S
stratford1
Guest
What is the name of your state? Tennessee
To make a long story short...I moved out of a house I've been living in (with 2 roomates) for 3 years and my landlord is charging us above our security deposit for cleaning and repairs to the house.
My question is: What are we as tenants responsible for to bring this house to a "reasonable" condition?
My main concerns are what he's charging us for lawn mowing, cleaning, and trash removal. We admit some responsibility for some things accidentally left in the house but is he required to contact us about this?
One other factor in this story... this landlord has been out of the country until just last year and has not seen the house until pretty much just this last month. As a result he had a very scatterbrained realtor renting the house for him. SO, when we moved in he personally had NO idea what condition the house was in. Since I did all the cleaning in this house before my roomates got there I know that there were messes everywhere. I scrubbed out the refrigerator. I cleaned the stove. Now he's charging us because he had to hire a cleaning service. So where is my compensation for all the cleaning I did originally?
Also, our grass was not cut when we first moved in. We're returning it to him in the same state - although we WOULD have gladly cut it had we known about the problem.
Of course, all these things are our word vs. his realtor's fuzzy memory. The landlord was not there.
SO - another part of this - is he required to let us know of specific repairs/clean up BEFORE he hires someone to do them? AND if we're paying for them in the end are we not entitled to hire our own lawn mower or cleaner or painter for the job? ESPECIALLY if these things are going above our original deposit?
THEN if he's not required to before what about AFTER? Does he have to show is dated reciepts of these costs he's claiming? So far all we have is an email he wrote of itemized expenses.
To make a long story short...I moved out of a house I've been living in (with 2 roomates) for 3 years and my landlord is charging us above our security deposit for cleaning and repairs to the house.
My question is: What are we as tenants responsible for to bring this house to a "reasonable" condition?
My main concerns are what he's charging us for lawn mowing, cleaning, and trash removal. We admit some responsibility for some things accidentally left in the house but is he required to contact us about this?
One other factor in this story... this landlord has been out of the country until just last year and has not seen the house until pretty much just this last month. As a result he had a very scatterbrained realtor renting the house for him. SO, when we moved in he personally had NO idea what condition the house was in. Since I did all the cleaning in this house before my roomates got there I know that there were messes everywhere. I scrubbed out the refrigerator. I cleaned the stove. Now he's charging us because he had to hire a cleaning service. So where is my compensation for all the cleaning I did originally?
Also, our grass was not cut when we first moved in. We're returning it to him in the same state - although we WOULD have gladly cut it had we known about the problem.
Of course, all these things are our word vs. his realtor's fuzzy memory. The landlord was not there.
SO - another part of this - is he required to let us know of specific repairs/clean up BEFORE he hires someone to do them? AND if we're paying for them in the end are we not entitled to hire our own lawn mower or cleaner or painter for the job? ESPECIALLY if these things are going above our original deposit?
THEN if he's not required to before what about AFTER? Does he have to show is dated reciepts of these costs he's claiming? So far all we have is an email he wrote of itemized expenses.