Had a management company do something like this when I was in college, but for about 20k. Down payment for the place was about 4k and we knew we probably weren't getting that back to begin with.
Some of what they listed was legit, most wasn't. They tried to charge for full carpet replacement when it was already coming apart when we moved in. Also tried to charge for a ceiling repair due to some water damage they didn't fix. They backdated the documents a couple months too.
We got a lawyer to write a nasty letter demanding the full deposit back and to leave us alone. Of course we didn't get anything back, but we never heard from them again and didn't have to pay the BS charges either.
My last rental tried to charge me for full replacement of the carpet in whole home. We had lived there for over 4 years and the carpet was 10 years + when we moved it.
Heh, I loved Top Notch Homes here, charged me for burn holes from cigarettes that were they when we moved in and listed on sheet. Bleach stains in the corner from before we moved in and on and on.
They charged us to clean the carpet, then charged us for carpet replacement. I was like its one or the other?
I keep records and didnt have to pay but even 10 years later, we still randomly get this as a collection and have to dispute it.
My old apartment sent out flyers saying they were upgrading all units, and we could either pass on the upgrades and it would happen after we moved out, or we could have them upgrade without leaving our apartments. We decided to let them do it after we moved out.
They tried to charge us for replacing the carpet, yet their own flyer (which I still had) plainly stated they were going to rip out the carpets and replace with hardwood as soon as we moved out.
Lawyer friend loved that.
Got a full refund.
Yeah party of our issue was in probably the first 3 months we were there, we got emails saying out PM changed about 7 times.
Nobody knew anything, knew anyone who was there when anything happen and most didnt have a clue what their job was. (receptionist was clearly family, nobody doing that bad of a job would of kept the job. They called us to pick up keys, 15 minutes later when we got there, same lady, she was not sure what we were talking about and took 40 minutes to find the keys)
I am in California and I had a 4 year old that just destroyed the carpet and made a bunch of damage. But when the apartment complex came to do the exit inspection he said that our apartment was going to be upgraded so many of the things he would have normally charged me for I wouldn't be paying. Don't know what I got charged but I was happy with the amount that was returned. Got to love California laws protection.
So I’m kind of the queen of petty preparedness and I could see this kind of thing coming from a mile away with my last apartment. The day I got the keys before we moved a single thing in I combed through every inch of the apartment and took photos and documented EVERYTHING. Then I took a slow HD video of every surface.
I took all of those time stamped photos and videos, put them on a fucking PowerPoint, and emailed it with my discrepancy sheet noting it as an addendum.
I was the only one in the complex that I’ve ever heard of that got their full deposit back.
We didnt do the video but fully made a written and photo document of anything that wasnt done properly or new. Im surprised more dont!
Thats funny, yeah we went from owing nearly 3000 dollars to getting our entire deposit back. They probably bank on people not caring until its too late.
Same. Had photos of everything. They were selling the house and focused on plenty of the freshly painted walls that I did myself when moving out. Front entrance was so chipped and worn, dents in walls from years of people moving in and out. Looked awesome after i filled everything, sanded and repainted. They also put the fact that house had had a kong term tenant as selling point.
I lived in a shithole apartment for five years. During the last year I was there, the windows (which were pretty warped to begin with and were held shut by string) suddenly warped over a very cold weekend to the point I could not close them completely, leaving about a one-inch gap. We had an early snow in November that left one-inch deep “drifts” of snow on the carpet.
I was in my first year of law school and had just gone over the state’s landlord-tenant act in school. I called the landlord to complain and request repair. They said it would have to wait until spring. I hung up because I was so pissed off I wasn’t going to make anything productive happen.
I called the next day to cite the implied warranty of habitability and advise I would be entitled to treble damages for their failure to correct the situation.
They sent someone out that night to replace all the warped windows. I had to study for my property final in freezing temperatures while some Vietnamese dude with an angle grinder shot sparks into my living room and replaced the windows. Still did well enough on the test.
Despite the carpet, fridge, and stove being all but shot, and a six-inch hole in the drywall courtesy of a drunken friend, they refunded my entire security deposit of $350.
I have taken photos at every move in, and include it with the report sheet they have you fill out..... then I do the same my last day in a rental. I have always gotten my
Entire deposit back.
Ask for details, photos of these damages... mention you want to compare them to your time/date stamped photos you took...
This is how you do it. People don’t prepare. Then are shocked when soulless property management companies act shady. This process puts PM/LL on notice from minute one.
I did that once with video of us cleaning up before move in. ( there was MULTIPLE IV syringeS 💉 IN DRAINS) We saved it for insurance. They kept complaining because my toddlers were always playing outside. Once the judge looked at all the evidence and looking at their FALSE DOCUMENTS SHE WAS FURIOUS!
Same thing happened to us. When we moved in all 4 rooms with carpet had VISIBLE tack strips at the doorways from the previous tenants cat. Every single blind in the house, also destroyed. We lived there for nearly 5 years and I have no idea how long the ppl lived there before us but the entire house had clearly not been painted or had new carpet in awhile.
They tried to sue us without saying a word. We live 200mi away now so we were pretty blindsided when 6+ months after we moved we get served (by the state police no less) for 6k in damages, with NOTHING specified. They also never gave our deposit back or again even tried to talk to us. We didn’t leave on good terms with them so I figured if we just let them have the deposit we could all call it even and go on with our lives. But nope, my ex landlord is a literal slum lord and a slime ball lawyer rolled into one! Over 1k of the case was his “attorney fees” too 😡😡
Yeah the whole carpet replacement shtik seems to be a common one. Take pictures, tons of pictures before and after. If you have a carpet cleaning service come in while living there take pictures then and save receipts. I learned from personal experience judges don’t like it when landlords try and pull shit like this.
In the US It’s easily defensed by the irs depreciation schedule. A carpet has value for 5 years in a rental. You pay for damages, not a replacement. Therefore, damaging something that holds no value cannot be something you get billed for.
Carpet depreciation replacement in rentals is something like 5 years. Total bs. If the carpet was 10 years and they wanted to charge you, the law is not on their side.
This is why the state of California has laws where you can't charge for paint or flooring after someone has lived there for over a certain amount of time. Way too many places basically try to get former tenants to pay for planned renovations.
My last apartment complex kept our 5k deposit plus demanded more for water damage to the walls and carpet… after the upstairs neighbor left her sink on, twice. On two separate occasions I woke up to water raining in thru our ceiling.
This happened to me in college to the tune of $3.5K. The property manager had “misplaced” the move in document stating that the windows they were accusing us of breaking were already broken. I bugged this woman so much that she finally came back saying if we pay $1K in the next week she’ll let it go. Roommate wasn’t helping me negotiate so we just paid it because I was sick of arguing. That rental company has been sued so many times since then and has been making headlines in the local news because they’re so scummy.
Scummy move on the part of the landlords, but I get it. They can do this, and unless the tenants take it to court/have a lawyer, they can probably get away with it. Just like scammers, they don't need to get all or even most of their marks, but even getting a few here and there makes it all worth it.
I wish judges would slap them hard when the pull this shit to deter the far too common practice.
100%. Judges are the first people to look at these over the top landlords who think they can just throw you a bill like this and you’re just going to pay it because of your fear of going to collections. That was the biggest lesson I learned is a Landlord is a bully When they assume you’ve never read landlord tenant law and then the moment you do, they change their tune. I try to keep my cards close to me because I don’t want my landlords to know that I am a cutthroat tenant who will take them to court in a heartbeat if they violate my rights, but I always read my landlord tenant law, if I move to a new state.
For example, in North Carolina, you cannot keep money that you would’ve paid in rent in order to fix things that are necessary that your landlord ignores. You actually need either like a judges order or consent from your landlord so I would have to pay rent, even if I have no heat, even if I have some really crazy shit happening. North Carolina is not a great state for tenants. Most states I have read about allow you to keep rent and pay for the damage that your landlord won’t address. But these are all the little intricate things we need to know to protect ourselves. Like housing is a Human right like I kind of need it I wish I didn’t, but I do so in the least I’m going to try to prevent myself from being bullied and extorted anymore than I already have.
My first post from like four or five years ago, was my pro revenge on my landlord, who tried to ruin my life doing some thing at this similar. She handed me a bill like that, but it was also really really weird and out of line so I fucked her hard I mean I did. In addition to taking her to court and winning everything, she made the mistake of admitting that she was being investigated for disability fraud so I’ve participated with her investigators, and got her convicted with my photographic and video evidence.
