What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pa but now in OK
Was with a landlord for the period of 4 years in philadelphia while I resided there for school. Initial lease was signed with a cause that the contract would renew yearly and was set to expire july30th, unless either parties provided intent to stop the contract.
This past March I found out I did not gain acceptance into a continuing program in philadelphia and sent a letter to my landlord 3/10/2010 with my intent to vacate the premise July 1st, 2010. Letter was sent certified and included a forwarding address, this forwarding address was a permanent address. No reply from the landlord was recieved from this letter.
I made an attempt to contact my landlord on the 10th and the 16th of March in regards to our intentions. He did not respond to either of these voicemails.
Another letter was sent April 23rd 2010 certified again stating out intention to terminate the contract. Again no reply from the landlord was recieved from this letter.
Landlord made contact 5/31/10 via phone and we conveyed out intentions to terminate the contract, however the landlord pointed out that since the contract stated the end of the contract was to the end of july that we would still be response for that month. So we paid rent to the end of july.
We surrendered the property and left the property on the June 24th. The landlord was unable to meet us at the property for a walkthrough. Because of this I took videos of the state that the property was in. I felt that there was some wear and tear on the property but no damage that I felt would place out security at risk. Landlord did admit in a phone conversation the day after we left that he had been out to the property.
Landlord was contacted 6/29/10, 7/14/10, 7/20/10, 7/26/10 in regards to our surrendering the property and of our security deposit.
Landlord made contact via phone 8/1/10 regarding our security deposit. He claimed that there was damage and stains to the carpet in the living room, however he regretted that he did not take any photos to record the damage. He claimed that he paid stanley steamer to try to remove the stains but was unsuccessful, and then replaced the entire carpet to the cost of $1500. He felt I was ultimately responsible for half this. I contested that I did not feel there was damage or stains to the carpet, and asked that he sent me invoices or reciepts to verify the charges.
Instead the landlord sent me a letter postmarked a day later with nothing except a check.
I attempted to contact the landlord via phone 8/5/10 regarding the receipts, and once again 8/15/10 in this conversation I did mention I would hate to get a third party involved.
At this point I believe the landlord cannot prove the damage to the carpet, and I am having my doubts in terms of whether the money was actually spent.
Because of this I began doing some research. Apparently Philadelphia landlord/tenant law follows the landlord and tenant act of 1951. In this act there's several sections where this landlord is in actual violation of.
250.511b
a) "... all funds over one hundered dollars deposited with a lessor to secure the execution of a rental agreement on the residential property in accordance with section 511.1 and pursuant to any lease newly executed or reexecuted after the effective date of this act shall be deposited in an escrow account of an institution regulated by the federal reserve board, the federal home loan bank board, comptroller of the currency, or the penn. department of banking. When any funds are deposited in any escrow account, interest-bearing or noninterest-bearing, the lessor shall thereupon notify in writing each of the tenants making any such deposit, giving the name and address of the banking institution in which such deposits are held, and the amount of such deposits."
b) "Whenever any money is required to be deposited in an interest-bearing escrow savings account, in accordance with section 511.1, then the lessor shall be entitled to recieve as administrative expenses, a sum equivalent to one percent per annum upon security money so deposited, which shall be in lieu of all other administrative and custodial expenses. The balance of the interest paid shall be the money of the tenant making the deposit and will be paid to said tenant annually upon the anniversary date of the commencement of his lease."
c) "The provisions of this section shall apply only after the second anniversary of the deposit of the escrow funds."
From what I can tell here with us being in the current property for 4 years, it appears that the landlord should have given us notice of where the security was deposited and actually owes us some interest on the total sum.
Here's the big one though...
250.512
a) "Every landlord shall within thirty days of termination of a leave or upon surrender and acceptance of the leasehold premises, whichever first occurs, provide a tenant with a written list of any damages to the leasehold premises for which the landlord claims the tenant is liable. Delivery of the list shall be accompanied by payment of the difference between any sum deposited in escrow, including any unpaid interest thereon, for the payment of damages to the leasehold premises and the actual amount of damages to the leasehold premises caused by the tenant."
