Refund problem - landlord wrote own receipts?

[sara cantrell]

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

My ex and I terminated our lease for unfortunate circumstances after living in a house for 1.5 months. I told the landlord we would be breaking the lease on 9/14 and I vacated on 10/15, however paid rent up to 10/31. Our deposit was $2200 and we received $1265 back.

Here is where my problem is.
1- Some of the charges on receipts he gave me are from 08/20 and 09/09, this is before he had been told we would be breaking the lease. The receipts are for "lease documents".

2 - He charged me $275 for cleaning through his wifes cleaning company. I cleaned the house and left it in the exact condition it was in when I moved in. The new tenants thought it wasnt clean enough so asked for it to be professionally cleaned. I left the house in the same condition I found it, why am I paying for someones neat freak problem?

3- The carpets were not shampooed when I moved in. I shampooed the carpets with my personal shampooer when I moved and the landlord said it wasnt needed. However I got a $250 charge for carpet cleaning because the new tenants requested a professional carpet cleaning. Why am I paying for them to have a clean carpet when I didnt have one?

4 - My $150 pet deposit wasnt returned and he did not mention it in the refund forms.

5- On the carpet cleaning receipt there is a charge for a chair. What chair? The house was empty so why did I pay to clean the new tenants chair?

6- There is a receipt written by the landlord for $200 for lease prep and lease documents. However since I got charged for the lease documents in the fedex receipts, how did I get charged $200 just for lease prep? Did he pay himself $200 for faxing the documents? The house was rented to his friend so I know he didnt have to advertise online or through a company, he put an ad on Craigslist which is free.

Should I take them to small claims court?

 

[Gail in Georgia]

We can't answer some of your questions. For example, I doubt anyone here knows what chair your landlord is talking about.

If you disagree with the amount of your deposit kept, you write a letter to the landlord, disputing this and "demanding" a return of what you believe is a fair amount of your deposit. Include a date this amount is to be returned to you.

If the landlord does not respond or disagrees with this then your next step is to decide whether it is worth your time and effort to file a lawsuit over this.

Since at least some of these issues involve cleaning charges, you hopefully have pictures of the place at move in and move out to present as evidence to the court.

Did you have a lease with your landlord or were you a month to month tenant. If on a lease make certain you are aware of any possible financial penalties you may face for breaking such a lease.

Gail

 

[Searchertwin]

He should also be thankful that the LL didn't hold him for future rent if this was not a month-to-month contract.

 

[sara cantrell]

I wasnt liable for future rent because he had a renter a few days after I told him I would be moving, which was a month before I actually gave my 30 day notice. And as a matter of fact, I paid for an entire month, and he asked me to move on the 15th so he could do some repairs to the house and he would reimburse me the extra rent. He never reimbursed me but made me move early, sound fair? Not really.

 

[Searchertwin]

I wasnt liable for future rent because he had a renter a few days after I told him I would be moving, which was a month before I actually gave my 30 day notice. And as a matter of fact, I paid for an entire month, and he asked me to move on the 15th so he could do some repairs to the house and he would reimburse me the extra rent. He never reimbursed me but made me move early, sound fair? Not really.

He probably kept that months rent because it took him the extra 15 days to do repairs. He didn't make you move early, you CHOSE to leave at his request, he didn't force you to leave, you could have just said "no".

It doesn't matter if his wife owns the cleaning company, the fact is, it is a cleaning company. Do you have pictures of the place AFTER you clean? Do you have pictures BEFORE you moved in? Did you document that rugs was not shampooed on your move in list? You CHOSE to accept a dirty carpet when you moved in. What is clean to you is not clean to me.
A lot of places, like my insurance, charges for documents, it has been as high a $25.00 a sheet. And you know how many pages comes in one statement. So it depends on the company or in your case, the LL.

The only thing here that can be disputed is the chair. Everything else falls on you shoulder. Take Gail advice in what to do next and see what happens.

 

[wesawitbleed]

if you can prove you paid a pet deposit demand the return of it. he can't say it was non refundable as that is against ca law.

if you can prove the carpets were not professionally cleaned when you moved in and as long as they were in the same state you moved out then you can fight it. pictures will help your case.

i can't say for sure but i would think that the lease document charge could be argued as those fees were never disclosed before or during signing and never agreed to in writing and could be seen as retaliation.

if he didn't provide an invoice for the cleaning through his wifes company then demand one. that way you know what they did clean rather than knowing just the charged amount. (this all depends on when you received the itemized statement/deposit back)

if you plan on contesting these charges demand them verbally and in writing with returned receipt and give him a considerate time frame to return the accurate amount you feel is owed or you will take him to small claims court and demand damages(times 2) and court fees. if he does send any money he can take you to small claims for the return of it and any other charges that suit his desire. if the letter comes back unopened keep it as proof if you go to scc. if you have written proof that he rented out the place take that with you as well to court or take pictures of it now to have as proof it's occupied.

when did you receive the statement/deposit?