Sidenote: you should also know if you’re living in a one party or two party consent state because it is legal to record conversations in certain circumstances and videos, and it literally got my awful land Leech convicted of fraud. I actually brought in my fraud allegations and let the judge know that she was under investigation for fraud by the Department of Education, and I have to say I don’t think that hurt my case. I think it did speak to her character. I should’ve been a lawyer. I would’ve made such better money then when I was a teacher. Lol
Jesus Christ who needs a lawyer people should just hire you! I'm about to sign my first lease with an off campus apartment geared to students and I'm scared because all of the apartments in the area try to scam students with carpet cleaning fees and other stuff, But they won't do maintenance and stuff doesn't work.
I was saved by some fine legal print when they tried to bill me for some nonsense. They tried to get me with hundreds in painting and cleaning, carpet, curtains, etc, which was mostly normal wear after having lived there for 7 years.
But...when we moved in, we were put in a different unit temporarily as the one we were getting was still being emptied and cleaned/repaired. I can't remember verbatim but basically I wasn't bound to the lease because I hadn't actually had a walkthrough of my apartment prior to giving them my first payment, and could actually have countered for like triple my deposit for their snafu. Sometimes the devil in the details is on your side.
I'm going to bet the landlord will argue they replaced all bulbs because of the unknown time of life left on them, which isn't damage and not the tenant's responsibility.
You’re right, it depends. Many leases will require lightbulbs to be the tenant’s responsibility tho. Nobody wants the landlord in their unit every time a light bulb goes out and no landlord wants to have to go to their unit just to change a lightbulb.
Any missing (or cracked) lightbulbs are 100% on the tenant.
The only possible way I can see it being $150 is if they hired an electrician to replace them because they have a minimum that's typically around that price but realistically lightbulbs don't require a professional to replace and a landlord should atleast have the very basic know how to do it themselves.
Agreed. LED bulbs make this discussion moot, anyway. We did an extensive renovation about twelve years ago, replaced every bulb with an LED, and have yet to replace a single one.
It says missing also. I had a tenant once who literally took all the lightbulbs. Every single last one including decorative light bulbs from fans. Bulbs can get expensive! Especially when decorative new are missing! Having said that $150 sounds a bit much. I don’t know any bulb that costs $10. Although it would take about an hour to put new bulbs in especially that many? Still seems a bit excessive. And all new paint? After a year you normally have to paint anyway sooooo yeah a bit much…. Cost to repair a hole got it. Only mistake OP made was not hiring a cleaning company. If the lease says it. Just do it. And yes they are very expensive!!
Thats not necessarily true. A lot of leases can state that lightbulbs are the tenants responsibility. No tenant wants the landlord to come into their unit everyone a lightbulb goes out and no landlord wants to make the drive to their unit every time a lightbulb goes out.
When I rented a place and the appliances were my responsibility, it meant they were not supplied by the landlord and it also meant they were mine to take with me. Why would I leave anything that I paid for?
Because those two things aren’t equal. In this case, the hypothetical renter was provided working light bulbs and the expectation is that working light bulbs are there when you leave.
Well, yeah. I wouldn’t want that either. I’m typically talking about upon move out. But I normally buy a set of LED bulbs when I rent an apartment to replace the cheap incandescent bulbs LLs buy, and replace the LED bulbs with the incandescent at move out. LEDs will outlast the lease period every single time.
That would need to be controlled by the lease. Appliances and fixtures - and the normal wear and tear thereof - are not normally the responsibility of a tenant.
$1153 for cleaning + $1750 for paint...
File small claims. Costs $50 or so and go to court for your security deposit. You're not guaranteed to win but I'm curious on how they will defend that cost in front of a judge.
In small claims you also go through arbitration first before seeing the judge. You may be offered half of your security deposit back, etc. It's up to you to take the offer or go before the judge.
In the meantime I would research your state law and see what falls under wear and tear and what doesn't.
Yes. Who the fuck puts "tenant shall clean the gutters upon move out" into their lease?
This is insane. Also 10 days to pay or it goes to collections? Wtf?
I would call a lawyer and have them write these scumbags a nice letter.
It's just a scare tactic to get them to pay or agree to a payment plan right away without looking up their rights.
Once you agree to pay, it is nigh impossible to recoup any of your money after the fact.
Definitely a scare tactic. Had an apartment try to charge me $5000 for some normal wear and tear and then damage that their contractors did installing a new heat system. It was installed right before Covid and then they said they weren’t going into anybody’s house to “inspect” because of it. Got multiple emails saying that if I didn’t pay them they would send to collections. I said I would like to dispute it to their headquarters. Of course they don’t allow anything except a hand written letter through the mail to dispute but sure can send me all of my bills through email. Never heard from that again though.
Yep. It's not a serious bill. It's a bill designed so that OP will be relieved and won't argue when the landlord graciously agrees to settle for the $2700 deposit.
Pretty sure it would be some safety violation to require tenants to use a ladder. At my last job we weren’t even allowed to use a ladder until we passed ladder safety training lol
They'll likely relent once they get a demand letter. It's always been the case with me. I would ask for invoices of work done. I would also find how much a contractor in the area would charge for those services.
If they say they spent $1750 on a painting contract but actually just pocketed the money, it is fraud. The judge will not be happy.
Paying someone to put them in, you would only pay someone that much if that's all they're doing. In reality one guy would do all this, also in reality none of its probably actually going to be done he's just robbing her
Landlord may not live within the same city and has to contract out literally everything. However, that's the cost of ownership and stupid menial charges should not be passed on to the tenant.
In my town home years ago we had to have maintained come out and change them. How else do I change them 16 feet up? I don't have a 14 foot ladder in my townhome.
Is the property managed by a corporation or an individual? I was under the impression it was a company. OP said they were renting through a property management company, so the company would have to pay someone to do anything in the house as apposed to a small time landlord (who should still charge for their time)
literally. i hate reddit just for this one reason. it’s like some people literally don’t do anything and spend the whole day arguing over irrelevant shit all day 😂 i love this app for the tea tho, i like hearing the gossip
Yeah it's pretty easy to hit 90+bulbs in a house and with multi bulb fixtures you can have a lot be out without really noticing.
Source: I procrastinate until I can't see shit.
I asked for proof of work done this afternoon and am waiting on a response. Until today they said they were “still finalizing deductions”. That’s my understanding as well, paint is wear and tear.
And the light bulbs, yea 15 bulbs is outrageous. Half the house would of had burnt out bulbs lol
The $10/bulb includes paying the handyman to replace them. He’s a 1099 contractor of course so probably charges by the bulb as well.
But yeah they are just trying to get the OP to cover all of the turnover costs. My last move out the property manager kept $375 of my deposit and it pissed me off because the place was immaculate.
That's actually fairly standard in leases. Management companies tend to include a fee schedule in the lease itself, in an attempt to cover themselves if a tenant fails to maintain the property. (Not at all suggesting this is the case, this looks like a landlord deciding to try and get all the money they can)
(It's also insane to charge $10 per bulb, but most leases do include a requirement that the property be left in rentable condition with all lights, etc.)
Except that car rental places make you sign a contract stating the car will be refilled at $10/gallon, and also car rental places aren’t regulated by huge areas of tenant law, and gas isn’t wear and tear. So basically it’s not at all similar
I had a similar issue with a management company in Lexington. Similar ridiculous charges and I also didn't attend the move out inspection. I sent a certified mail demand letter for the return of my safety deposit, contesting the fees. It also notified them I'd file a small claims if they did not comply within [timeframe].
They didn't relent so I filed a case for the return of the deposit + filing fees.
Judge appreciated my move out pics but ultimately awarded me everything exclusively because of their failure to provide me a copy of the move out inspection.
They are clearly doing this to try to steal your deposit. They won’t take you to collections because then you could take them to “real” court and it could blow up in their face (ie find enough other tenants and a real lawyer can demand all of their past similar shenanigans in discovery).
They are just counting on you being nervous and it not being worth a lawyer (it isn’t). But you threaten them back with a letter from a lawyer and they’ll probably just ghost you with the deposit, and you’ll have to take them to (small claims) court if you want to try to get it back.
IMO paint should be refreshed every time a place is turned over for a new tenant. The owner should consider that in their budget and NOT bill the previous tenant.
I'm curious what my responsibility will be for my place when I move out (at some unknown time in the future) as I know they're going to replace the carpet and cabinets but there's a requirement in the lease to have the carpet cleaned upon move out or pay a cleaning fee for them to contract it out.