From what I can tell and I can prove all these dates with either phone records or certificates of mailing, he is clearly in violation of this clause. We surrendered the propery on the 24th, in a subsequent phone conversation that weekend he mentioned he had been the the property that weekend. I have never recieved a list of damages, simply a phone call with items that I have never recieved invoices or reciepts for. Even this phone conversation was after the 30 day deadline.
b) "Any landlord who fails to provide a written list within thirty days as required in subsection (a), above, shall forfeit all rights to withhold any portions of sums held in escrow, including any unpaid interest thereon, or to bring to suit against the tenant for damages to the leasehold premises."
c) "If the landlord fails to pay the tenant the difference between the sum deposited, including any unpaid interest thereon, and the actual damages to the leasehold premises caused by the tenant within thirty days after the termination of the lease or surrender and acceptance of the leasehold premises, the landlord shall be liable in assumpsit to double the amount by which the sum deposited in escrow, including any unpaid interest thereon, exceeds the actual damages to the leashold premises caused by the tenant as determined by any court of record or court not of record having jurisdiction in civil actions at law. The burden of the proof of actual damages caused by the tenant to the leasehold premises shall be on the landlord."
Based on this paragraph it would appear that the landlord is actually liable for double the security deposit including interest. And based this clause he is ultimately responsible for proving there was damage to the property, this goes beyond the reciepts and invoices that I have been requesting.
After surrendering the property the landlord kept the rent for July claiming that he was unable to find anyone to rent the property, yet when I called the gas company in the middle of July they told me someone had already changed the gas out of my name. I feel but cannot prove that the landlord took this time to update the house, unfortunately on my dollar. This will be near impossible to prove I know.
This is the only thing that may present a problem is of course interpretion of the paragraphs presented before, or if there was anything I missed even earlier.
There is of course this clause:
e) "Failure of the tenant to provide the landlord with his new address in writing upon termination of the lease or upon surrender and acceptance of the leasehold premises shall relieve the landlord from any liability under this section."
The forwarding address was presented to the landlord in both letters sent certified when we initially stated that we would be terminating the lease. The first letter contained a permanent address because we had not found a place in OK. And the second letter revised that address to my wife's brother's residence because it would ultimately be closer, again this was done because at that time we did not have a place in OK. So the question here is, does the above certified letters satisfy clause e? I feel that the certified letters are basically the termination of the lease, but I'm not sure if I'm interpreting that correctly.
Well I guess after all that the main question is do I have a case?
This complicates matters a bit since I'm in Oklahoma now, and this happened back in Pennsylvania, I believe the landlord feels this may protect him somewhat. Based on the opinions here I will be filing with the small claims court in Philadelphia. I'm also wondering if he'll ultimately be responsible for my lost wages and travel expenses if it actually comes to a court date?
Thank you guys!
Was with a landlord for the period of 4 years in philadelphia while I resided there for school. Initial lease was signed with a cause that the contract would renew yearly and was set to expire july30th, unless either parties provided intent to stop the contract.
This past March I found out I did not gain acceptance into a continuing program in philadelphia and sent a letter to my landlord 3/10/2010 with my intent to vacate the premise July 1st, 2010. Letter was sent certified and included a forwarding address, this forwarding address was a permanent address. No reply from the landlord was recieved from this letter.
I made an attempt to contact my landlord on the 10th and the 16th of March in regards to our intentions. He did not respond to either of these voicemails.
Another letter was sent April 23rd 2010 certified again stating out intention to terminate the contract. Again no reply from the landlord was recieved from this letter.
Landlord made contact 5/31/10 via phone and we conveyed out intentions to terminate the contract, however the landlord pointed out that since the contract stated the end of the contract was to the end of july that we would still be response for that month. So we paid rent to the end of july.
We surrendered the property and left the property on the June 24th. The landlord was unable to meet us at the property for a walkthrough. Because of this I took videos of the state that the property was in. I felt that there was some wear and tear on the property but no damage that I felt would place out security at risk. Landlord did admit in a phone conversation the day after we left that he had been out to the property.
Landlord was contacted 6/29/10, 7/14/10, 7/20/10, 7/26/10 in regards to our surrendering the property and of our security deposit.
Landlord made contact via phone 8/1/10 regarding our security deposit. He claimed that there was damage and stains to the carpet in the living room, however he regretted that he did not take any photos to record the damage. He claimed that he paid stanley steamer to try to remove the stains but was unsuccessful, and then replaced the entire carpet to the cost of $1500. He felt I was ultimately responsible for half this. I contested that I did not feel there was damage or stains to the carpet, and asked that he sent me invoices or reciepts to verify the charges.
Instead the landlord sent me a letter postmarked a day later with nothing except a check.
I attempted to contact the landlord via phone 8/5/10 regarding the receipts, and once again 8/15/10 in this conversation I did mention I would hate to get a third party involved.
At this point I believe the landlord cannot prove the damage to the carpet, and I am having my doubts in terms of whether the money was actually spent.
Because of this I began doing some research. Apparently Philadelphia landlord/tenant law follows the landlord and tenant act of 1951. In this act there's several sections where this landlord is in actual violation of.
