Dispute of Deposit Refund

[juliep]

I recently moved out of a house in Washington State that I had lived in for about nine months. We paid a deposit of $400 dollars. When my roommate and I moved in the house was in bad disrepair. The previous tenants had several dogs and had left a bad smell, scratches on doors, etc. In addition their were holes in the linoleum, our rooms were missing doorknobs, etc. When we moved in the landlord acted like he was going to fix a bunch of stuff, and did fix several things. Consequently, on our move in check in sheet, the landlord just wrote things he was going to fix and said it would be a contract of what he was going to do. He did most of it, but some he didn't, like replace the screens. And because he was so busy writing down what he was going to fix he didn't write down the things we pointed out were wrong. Long story short, he is trying to charge us for a bunch of damage that was done by the previous tenants. We were refunded $80.00 of our original deposit of $400.00. We did not have any pets, but he is charging us for dog scratches on the back door, and animal odor, and for the screens that he never replaced. When I moved out he had scheduled a walk-through but he cancelled, does that help me?

I wrote a letter and faxed and mailed it to him stating my dispute of the refund, photocopied the check and sent it back. I have called four times and have never been called back. Is he required to call me back at all? Does he have any duty to me once I dispute the deposit refund? I think I'm bound for small claims court. Am I screwed because of the move-in check in sheet?

Thanks for any advice or help.

 

[HomeGuru]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by juliep:
I recently moved out of a house in Washington State that I had lived in for about nine months. We paid a deposit of $400 dollars. When my roommate and I moved in the house was in bad disrepair. The previous tenants had several dogs and had left a bad smell, scratches on doors, etc. In addition their were holes in the linoleum, our rooms were missing doorknobs, etc. When we moved in the landlord acted like he was going to fix a bunch of stuff, and did fix several things. Consequently, on our move in check in sheet, the landlord just wrote things he was going to fix and said it would be a contract of what he was going to do. He did most of it, but some he didn't, like replace the screens. And because he was so busy writing down what he was going to fix he didn't write down the things we pointed out were wrong. Long story short, he is trying to charge us for a bunch of damage that was done by the previous tenants. We were refunded $80.00 of our original deposit of $400.00. We did not have any pets, but he is charging us for dog scratches on the back door, and animal odor, and for the screens that he never replaced. When I moved out he had scheduled a walk-through but he cancelled, does that help me?

I wrote a letter and faxed and mailed it to him stating my dispute of the refund, photocopied the check and sent it back. I have called four times and have never been called back. Is he required to call me back at all? Does he have any duty to me once I dispute the deposit refund? I think I'm bound for small claims court. Am I screwed because of the move-in check in sheet?

Thanks for any advice or help.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You need evidence and witnesses to prove your case. L can not charge you for damages that were already there. You could state that there was never an inspection move-in report completed only a to-do list made by L. In which case you made your own inspection report. Hold the L failure to check you out upon vacating against him.