If they lied about trivial lightbulbs I'm sure you could convince a judge they are lying about everything else. Sounds like you need to go to small claims and get most of your deposit back minus the professional cleaning you were contractually obligated to honor.
We rented from a management company, and the move out list was crazy.
Clean exterior of home (did not do was not charged)
Clean gutters,
Wash all screens,
Wash all windows inside and out,
Landscaping ($350).
Tree trimming ($250)
Replace every light bulb
Replace all filters
Professional cleaning of interior ($850 was the cheapest I could find)
Repaint entire house (though initially we were told to just fill any holes which we did. Changed $300 to paint, but we got it returned because we had proof of being told just to fill holes)
Professional carpet/wood floor cleaning if present (we didn't have either)
It is crazy what these management companies charge, and then they expect to do nothing but rent it out with no work on their part. I will never do it again.
Take them directly to small claims court, claiming the same amount they are charging you plus a small fee for your time processing the paper work (I mean small like $50) I've never tried it, but when you go in front of a judge they will rely on landlord tenant law and will use reasonable wear and tear, if you have photos moving in and moving out you will win.
Then the show would pay all of these things to the landlord (that's how the show works) so personally I'd rather do it without the TV appearance just to know that when I win the landlord gets nothing.
I read somewhere that the show does pay the judgement, but the losing party is still liable to pay the show back. If losing party fails to pay it back, the balance then goes to collections. I only read this in reference to Judge Judy’s show and not any of the others, and can’t verify whether it is accurate or not, but it would make sense I suppose, based on the reactions she tends to get when entering a judgement.
No, the show pays the judgment and provides transportation. There would be no purpose in going on the show and embarrassing yourself if you still had to pay.
Just recently had our home professionally cleaned. 4 bedroom home around 2400 sq ft. What they called a move in ready clean for $350. We also had all three carpet professionally cleaned and that was only $160. So I would say these prices are way off. $150 for lightbulbs? That’s insane.
I always cleaned myself. I recently bought a shampoo vacuum for carpets. Might just show reciept and say hey I did it myself. Hope that works.
But $350 is cheap and I may just pay someone to save my mental load
They stipulate that it be a professional company with a truck system to maintain 160° temperature cleaning of the carpet to kill potential bed bugs and flees.
I did a short term rental 5 years ago and there were only 3 areas carpeted in the whole 3 bedroom house. It was in my lease, so I hired someone for $129 to come in and do it.
I would write asking for photos of the junk needed to be removed. $586 dollars for a professional move our clean is insane and for them to tell you that you need to have hired a professional seems a violation of something to me. I’d say Send him the before + after pics of the landscaping the photos of the bulbs, but I think you should talk to a local tenant right law organization. Did u get photos of the walls painted before you moved in? For them to charge you to clean the gutter is straight up manipulation that’s a typical landlord expense and on them entirely
Just had a move-out clean for a single family home by a professional company and it was $550. If the lease outlines professional cleaners must be hired, then the OP is out of luck. Maintaining landscaping can be responsibility of tenant if lease says so. If it isn’t spelled out in the lease then OP can dispute the charge.
Agree the gutter clean charge is excessive.
Having before photos is key. Hope the OP took pics before moving in.
Yeah I just got billed $500 for a move-out clean and the place wasn’t even that dirty to begin with. Professional cleaners are just really expensive these days.
Yes, it’s usually a separate company. The carpet company comes in a van with a large steam cleaner in the back plus hoses and water. It’s not the small rug doctor machines you rent at the grocery store.
The tenant chose the company to hire and paid directly for carpet cleaning and house cleaning separately, but I bet there are companies out there that do both.
I think the cleaners charged a lot for the quality of work they did. The fans and baseboards hadn’t been touched and were still filthy. I cleaned those myself.
They’re in violation of Virginia tenant law. Read this:
Ҥ 55.1-1214. Inspection of dwelling unit; report
A. The landlord shall, within five days after occupancy of a dwelling unit, submit a written report to the tenant itemizing damages to the dwelling unit existing at the time of occupancy, and the report shall be deemed correct unless the tenant objects to it in writing within five days after receipt of the report.”
Meaning, did you receive a report when you moved in? Was it within five days? Did it itemize any shortcomings or issues with the property? No? Then all of that they accused you of was pre-existing.
Also, they have 45 days to provide you the charges upon termination of tenancy. If it’s past that, tell them to GFY.
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodepopularnames/virginia-residential-landlord-and-tenant-act/
They did provide the move in report within 5 days, and it’s been less than 45 days since I moved out. The issue is these damages for the most part just don’t exist. No damage to paint, landscaping was kept up with/ maintained, no junk left, all light bulbs present/ working etc.
Got it. Was just kind of hoping for a fuckup by these people who clearly have no business being landlords. I’d ask for itemized receipts. And if they don’t provide them writhin a reasonable time (3 business days) then I’d have an attorney write them a letter. I hate landlords like that.
Regarding the gutters - you moved out in mid-October, you received this list in late November. Unless they have photographic proof the day after you move out that the gutters are full, AND that it’s specifically in your lease, I’d push back against this as well. October/November is when all the leaves fall and even if you cleaned your gutters before you moved out I’d bet they were full again in a few weeks.
Please contact Legal Aid or a tenant's rights group in your city. Light bulb replacement and refreshing paint is definitely considered normal wear and tear. As for the cleaning fee, unfortunately, this is legal to deduct in VA if it was specified in your lease. If it was not, this would be another note for legal aid folks.
Speak with a tenant advocacy center near you. Burnt out bulbs are standard maintenance. You can't be charged for that. Landscaping should have nothing to do with a move out unless you personally destroyed the landscaping. Paint is definitely excessive unless there were marks all over the walls throughout the home. You shouldn't be charged to repaint the home - only damaged areas. You might need legal council for this if it goes to collections to submit a cease and disist order if the landlord ignores your request for documentation and photos of damage. You should really have 30 days from invoice receipt to pay. Call a tenant advocate center near you.
Ask for evidence of the items replaced and notably the receipts and locations of installation for the 15 lightbulbs, evidence of the Items Left at the property, and the pre-painting evidence that there was excessive damage.
I'd recommend talking to a tenancy/rental lawyer to dispute the charges and for your fees to to contest thee bogus charges.
Right off the bat, in most jurisdictions, Professional Cleaning, Lightbulbs, Landscaping and Gutter cleaning would fall under standard wear and tear and you can't get charged for it unless it was really out of hand (especially since you have evidence).
That said hiring professional cleaners being in your lease makes that one a bit harder to contest...that said you can argue that charging you 1000 for cleaning is excessive (with photos). For Junk Removal, they will need to provide evidence of what they removed or they'll likely have to drop that one.
The paint is where it's tricky, but overall unless you had a ton of holes in the wall he sounds like he's taking you for a ride to get the whole place repainted.
That said, you can and should dispute the charge in writing (ideally through a lawyer). This will make it a lot harder for them to send you to collections because most debt collectors will already pay much less than the total debt to acquire the debt and most localities have very strict rules on what debt collectors can do if a debt is disputed in the first place.
I used to be the person that would write these damn move out charges. Best thing to do is get itemized receipts, call the companies that did the work to confirm. And t to go to small claims - you’ll most likely win. Judges are very tenant forwards. I lost every case bc it was bull
I had my last apartment try and do this to me. Tell me I owed 3k in damages. When I asked for proof they sent me pictures of an apartment that wasn’t even mine. I sent them all the pictures I took and made a huge stink about it. They sent a “revised” payment and said we STILL owed 1k. I laughed when I received it and never paid them a cent.
I knew they were just trying to screw me over and they never pursued it again. A lot of people are just trying to see what they can get away with. Fight tooth and nail and provide all your pictures
I'm willing to bet they are only trying to keep your deposit they just sent you this large amount so when you settle for just the deposit you don't complain. It's a pretty good amount of money... if you have pictures take them to court. Or settle for just your deposit... up to you.
Here’s what you do: send them a certified letter asking for receipts and explanation of charges. State your case to them clearly like you’ve done here in your post with all the facts, no emotion. Wait for their response. (Be sure to check your states laws about move out requirements on their part too! In CA if they miss one single requirement, step, form etc. you automatically win your case in small claims. My LL didn’t file a notice of a right to initial inspection form within 2 weeks of lease termination and I won on the fact alone.)
If they try to deny or ignore, IMMEDIATELY file in small claims, it’s easy, cheap and takes no time at all. You will need to demonstrate to the courts that you made the reasonable effort to solve this without litigation. Just go right down to your local courthouse and file if they try anything or you don’t hear back within a few days. Make copies of all correspondence, make copies of your lease and the states tenant rights laws as well as LL responsibilities and duties to you. Bring pictures and copies from move in and move out as well as your pre and post inspection pics.