250.511b
a) "... all funds over one hundered dollars deposited with a lessor to secure the execution of a rental agreement on the residential property in accordance with section 511.1 and pursuant to any lease newly executed or reexecuted after the effective date of this act shall be deposited in an escrow account of an institution regulated by the federal reserve board, the federal home loan bank board, comptroller of the currency, or the penn. department of banking. When any funds are deposited in any escrow account, interest-bearing or noninterest-bearing, the lessor shall thereupon notify in writing each of the tenants making any such deposit, giving the name and address of the banking institution in which such deposits are held, and the amount of such deposits."
b) "Whenever any money is required to be deposited in an interest-bearing escrow savings account, in accordance with section 511.1, then the lessor shall be entitled to recieve as administrative expenses, a sum equivalent to one percent per annum upon security money so deposited, which shall be in lieu of all other administrative and custodial expenses. The balance of the interest paid shall be the money of the tenant making the deposit and will be paid to said tenant annually upon the anniversary date of the commencement of his lease."
c) "The provisions of this section shall apply only after the second anniversary of the deposit of the escrow funds."
From what I can tell here with us being in the current property for 4 years, it appears that the landlord should have given us notice of where the security was deposited and actually owes us some interest on the total sum.
Here's the big one though...
250.512
a) "Every landlord shall within thirty days of termination of a leave or upon surrender and acceptance of the leasehold premises, whichever first occurs, provide a tenant with a written list of any damages to the leasehold premises for which the landlord claims the tenant is liable. Delivery of the list shall be accompanied by payment of the difference between any sum deposited in escrow, including any unpaid interest thereon, for the payment of damages to the leasehold premises and the actual amount of damages to the leasehold premises caused by the tenant."
From what I can tell and I can prove all these dates with either phone records or certificates of mailing, he is clearly in violation of this clause. We surrendered the propery on the 24th, in a subsequent phone conversation that weekend he mentioned he had been the the property that weekend. I have never recieved a list of damages, simply a phone call with items that I have never recieved invoices or reciepts for. Even this phone conversation was after the 30 day deadline.
b) "Any landlord who fails to provide a written list within thirty days as required in subsection (a), above, shall forfeit all rights to withhold any portions of sums held in escrow, including any unpaid interest thereon, or to bring to suit against the tenant for damages to the leasehold premises."
c) "If the landlord fails to pay the tenant the difference between the sum deposited, including any unpaid interest thereon, and the actual damages to the leasehold premises caused by the tenant within thirty days after the termination of the lease or surrender and acceptance of the leasehold premises, the landlord shall be liable in assumpsit to double the amount by which the sum deposited in escrow, including any unpaid interest thereon, exceeds the actual damages to the leashold premises caused by the tenant as determined by any court of record or court not of record having jurisdiction in civil actions at law. The burden of the proof of actual damages caused by the tenant to the leasehold premises shall be on the landlord."
Based on this paragraph it would appear that the landlord is actually liable for double the security deposit including interest. And based this clause he is ultimately responsible for proving there was damage to the property, this goes beyond the reciepts and invoices that I have been requesting.
After surrendering the property the landlord kept the rent for July claiming that he was unable to find anyone to rent the property, yet when I called the gas company in the middle of July they told me someone had already changed the gas out of my name. I feel but cannot prove that the landlord took this time to update the house, unfortunately on my dollar. This will be near impossible to prove I know.
This is the only thing that may present a problem is of course interpretion of the paragraphs presented before, or if there was anything I missed even earlier.
There is of course this clause:
e) "Failure of the tenant to provide the landlord with his new address in writing upon termination of the lease or upon surrender and acceptance of the leasehold premises shall relieve the landlord from any liability under this section."
The forwarding address was presented to the landlord in both letters sent certified when we initially stated that we would be terminating the lease. The first letter contained a permanent address because we had not found a place in OK. And the second letter revised that address to my wife's brother's residence because it would ultimately be closer, again this was done because at that time we did not have a place in OK. So the question here is, does the above certified letters satisfy clause e? I feel that the certified letters are basically the termination of the lease, but I'm not sure if I'm interpreting that correctly.
Well I guess after all that the main question is do I have a case?
This complicates matters a bit since I'm in Oklahoma now, and this happened back in Pennsylvania, I believe the landlord feels this may protect him somewhat. Based on the opinions here I will be filing with the small claims court in Philadelphia. I'm also wondering if he'll ultimately be responsible for my lost wages and travel expenses if it actually comes to a court date?
Thank you guys!