texaslady12
Junior Member
We live in Texas. We closed on our new house on August 28. We had previously been renting and our real estate agent (in the beginning) told us he would buy us out of our lease. In the end, he had our landlord agree to let us out of our lease but we would not receive our $1,000.00 deposit back. There was also a $500.00 non refundable pet deposit that we gave when we signed our lease there.
Our real estate agent also told us that he was going to lease the house after we moved out so he would have a cleaning service to come in after we moved out and we didn't have to "deep clean" the house. We had only been there since May. He came by as we were moving out and looked at the house and said it was in fine condition. After that, I still spent 3 hours vacuuming, dusting and giving an overall clean to the house. The only thing I was not able to clean was the master bathroom shower and toilet.
A week after we moved we got a text from our real estate agent saying that since we did not uphold "our end of the bargain" and clean the house, he was going to recommend to our landlord to pursue us for the full extent of our lease, and he refused to give us the paperwork that our landlord signed letting us out of the lease (which we had been asking for for weeks). We called our landlord (who he had told us not to contact through this process) and explained the situation to her and she agreed that she felt like we had all been duped by the real estate agent because she felt like she was forced to sign the release papers. I offered to clean the house for her because I never said that I wouldn't, I was told not to. She said no, she would handle it.
Today (11/29) we received a certified letter from the landlord charging us $150.00 in cleaning fees stating that we breached our lease contract by not cleaning and that if we do not pay in 30 days of receipt of the letter she will pursue legal proceedings.
My husband says that since we did not get a walkthrough with our landlord after we moved out, and the fact that she has new renters living in the house, and she sent the letter after 30 days of us moving out then she has no ground to stand on. I do not want to go to court over $150.00, and I feel bad that she got the short end of the stick as well. What do we do? Should we just pay the money even though she has $1500.00 of our deposit money, or tell her she can't charge us for that and to leave us alone?
Thank you in advance for any advice!
Our real estate agent also told us that he was going to lease the house after we moved out so he would have a cleaning service to come in after we moved out and we didn't have to "deep clean" the house. We had only been there since May. He came by as we were moving out and looked at the house and said it was in fine condition. After that, I still spent 3 hours vacuuming, dusting and giving an overall clean to the house. The only thing I was not able to clean was the master bathroom shower and toilet.
A week after we moved we got a text from our real estate agent saying that since we did not uphold "our end of the bargain" and clean the house, he was going to recommend to our landlord to pursue us for the full extent of our lease, and he refused to give us the paperwork that our landlord signed letting us out of the lease (which we had been asking for for weeks). We called our landlord (who he had told us not to contact through this process) and explained the situation to her and she agreed that she felt like we had all been duped by the real estate agent because she felt like she was forced to sign the release papers. I offered to clean the house for her because I never said that I wouldn't, I was told not to. She said no, she would handle it.
Today (11/29) we received a certified letter from the landlord charging us $150.00 in cleaning fees stating that we breached our lease contract by not cleaning and that if we do not pay in 30 days of receipt of the letter she will pursue legal proceedings.
My husband says that since we did not get a walkthrough with our landlord after we moved out, and the fact that she has new renters living in the house, and she sent the letter after 30 days of us moving out then she has no ground to stand on. I do not want to go to court over $150.00, and I feel bad that she got the short end of the stick as well. What do we do? Should we just pay the money even though she has $1500.00 of our deposit money, or tell her she can't charge us for that and to leave us alone?
Thank you in advance for any advice!