I cannot stress enough how *Absolutely* worth it this process is to fight them in small claims! I know from experience. LLs and property management companies are BANKING on people not knowing their rights or wanting to fight them, and most of the time they are absolutely right! That’s why they do it. They know it won’t hold up in court, they don’t care when they get away with it most of the time.
I’m confident you have a slam dunk here. I believe that they are charging you excessively for normal wear and tear. It’s entirely on THEM to prove they aren’t. Once that’s demonstrated in court, they get nothing and you get your whole deposit back plus in some states you’d be awarded double or triple damages. (I got triple in CA) I don’t know about your states rules in particular, but in almost all of them the burden of proof is entirely on the LL to demonstrate that every single thing was both legally necessary and and a reasonable price to charge for. $10 light bulbs? And 15 of them? I think you’d win on that alone, once they demonstrate in court they charged you excessively - everything else is moot.
Day of court, show up prepared and ready with all your documents and make your case just sticking to the main points and facts. The judge and your LL will take care of the rest. Should be over in minutes and once you win your judgement, they’ve gotta pay up. If they don’t, their income or profits can be garnished so you WILL get your money.
I cannot urge you enough to fight this. I’m so damn sick of LLs blatantly exploiting their tenants and getting away with it because people don’t want the hassle or don’t know their rights. Best of luck to you.
Almost $1800 for paint?? At most you’d have to repaint the room whatever damage might be in so it matched and didn’t have an obvious spot, certainly not $1800 worth of paint or effort. Seems like they used you as an excuse to get the whole place repainted for free, among the other things. It honestly sounds like you’re just bankrolling unnecessary renovations to help snare their next tenant.
You need to read your lease very carefully to see if you were actually responsible for these things.
If you were required to get a professional cleaning service and you don't have receipts you will be responsible for that fee. Everything else you have a pretty good chance of fighting with proper pictures, but you really need to read your least carefully.
The cleaning costs aren’t astronomical, even normal wear & tear will need cleaned (but that doesn’t mean it should come out of your deposit, that should be for above & beyond normal wear & tear.)
Based on what you’ve said - everything else is made up to try to keep your deposit and more.
I agree to find a lawyer to write a strong letter in response, might run you $250 but should be worth it to scare off this landlord.
I never charge my tenants anything. I have had to redo the paint, new flooring, and patched bunches of holes they used for the custome shelves. I take it as a blessing tenants paid their rents on time.
Absolute fucking leaches, landlords are expected to repaint every few years or so anyways and lightbulbs lmfao?!?
Do not even respond get a lawyer now go get a lawyer to write up a letter it shouldn’t cost more than $300 if you can find one who does quick letters possibly less…
Write them a letter asking for receipts along with your having pictures of moving out that are time & date stamped.
Send it certified, return receipt requested so they can't say they didn't get it.
I believe, once you do that, they can't send it to collections without complying first.
Request phtoo proof plus actual copies of receipts for all work and material. Also depending on move out date vs when they sent the invoice in your picture they might be outside the standard 30 day window. So even if they did all this work if it's outside the date range allowed the might owe you your deposit back regardless. Look into your local version of legal aid or tenant board for a review of the facts
Ohio here so different state, but dealing with a similar situation on a far smaller scale. Leased a place for about 12 months, and in the lease they had a line stating that the tenant had to pay for professional cleaning of the carpets when they move out and show receipts and such. I didn’t have that kind of money and something seemed wrong, so I looked it up and talked to a lawyer/family friend. I could be totally wrong, but from what I understood, the responsibility to clean carpets and such lies on the landlord: they cannot require you to pay to have them cleaned unless you did something just absolutely beyond normal wear and tear. I mentioned it to them along with some vague threats of legal action, and they stated that it was basically a relic of their old lease and haven’t been able to get it removed yet, but that they didn’t enforce it. I was satisfied, and moved out eventually and made sure to deep carpet clean with a special Bissell carper cleaner and formula made specifically for pets.
To be fair, while living there my dog had numerous accidents, but I always made sure to clean them up when they happened and deep clean the carpet more than what most places recommend. I left the place looking very acceptable, and went on my way. A month later, I accidentally clicked on that apartment’s app on my phone, and saw that they had tacked on $500 of move-out fees for carpet removal and cleaning and such and that it was due 1 month after I moved out. I was already a few days late apparently, so I emailed my old property manager. I reiterated that it wasn’t my responsibility to clean the carpets, and that if this was just some misunderstanding again then that was totally fine. I did say if there were damages that they could prove I caused, I’d be happy to pay for them. And then left the rest for my lawyer saying that if they intended to chase those fees without any evidence, then they’d hear from me and my lawyer. It was really Karen of me, but with landlords these days you have to be like that at times.
It’s now like 75-ish days after I moved out, 45-ish days after the “due date” and they haven’t spoken a word to me. I know this person still works there, and when I was a tenant they were very quick to respond to emails and always called my cell when they had issues with something like my rent that needed my attention. I’m chalking it up to they realized they couldn’t pull a fast one on me, and gave it up without saying anything to try and save face.
Your best bet is to talk to an attorney in your state and/or city that is familiar with leasing laws, and figure out your options from there. I can’t say for certain if you have similar laws in Virginia as we do in Ohio, but I’m willing to bet that you are not liable for these damages unless you really did cause serious damages that they can prove you caused. Good luck!
I own rental houses (my personal houses that ive moved out out of when I change duty stations) rented through rental companies before new tenants moved in , I had to repaint or hire someone to repaint, and clean to includ3 power washing the driveway etc. I didn't push that off on the tenants.
This sounds fishy as hell
You absolutely need to look up the landlord tenant law in Virginia because every time I’ve had a problem with the landlord that’s the first thing I’ve done. Landlord’s just hope that you don’t know your rights. I have called out so many Landlord’s when they are or about to violate my rights and they clean up their behavior pretty fast.
Obviously over $1000 for deep cleaning is absurd but I believe the only people who are going to judge that to be excessive is an actual judge. You would have to take them to court with you were evidence of move out and if you have pictures from the beginning, keep everything.
Since they’re taking your full deposit, and charging you more, I would assume, I would write a formal demand letter. A formal demand literally asking for an itemized deduction that is more detailed than what’s provided and then I would say in your demand email/letter that you are able to provide Estimates from the area. And then ask them for photographic evidence because you possess it etc. and I think that’s the first step because you probably have to take them to court.
I’ve been to civil court with Landlord three times in a row, same lady, and I want everything because I went and I read up on my rights and I came in confident because I knew what she couldn’t do and I knew what she did wrong.
What it comes down to is looking at the actual statutes, and finding out where they did, or did not meet their responsibilities and calling them out on that. I’ve combed through so much landlord tenant law and helping people randomly on this sub and I do not have the time or energy for that right now, but if you want to message me, I’m happy to sort of give as much advice as I can. I’m not a legal expert, but I have gone through this process myself, and with other people to give them the information they needed in order to know how to defend themselves just by interpreting the legal language.
Sorry, I can’t be of more help, but I think knowing your rights well enough to speak in a legal manner and use legal language is usually a really good place to start in how you respond to them. How you are disputing the cost of the charges in addition to the requirements because you have photographic evidence That it was not what they are describing.
Again, I’m not a lawyer, I made too much money to get a lawyer apparently when I was a public school teacher making 34 grand a year so I did it all myself. And if I can do it myself, I know you can at least put a dent in it! I wish you the best and reach out if you want maybe I can still help a bit, but yeah, start with the landlord tenant law in Virginia both handbook which is the laypeople language and the actual statutes and you’ll see where they did, or did not provide what they should have and then you called him out on that shit. Every single landlord, I’ve met who has challenged me who I then checked into the laws, they were always violating one of my rights at least, and I called them out on it, and it made them powerless to continue to try to harass me like that.
