition that you received it. This means same color, clean, etc. If you did not return the keys, then you haven't moved out yet!

As far as your dishwasher goes, your former LL will have to follow your state's abandoned property laws. Generally this means she'll have to store the item for 30 days, and then sell it to cover any expenses you incurred. During these 30 days you can reclaim your item but would have to pay for any storage fees incurred (if she used a storage facility).

On the security deposit front - your LL has to send you an itemized list of deductions in the mail (email is no good) within 30 days or he cannot keep anything.

 

[Alaska landlord]

Whether or not you have been properly given notice of the deductions will depend on your state laws. Some states merely say that the notice must be delivered to the tenant within a specified time frame.

As far as the lead paint certification, unless you have been licking the walls or sprinkling your cheerios with paint chips, you have no damages and it is very unlikely that you have lead paint poisoning. But you are correct, you should have been given the mandated lead paint pamphlet and the disclosure form.

You should have cleaned your apartment or house before you left. Landlords don't appreciate it when tenants leave their unwanted property behind. We usually have to incur the expense of having to haul it off to the junkyard.

 

[moosirin]

I'm aware that an apartment should be cleaned and restored to its original condition upon move out and that keys are to be returned. I cleaned the entire rest of the apartment to much better standards than it was given to us in (filthy). The only reason we hadn't completed the work was because we had been calling the landlord for weeks trying to find out from her which rooms she wanted painted so that we wouldn't have to come in and do each room on a different date / so we could hire someone and give them the instructions. The problem was she never told us what she wanted. In retrospect to cover our behinds we should have waited no longer than our move out date and painted everything back to normal then. But she had told us she could save us some work / money by allowing us to leave up whatever colors the next tenant wanted in certain rooms rather than painting over all of it, which was why we were waiting.

This would have been a non-issue if she had answered her phone once in 3 weeks, which she purposefully did not do. I had been calling to ask her when our moveout inspection would be and she never responded on that matter, did not ever bring it up or offer to do a walk through with us, and did that on her own at some unknown point and did not contact us until over a week later. I never saw the landlord as she was rarely on site (did not live there) and therefore did not hand over the keys for that reason (as well as the, waiting for the go-ahead to paint reason).

I understand that 'as a tenant' our obligations were to have been 100% out of the building and have it in original condition at that point and somehow get the keys to the landlord. However I think it's unfair to tenants when a landlord explicitly delivers contradicting instructions and procedures and then fines the tenant for failure to comply with the standard regulations. What was I to do, completely ignore what she had told us to do and offered to do for us and be completely cynical? I guess we weren't hardened enough to know that she was full of it.

I was not chewing on any paint chips nor was my husband. But I am in my child bearing years and could very well have been pregnant and had no idea that there were hazards existing for me. The paint in the old building is chipping and peeling in many places including the ceilings the window sills and door frames. I have young children in my family who have visited our apartment and no one informed me that there were hazards. I don't think it's fair to say that because I wasn't informed due to my landlord's negligence that there should be no repercussions for her. She will continue to blatantly disregard rules and someone may get sick due to these hazards.
What's the use of a regulation if no one has to follow it?

As far as the security deposit goes, we are in Maryland, do the landlords have to show any kind of receipt or proof of the costs they claim to be incurring in order to repaint/etc? Or can they essentially make it all up and create fake receipts if desired?

 

[Alaska landlord]

The Judge is not going to award you money on What ifs.

You also don't know if she had lead paint.

I suppose you can take this to a federal court and have the the EPA get involved, but I doubt they will be interested in a case with no damages.

 

[moosirin]

Thanks for your responses by the way.
I'm not looking to sue for damages. But I do think she owes it to her tenants to stay current, just as a tenant owes it to the landlord to obey their responsibilities.

That being said, my uncle is a landlord of several properties as well and he was the one who mentioned this law to me recently. He had another tenant who was having issues with his previous landlord not returning his security deposit and making a big stink over damages that were actually pre existing, etc. When he found out the property was not certified by the MDE he placed a call to his landlord asking that he/she return his deposit unless they wanted him to take further action regarding the lead paint issues, which can apparently result in some very hefty fines for landlords.

This was why I was asking. I think it's important the landlord know his/her responsibilities and to respect them. I also want what is fair in terms of what we are owed back from our deposit. I wanted to know if there was any backing behind the threat of fines for failure to comply and notify tenants of lead paint.

 

[Alaska landlord]

Sure there is, but if your former landlord has gone through a lead abatement program, or if he has been inspected and can show that there is no lead in his property, then you have nothing to work with.

I will say that not giving their tenants a disclosure and epa pamphlet is taking a big chance. As kids routinely get tested in school and come out positive for lead. It doesn't matter that they were exposed in the school grounds or from some pottery purchased in some other country, the landlord is usually the one targeted by both tenants and their attorneys.

 

[moosirin]

I was wondering if you are sure that they are cleared just because they have gone through an abatement program-- even though we are talking about Maryland, which I think has special laws regarding the lead paint program-- The maryland department of environment seems to require that they give out the information on all 1950's homes or older. Is it really possible to certify a building as lead-free for all points in the future or isn't there always a chance that the lead is hiding beneath other layers somewhere.

 

[moosirin]

I just spoke with our landlord anyway, and gently asked if she knew what we'd be receiving back from our security deposit and when. She told me no, she didn't know when and no, she didn't know how much. She said she has "now lost a whole month's rent on the unit because I have to wait until my painters have time to get in there and they have been very busy. I haven't even been able to show the apartment because of the ugly color paint you left in the bedroom." She is trying to say we are responsible for her losing a whole month's rent now because she did not allow us to come back and paint it, and she's been too broke to afford to pay someone else to come in and paint!
Then she said "to be honest I think you will likely owe me money because of all the paint and the cleaning and repairs."

I think it's just absurd to imagine $1100 in painting 3 rooms (only 2 walls in one room) a couple small nail holes and cleaning the refrigerator / kitchen floors, so I know she's trying to come up with a way that she doesn't have to pay us since it's clear she has no money. Did I mention the building is listed in the land registry as having an appointment of substitute trustee? I asked her about it and she got very defensive but there was even a listing of the property going up for auction as she was entering foreclosure. She must have narrowly saved it or something. I just know this is all because she has no money and is trying to find a way to keep everyone's deposits, etc. I understand that people are going through tough times but it's not fair to drag others down.