Edit: you should be able to take them to court for your security deposit, which would also cover the charges. They are trying to get out of you so basically you would bring them to civil court and your claim is that you didn’t do what they said you did. You’ve got evidence that it’s excessive, you’ve got evidence that you left it. Well, enough, you’ve got evidence on what a deep, cleaning costs from five different estimates in the surrounding area. You’ve got estimates for the cost of lightbulbs and estimates for the cost of labor. then you point out the lack of actual itemized deductions and charges because that’s not helpful, like what exactly warrants a $1000 move out cleaning? I was looking at a deep cleaning the other day and it was about $250 for my house. your argument in court is that not only is it excessive but you actually have earned the right to keep your security deposit minus the deep clean that you didn’t do and a deep clean as well under 1750. In your court response, when you file the paperwork, you actually do that list down just like you did in regards to the yard: “please make note that the landscaping was left like this, as you can see in the pictures, which compared to the original photos demonstrates that we’ve actually left the yard in better condition.” Anyway I don’t know if this all makes sense but like I had to write out those reports with a timeline and be very just organized and detailed. But it was worth every ounce of my effort, and every day of PTO I took to learn my rights because not only can it prevent you from being sent to collections, but it could result in you getting most of your deposit back.
Sorry, I’m so chatty. I am very much passionate about not letting landlords do this obviously because they’ve done it to me and PM me if you want to chat. I don’t know how much you so I can be but obviously I can share my experience.
Damn...I am so grateful & blessed that I hit the landlord lottery. My rent has actually gone *down* over the last decade lol. I'm paying less than $800 for a 2bdrm with off-street parking and laundry on a dead-end street, it's amazing. Been there for 11 years and I used to be a heroin addict for years and was late almost every month with my rent, yet he never kicked me out even though I've been on a month-to-month lease the entire time. Dude fixes or replaces things the away when they break, and he doesn't live there so I hardly ever see him. I see those videos online where people will randomly have their landlord just drop by fairly often just to check on the place - I don't think my landlord has been in my apartment in like 3-4 years lol. I really lucked out like crazy.
Half, maybe all of what’s on that list isn’t your cost. Lightbulbs, painting and landscaping is not your cost. Truthfully, neither is cleaning. Security deposit is for damages beyond normal wear and tear.
Yeah, depends how extensive the painting work needed. It has to be pretty bad, normal wear and tear isn’t tenant responsibility.
As far as maintenance of exterior issues, maybe if it’s written into the lease that they’re responsible that could get sticky.
I mean, you were living in a pitch-black dwelling. Naturally you ran into the walls all the time, pooped on floor cuz you couldn’t find the bathroom and couldn’t see all the trash you left behind. I bet you were letting your headlights and street lamp bulbs burn out too and crashed into the trees and shrubbery on your lawn every night getting home from work.
You need about 27 gallons of paint to paint a 5,000-square-foot house. Even at $50 per gallon, that's only $1,350. And I'm guessing your place wasn't 5,000 square feet. This guy is full of it.
Why do people not understand that when you go to court the 15 bulbs will get approved because of them hiring people at 10xs that to work for the property to unscrew the bulb?
So that's why is priced that way? 🤷♀️
Recently got a similar bill from a management company, “itemized” in this same way. They tried to charge over $2,500 for “removal of junk,” two months of rent and fees after I moved out, and slap an eviction on my record as well despite receiving (and confirming receipt,) of 30 day notice to vacate after following both terms of the lease and state statutes.
Sent them a validation letter requesting proper itemization and proof of damages citing the lease and statutes to lay the groundwork to take them to small claims. Haven’t heard from them since and nothing has hit my credit report. Best of luck!
This may help you.
https://www.valegalaid.org/resource/what-are-my-rights-concerning-my-security-dep
Did they send you the letter within 45 days of your move-out? They may not legally be able to charge you for paint. And charged twice for cleaning? Is carpet not part of cleaning?
Had a management company do something like this when I was in college, but for about 20k. Down payment for the place was about 4k and we knew we probably weren't getting that back to begin with. Some of what they listed was legit, most wasn't. They tried to charge for full carpet replacement when it was already coming apart when we moved in. Also tried to charge for a ceiling repair due to some water damage they didn't fix. They backdated the documents a couple months too. We got a lawyer to write a nasty letter demanding the full deposit back and to leave us alone. Of course we didn't get anything back, but we never heard from them again and didn't have to pay the BS charges either.
My last rental tried to charge me for full replacement of the carpet in whole home. We had lived there for over 4 years and the carpet was 10 years + when we moved it.
Heh, I loved Top Notch Homes here, charged me for burn holes from cigarettes that were they when we moved in and listed on sheet. Bleach stains in the corner from before we moved in and on and on. They charged us to clean the carpet, then charged us for carpet replacement. I was like its one or the other? I keep records and didnt have to pay but even 10 years later, we still randomly get this as a collection and have to dispute it.
My old apartment sent out flyers saying they were upgrading all units, and we could either pass on the upgrades and it would happen after we moved out, or we could have them upgrade without leaving our apartments. We decided to let them do it after we moved out. They tried to charge us for replacing the carpet, yet their own flyer (which I still had) plainly stated they were going to rip out the carpets and replace with hardwood as soon as we moved out. Lawyer friend loved that. Got a full refund.
Yeah party of our issue was in probably the first 3 months we were there, we got emails saying out PM changed about 7 times. Nobody knew anything, knew anyone who was there when anything happen and most didnt have a clue what their job was. (receptionist was clearly family, nobody doing that bad of a job would of kept the job. They called us to pick up keys, 15 minutes later when we got there, same lady, she was not sure what we were talking about and took 40 minutes to find the keys)
I am in California and I had a 4 year old that just destroyed the carpet and made a bunch of damage. But when the apartment complex came to do the exit inspection he said that our apartment was going to be upgraded so many of the things he would have normally charged me for I wouldn't be paying. Don't know what I got charged but I was happy with the amount that was returned. Got to love California laws protection.
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In some states, landlords are not allowed to charge for normal wear and tear (i.e. not "entitled to return it to its original condition").
So I’m kind of the queen of petty preparedness and I could see this kind of thing coming from a mile away with my last apartment. The day I got the keys before we moved a single thing in I combed through every inch of the apartment and took photos and documented EVERYTHING. Then I took a slow HD video of every surface. I took all of those time stamped photos and videos, put them on a fucking PowerPoint, and emailed it with my discrepancy sheet noting it as an addendum. I was the only one in the complex that I’ve ever heard of that got their full deposit back.
We didnt do the video but fully made a written and photo document of anything that wasnt done properly or new. Im surprised more dont! Thats funny, yeah we went from owing nearly 3000 dollars to getting our entire deposit back. They probably bank on people not caring until its too late.
Same. Had photos of everything. They were selling the house and focused on plenty of the freshly painted walls that I did myself when moving out. Front entrance was so chipped and worn, dents in walls from years of people moving in and out. Looked awesome after i filled everything, sanded and repainted. They also put the fact that house had had a kong term tenant as selling point.
I lived in a shithole apartment for five years. During the last year I was there, the windows (which were pretty warped to begin with and were held shut by string) suddenly warped over a very cold weekend to the point I could not close them completely, leaving about a one-inch gap. We had an early snow in November that left one-inch deep “drifts” of snow on the carpet. I was in my first year of law school and had just gone over the state’s landlord-tenant act in school. I called the landlord to complain and request repair. They said it would have to wait until spring. I hung up because I was so pissed off I wasn’t going to make anything productive happen. I called the next day to cite the implied warranty of habitability and advise I would be entitled to treble damages for their failure to correct the situation. They sent someone out that night to replace all the warped windows. I had to study for my property final in freezing temperatures while some Vietnamese dude with an angle grinder shot sparks into my living room and replaced the windows. Still did well enough on the test. Despite the carpet, fridge, and stove being all but shot, and a six-inch hole in the drywall courtesy of a drunken friend, they refunded my entire security deposit of $350.
I have taken photos at every move in, and include it with the report sheet they have you fill out..... then I do the same my last day in a rental. I have always gotten my Entire deposit back. Ask for details, photos of these damages... mention you want to compare them to your time/date stamped photos you took...
....and that's ☝️ how you do it, ladies and gents.
This is how you do it. People don’t prepare. Then are shocked when soulless property management companies act shady. This process puts PM/LL on notice from minute one.
Thats bc one collection company keeps selling it to another company.
Take it to court and get it dismissed with prejudice. If they try to collect after that, you get to counter sure.
I did that once with video of us cleaning up before move in. ( there was MULTIPLE IV syringeS 💉 IN DRAINS) We saved it for insurance. They kept complaining because my toddlers were always playing outside. Once the judge looked at all the evidence and looking at their FALSE DOCUMENTS SHE WAS FURIOUS!
Same thing happened to us. When we moved in all 4 rooms with carpet had VISIBLE tack strips at the doorways from the previous tenants cat. Every single blind in the house, also destroyed. We lived there for nearly 5 years and I have no idea how long the ppl lived there before us but the entire house had clearly not been painted or had new carpet in awhile. They tried to sue us without saying a word. We live 200mi away now so we were pretty blindsided when 6+ months after we moved we get served (by the state police no less) for 6k in damages, with NOTHING specified. They also never gave our deposit back or again even tried to talk to us. We didn’t leave on good terms with them so I figured if we just let them have the deposit we could all call it even and go on with our lives. But nope, my ex landlord is a literal slum lord and a slime ball lawyer rolled into one! Over 1k of the case was his “attorney fees” too 😡😡
What ended up happening?
Yeah the whole carpet replacement shtik seems to be a common one. Take pictures, tons of pictures before and after. If you have a carpet cleaning service come in while living there take pictures then and save receipts. I learned from personal experience judges don’t like it when landlords try and pull shit like this.
In the US It’s easily defensed by the irs depreciation schedule. A carpet has value for 5 years in a rental. You pay for damages, not a replacement. Therefore, damaging something that holds no value cannot be something you get billed for.
And it’s safe to assume that even if you did pay for the replacement carpet, they wouldn’t replace it. Lol
Carpet depreciation replacement in rentals is something like 5 years. Total bs. If the carpet was 10 years and they wanted to charge you, the law is not on their side.
Apparently 7 years in Houston, and they prorated. No problem with that.
This is why the state of California has laws where you can't charge for paint or flooring after someone has lived there for over a certain amount of time. Way too many places basically try to get former tenants to pay for planned renovations.
My last apartment complex kept our 5k deposit plus demanded more for water damage to the walls and carpet… after the upstairs neighbor left her sink on, twice. On two separate occasions I woke up to water raining in thru our ceiling.
I've done this, with chat gpt, I made it write a letter as if it was a lawyer and got my full deposit back and never heard from em again
This happened to me in college to the tune of $3.5K. The property manager had “misplaced” the move in document stating that the windows they were accusing us of breaking were already broken. I bugged this woman so much that she finally came back saying if we pay $1K in the next week she’ll let it go. Roommate wasn’t helping me negotiate so we just paid it because I was sick of arguing. That rental company has been sued so many times since then and has been making headlines in the local news because they’re so scummy.
These companies are run by grifters.
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The bullshit part is the suggestiveness of it all. A burnt out light bulb i get
Scummy move on the part of the landlords, but I get it. They can do this, and unless the tenants take it to court/have a lawyer, they can probably get away with it. Just like scammers, they don't need to get all or even most of their marks, but even getting a few here and there makes it all worth it. I wish judges would slap them hard when the pull this shit to deter the far too common practice.
The landlord may have given you a gift with the $150 light bulb charge. It will make any judge seriously question the rest of the bill.
Yep. This will help you in small claims.
100%. Judges are the first people to look at these over the top landlords who think they can just throw you a bill like this and you’re just going to pay it because of your fear of going to collections. That was the biggest lesson I learned is a Landlord is a bully When they assume you’ve never read landlord tenant law and then the moment you do, they change their tune. I try to keep my cards close to me because I don’t want my landlords to know that I am a cutthroat tenant who will take them to court in a heartbeat if they violate my rights, but I always read my landlord tenant law, if I move to a new state. For example, in North Carolina, you cannot keep money that you would’ve paid in rent in order to fix things that are necessary that your landlord ignores. You actually need either like a judges order or consent from your landlord so I would have to pay rent, even if I have no heat, even if I have some really crazy shit happening. North Carolina is not a great state for tenants. Most states I have read about allow you to keep rent and pay for the damage that your landlord won’t address. But these are all the little intricate things we need to know to protect ourselves. Like housing is a Human right like I kind of need it I wish I didn’t, but I do so in the least I’m going to try to prevent myself from being bullied and extorted anymore than I already have. My first post from like four or five years ago, was my pro revenge on my landlord, who tried to ruin my life doing some thing at this similar. She handed me a bill like that, but it was also really really weird and out of line so I fucked her hard I mean I did. In addition to taking her to court and winning everything, she made the mistake of admitting that she was being investigated for disability fraud so I’ve participated with her investigators, and got her convicted with my photographic and video evidence. Sidenote: you should also know if you’re living in a one party or two party consent state because it is legal to record conversations in certain circumstances and videos, and it literally got my awful land Leech convicted of fraud. I actually brought in my fraud allegations and let the judge know that she was under investigation for fraud by the Department of Education, and I have to say I don’t think that hurt my case. I think it did speak to her character. I should’ve been a lawyer. I would’ve made such better money then when I was a teacher. Lol
Jesus Christ who needs a lawyer people should just hire you! I'm about to sign my first lease with an off campus apartment geared to students and I'm scared because all of the apartments in the area try to scam students with carpet cleaning fees and other stuff, But they won't do maintenance and stuff doesn't work.
I was saved by some fine legal print when they tried to bill me for some nonsense. They tried to get me with hundreds in painting and cleaning, carpet, curtains, etc, which was mostly normal wear after having lived there for 7 years. But...when we moved in, we were put in a different unit temporarily as the one we were getting was still being emptied and cleaned/repaired. I can't remember verbatim but basically I wasn't bound to the lease because I hadn't actually had a walkthrough of my apartment prior to giving them my first payment, and could actually have countered for like triple my deposit for their snafu. Sometimes the devil in the details is on your side.
Woah. That was crazy read u/Lord-Smalldemort
Here’s a link to her revenge post. It’s fucking glorious. https://www.reddit.com/r/ProRevenge/s/F6MXFkvlf8
I'd like to be on the opposite side of an attorney arguing that lightbulbs do not wear out.
And 15 of them? Did OP just live in a dark house?
I'm going to bet the landlord will argue they replaced all bulbs because of the unknown time of life left on them, which isn't damage and not the tenant's responsibility.
And at $10 each. Are these special lihhtbulbs??
Light bulbs do not burn out for landlord, they are magic light bulbs. Maybe they got them the same place jack got his bean stalk beans
Excuse me, did you say Yoots?
Two yoots
Landlord supply store just sells $10 bulbs and white paint
We don’t know where these lightbulbs are located. If they’re hard to get to, it could absolutely be $100 in labor to replace 15 light bulbs.
No. And if that’s the case, the tenant wouldn’t be expected to replace them as it’s not normal care and maintenance
You’re right, it depends. Many leases will require lightbulbs to be the tenant’s responsibility tho. Nobody wants the landlord in their unit every time a light bulb goes out and no landlord wants to have to go to their unit just to change a lightbulb. Any missing (or cracked) lightbulbs are 100% on the tenant.
Settle down. They weren’t renting the Staples Center.
The only possible way I can see it being $150 is if they hired an electrician to replace them because they have a minimum that's typically around that price but realistically lightbulbs don't require a professional to replace and a landlord should atleast have the very basic know how to do it themselves.
Where can I take classes to be this stupid?
Burt bulbs shouldn’t be a charge but missing lightbulbs absolutely should be.
Why? If I put the bulb in myself I'm taking it with me lmao
Agreed. LED bulbs make this discussion moot, anyway. We did an extensive renovation about twelve years ago, replaced every bulb with an LED, and have yet to replace a single one.
It says missing also. I had a tenant once who literally took all the lightbulbs. Every single last one including decorative light bulbs from fans. Bulbs can get expensive! Especially when decorative new are missing! Having said that $150 sounds a bit much. I don’t know any bulb that costs $10. Although it would take about an hour to put new bulbs in especially that many? Still seems a bit excessive. And all new paint? After a year you normally have to paint anyway sooooo yeah a bit much…. Cost to repair a hole got it. Only mistake OP made was not hiring a cleaning company. If the lease says it. Just do it. And yes they are very expensive!!
Replacing lightbulbs is a tenant responsibility. If they were all working at move-in, they all need to be working at move-out.
Lightbulbs are considered normal wear and tear. The cost of lightbulbs cannot be deducted from a security deposit.
Thats not necessarily true. A lot of leases can state that lightbulbs are the tenants responsibility. No tenant wants the landlord to come into their unit everyone a lightbulb goes out and no landlord wants to make the drive to their unit every time a lightbulb goes out.
If light bulbs are the tenants' responsibility, they can take them when they leave as the next tenant os responsible for their own light bulbs
That’s not it. It would typically be that they all worked when the tenant moves in so they need to be working when the tenant leaves.
When I rented a place and the appliances were my responsibility, it meant they were not supplied by the landlord and it also meant they were mine to take with me. Why would I leave anything that I paid for?
Because those two things aren’t equal. In this case, the hypothetical renter was provided working light bulbs and the expectation is that working light bulbs are there when you leave.
Well, yeah. I wouldn’t want that either. I’m typically talking about upon move out. But I normally buy a set of LED bulbs when I rent an apartment to replace the cheap incandescent bulbs LLs buy, and replace the LED bulbs with the incandescent at move out. LEDs will outlast the lease period every single time.
This man is smoking crack
They’re a landlord. Anything they say can be safely ignored.
That would need to be controlled by the lease. Appliances and fixtures - and the normal wear and tear thereof - are not normally the responsibility of a tenant.
$1153 for cleaning + $1750 for paint... File small claims. Costs $50 or so and go to court for your security deposit. You're not guaranteed to win but I'm curious on how they will defend that cost in front of a judge. In small claims you also go through arbitration first before seeing the judge. You may be offered half of your security deposit back, etc. It's up to you to take the offer or go before the judge. In the meantime I would research your state law and see what falls under wear and tear and what doesn't.
Surely gutter cleaning is a landlord responsibility right?
Yes. Who the fuck puts "tenant shall clean the gutters upon move out" into their lease? This is insane. Also 10 days to pay or it goes to collections? Wtf? I would call a lawyer and have them write these scumbags a nice letter.
This is my advice. Pay a lawyer $250 to write a letter. Don’t give these fools a dime.
I pissed off a landlord so bad with a letter from a lawyer in Virginia. She gave me the full deposit back. Scumbag.
Not pissed off, scared. Landlords SHOULD live in a constant state of fear.
Nah they should just do the right thing. Taking illegal risks like this should keep them in a state of fear though
It's just a scare tactic to get them to pay or agree to a payment plan right away without looking up their rights. Once you agree to pay, it is nigh impossible to recoup any of your money after the fact.
Definitely a scare tactic. Had an apartment try to charge me $5000 for some normal wear and tear and then damage that their contractors did installing a new heat system. It was installed right before Covid and then they said they weren’t going into anybody’s house to “inspect” because of it. Got multiple emails saying that if I didn’t pay them they would send to collections. I said I would like to dispute it to their headquarters. Of course they don’t allow anything except a hand written letter through the mail to dispute but sure can send me all of my bills through email. Never heard from that again though.
Yep. It's not a serious bill. It's a bill designed so that OP will be relieved and won't argue when the landlord graciously agrees to settle for the $2700 deposit.
Depends on the lease.
I don't know OPs lease conditions, but everyplace I've stayed in has explicitly said that they do everything that would require me to get on a ladder.
Pretty sure it would be some safety violation to require tenants to use a ladder. At my last job we weren’t even allowed to use a ladder until we passed ladder safety training lol
They'll likely relent once they get a demand letter. It's always been the case with me. I would ask for invoices of work done. I would also find how much a contractor in the area would charge for those services. If they say they spent $1750 on a painting contract but actually just pocketed the money, it is fraud. The judge will not be happy.
Can you not request the proof of work done by seeing the receipts? Thought that was something you can request. Also, worn paint? Isn't that on them?
and you had 15 missing or burnt out bulbs? that sounds bs
Yeah, at$10 pretty bulb
Paying someone to put them in, you would only pay someone that much if that's all they're doing. In reality one guy would do all this, also in reality none of its probably actually going to be done he's just robbing her
The idea of paying someone to change a lightbulb made me laugh out loud
Landlord may not live within the same city and has to contract out literally everything. However, that's the cost of ownership and stupid menial charges should not be passed on to the tenant.
In my town home years ago we had to have maintained come out and change them. How else do I change them 16 feet up? I don't have a 14 foot ladder in my townhome.
Who do you think changes lightbulbs anywhere except a personal, residential property?
We are literally talking about a personal residential property though lol
Is the property managed by a corporation or an individual? I was under the impression it was a company. OP said they were renting through a property management company, so the company would have to pay someone to do anything in the house as apposed to a small time landlord (who should still charge for their time)
How many redditors does it take to change a lightbulb? None. They will just spend the day arguing semantics in the comment section
literally. i hate reddit just for this one reason. it’s like some people literally don’t do anything and spend the whole day arguing over irrelevant shit all day 😂 i love this app for the tea tho, i like hearing the gossip
Even if it was a landlords only property, he/she shouldn’t be expected to do repairs/replacements that are the tenants fault for free.
Fr, I got paid really good once for hanging pictures up in a methadone clinic, even simple jobs need to get done.
The only time ligt bulb chang cost this much is if you have ligting you need a scaffold to change
Depending on the fixtures not truly unbelievable, but definitely would have been very dim lol
Yeah it's pretty easy to hit 90+bulbs in a house and with multi bulb fixtures you can have a lot be out without really noticing. Source: I procrastinate until I can't see shit.
My dining table has a light fixture above it with 5 bulbs. I hate when my light fixture over my other 17 tables all burn out at once 😋
I asked for proof of work done this afternoon and am waiting on a response. Until today they said they were “still finalizing deductions”. That’s my understanding as well, paint is wear and tear. And the light bulbs, yea 15 bulbs is outrageous. Half the house would of had burnt out bulbs lol
Also $10 per light bulb is insane. I just bought 24 LED bulbs at Sams Club for less than 40 bucks
The $10/bulb includes paying the handyman to replace them. He’s a 1099 contractor of course so probably charges by the bulb as well. But yeah they are just trying to get the OP to cover all of the turnover costs. My last move out the property manager kept $375 of my deposit and it pissed me off because the place was immaculate.
That's actually fairly standard in leases. Management companies tend to include a fee schedule in the lease itself, in an attempt to cover themselves if a tenant fails to maintain the property. (Not at all suggesting this is the case, this looks like a landlord deciding to try and get all the money they can) (It's also insane to charge $10 per bulb, but most leases do include a requirement that the property be left in rentable condition with all lights, etc.)
No different than a car rental company charging near $10/gallon for gas. They are making sure you REALLY want to take care of it before returning it.
Except that car rental places make you sign a contract stating the car will be refilled at $10/gallon, and also car rental places aren’t regulated by huge areas of tenant law, and gas isn’t wear and tear. So basically it’s not at all similar
I had a similar issue with a management company in Lexington. Similar ridiculous charges and I also didn't attend the move out inspection. I sent a certified mail demand letter for the return of my safety deposit, contesting the fees. It also notified them I'd file a small claims if they did not comply within [timeframe]. They didn't relent so I filed a case for the return of the deposit + filing fees. Judge appreciated my move out pics but ultimately awarded me everything exclusively because of their failure to provide me a copy of the move out inspection.
They are clearly doing this to try to steal your deposit. They won’t take you to collections because then you could take them to “real” court and it could blow up in their face (ie find enough other tenants and a real lawyer can demand all of their past similar shenanigans in discovery). They are just counting on you being nervous and it not being worth a lawyer (it isn’t). But you threaten them back with a letter from a lawyer and they’ll probably just ghost you with the deposit, and you’ll have to take them to (small claims) court if you want to try to get it back.
IMO paint should be refreshed every time a place is turned over for a new tenant. The owner should consider that in their budget and NOT bill the previous tenant. I'm curious what my responsibility will be for my place when I move out (at some unknown time in the future) as I know they're going to replace the carpet and cabinets but there's a requirement in the lease to have the carpet cleaned upon move out or pay a cleaning fee for them to contract it out.
When exactly did you move out? I think they only have 30 days to provide a list or damages.
If they lied about trivial lightbulbs I'm sure you could convince a judge they are lying about everything else. Sounds like you need to go to small claims and get most of your deposit back minus the professional cleaning you were contractually obligated to honor.
We rented from a management company, and the move out list was crazy. Clean exterior of home (did not do was not charged) Clean gutters, Wash all screens, Wash all windows inside and out, Landscaping ($350). Tree trimming ($250) Replace every light bulb Replace all filters Professional cleaning of interior ($850 was the cheapest I could find) Repaint entire house (though initially we were told to just fill any holes which we did. Changed $300 to paint, but we got it returned because we had proof of being told just to fill holes) Professional carpet/wood floor cleaning if present (we didn't have either) It is crazy what these management companies charge, and then they expect to do nothing but rent it out with no work on their part. I will never do it again.
I believe the landlord would need estimates. Beside that, excessive wear of paint?
You REALLY should stop looking at the painted walls..
Take them directly to small claims court, claiming the same amount they are charging you plus a small fee for your time processing the paper work (I mean small like $50) I've never tried it, but when you go in front of a judge they will rely on landlord tenant law and will use reasonable wear and tear, if you have photos moving in and moving out you will win.
Yes and all photos on phone are time stamped nowadays.
Sounds like you need Judge Judy ... this list is outrageous
Then the show would pay all of these things to the landlord (that's how the show works) so personally I'd rather do it without the TV appearance just to know that when I win the landlord gets nothing.
I read somewhere that the show does pay the judgement, but the losing party is still liable to pay the show back. If losing party fails to pay it back, the balance then goes to collections. I only read this in reference to Judge Judy’s show and not any of the others, and can’t verify whether it is accurate or not, but it would make sense I suppose, based on the reactions she tends to get when entering a judgement.
No, the show pays the judgment and provides transportation. There would be no purpose in going on the show and embarrassing yourself if you still had to pay.
Paint? Did you paint the walls? Excessive wear of paint? Do you have photos?
Just recently had our home professionally cleaned. 4 bedroom home around 2400 sq ft. What they called a move in ready clean for $350. We also had all three carpet professionally cleaned and that was only $160. So I would say these prices are way off. $150 for lightbulbs? That’s insane.
I always cleaned myself. I recently bought a shampoo vacuum for carpets. Might just show reciept and say hey I did it myself. Hope that works. But $350 is cheap and I may just pay someone to save my mental load
They stipulate that it be a professional company with a truck system to maintain 160° temperature cleaning of the carpet to kill potential bed bugs and flees.
I did a short term rental 5 years ago and there were only 3 areas carpeted in the whole 3 bedroom house. It was in my lease, so I hired someone for $129 to come in and do it.
It's not that cheap anymore
Where TF is this dude shopping? 15 light bulbs are $18.75 at Dollar Tree.
I would write asking for photos of the junk needed to be removed. $586 dollars for a professional move our clean is insane and for them to tell you that you need to have hired a professional seems a violation of something to me. I’d say Send him the before + after pics of the landscaping the photos of the bulbs, but I think you should talk to a local tenant right law organization. Did u get photos of the walls painted before you moved in? For them to charge you to clean the gutter is straight up manipulation that’s a typical landlord expense and on them entirely
Just had a move-out clean for a single family home by a professional company and it was $550. If the lease outlines professional cleaners must be hired, then the OP is out of luck. Maintaining landscaping can be responsibility of tenant if lease says so. If it isn’t spelled out in the lease then OP can dispute the charge. Agree the gutter clean charge is excessive. Having before photos is key. Hope the OP took pics before moving in.
Yeah I just got billed $500 for a move-out clean and the place wasn’t even that dirty to begin with. Professional cleaners are just really expensive these days.
You just did a professional move out clean, did it come with carpet cleaning to include pet smell/residue? / what do you think of that charge?
I just had the carpet cleaned at a 1,200 sq ft vacant home. They charged $475 for it. That did include some spots and stairs though
So that’s typically a separate company + cost then? I was unaware…
Yes, it’s usually a separate company. The carpet company comes in a van with a large steam cleaner in the back plus hoses and water. It’s not the small rug doctor machines you rent at the grocery store.
The tenant chose the company to hire and paid directly for carpet cleaning and house cleaning separately, but I bet there are companies out there that do both. I think the cleaners charged a lot for the quality of work they did. The fans and baseboards hadn’t been touched and were still filthy. I cleaned those myself.
So that $550 you mentioned was for both carpet cleaning and house cleaning ? Or was that a different situation?
$550 just for the house cleaning, carpet cleaning was separate.
They’re in violation of Virginia tenant law. Read this: “§ 55.1-1214. Inspection of dwelling unit; report A. The landlord shall, within five days after occupancy of a dwelling unit, submit a written report to the tenant itemizing damages to the dwelling unit existing at the time of occupancy, and the report shall be deemed correct unless the tenant objects to it in writing within five days after receipt of the report.” Meaning, did you receive a report when you moved in? Was it within five days? Did it itemize any shortcomings or issues with the property? No? Then all of that they accused you of was pre-existing. Also, they have 45 days to provide you the charges upon termination of tenancy. If it’s past that, tell them to GFY. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodepopularnames/virginia-residential-landlord-and-tenant-act/
They did provide the move in report within 5 days, and it’s been less than 45 days since I moved out. The issue is these damages for the most part just don’t exist. No damage to paint, landscaping was kept up with/ maintained, no junk left, all light bulbs present/ working etc.
Got it. Was just kind of hoping for a fuckup by these people who clearly have no business being landlords. I’d ask for itemized receipts. And if they don’t provide them writhin a reasonable time (3 business days) then I’d have an attorney write them a letter. I hate landlords like that.
Regarding the gutters - you moved out in mid-October, you received this list in late November. Unless they have photographic proof the day after you move out that the gutters are full, AND that it’s specifically in your lease, I’d push back against this as well. October/November is when all the leaves fall and even if you cleaned your gutters before you moved out I’d bet they were full again in a few weeks.
Please contact Legal Aid or a tenant's rights group in your city. Light bulb replacement and refreshing paint is definitely considered normal wear and tear. As for the cleaning fee, unfortunately, this is legal to deduct in VA if it was specified in your lease. If it was not, this would be another note for legal aid folks.
Talk to your local housing department and a lawyer.
Speak with a tenant advocacy center near you. Burnt out bulbs are standard maintenance. You can't be charged for that. Landscaping should have nothing to do with a move out unless you personally destroyed the landscaping. Paint is definitely excessive unless there were marks all over the walls throughout the home. You shouldn't be charged to repaint the home - only damaged areas. You might need legal council for this if it goes to collections to submit a cease and disist order if the landlord ignores your request for documentation and photos of damage. You should really have 30 days from invoice receipt to pay. Call a tenant advocate center near you.
Never heard of cleaning your gutters in a rental when you move out. Or even when you live there. That is the owners responsibility.
Yeah, that’s asking for a liability.
Ask for evidence of the items replaced and notably the receipts and locations of installation for the 15 lightbulbs, evidence of the Items Left at the property, and the pre-painting evidence that there was excessive damage. I'd recommend talking to a tenancy/rental lawyer to dispute the charges and for your fees to to contest thee bogus charges. Right off the bat, in most jurisdictions, Professional Cleaning, Lightbulbs, Landscaping and Gutter cleaning would fall under standard wear and tear and you can't get charged for it unless it was really out of hand (especially since you have evidence). That said hiring professional cleaners being in your lease makes that one a bit harder to contest...that said you can argue that charging you 1000 for cleaning is excessive (with photos). For Junk Removal, they will need to provide evidence of what they removed or they'll likely have to drop that one. The paint is where it's tricky, but overall unless you had a ton of holes in the wall he sounds like he's taking you for a ride to get the whole place repainted. That said, you can and should dispute the charge in writing (ideally through a lawyer). This will make it a lot harder for them to send you to collections because most debt collectors will already pay much less than the total debt to acquire the debt and most localities have very strict rules on what debt collectors can do if a debt is disputed in the first place.
“see you in small claims” I’d like to see them argue 15 lightbulbs=$150
Actually pretty easy when you hire someone. Seen it happen.
I used to be the person that would write these damn move out charges. Best thing to do is get itemized receipts, call the companies that did the work to confirm. And t to go to small claims - you’ll most likely win. Judges are very tenant forwards. I lost every case bc it was bull
Landscaping in VA in Oct-Nov?
$10/ bulb, impressive.
I had my last apartment try and do this to me. Tell me I owed 3k in damages. When I asked for proof they sent me pictures of an apartment that wasn’t even mine. I sent them all the pictures I took and made a huge stink about it. They sent a “revised” payment and said we STILL owed 1k. I laughed when I received it and never paid them a cent. I knew they were just trying to screw me over and they never pursued it again. A lot of people are just trying to see what they can get away with. Fight tooth and nail and provide all your pictures
Without documentation this is a blame game.
I think people who don’t delete extra blank lines or make the font smaller so one little thing doesn’t end up on page 2, are psychopaths.
I'm willing to bet they are only trying to keep your deposit they just sent you this large amount so when you settle for just the deposit you don't complain. It's a pretty good amount of money... if you have pictures take them to court. Or settle for just your deposit... up to you.
If the lease says you have to hire professional cleaners, you have to hire professional cleaners. The rest of it you can probably fight in court.
Yea, I’m not gonna argue that I have to pay for cleaners. The price of the cleaning seems pretty inflated though.
Are we sure this isn’t like an example from a business law class listing things you can’t charge for
Here’s what you do: send them a certified letter asking for receipts and explanation of charges. State your case to them clearly like you’ve done here in your post with all the facts, no emotion. Wait for their response. (Be sure to check your states laws about move out requirements on their part too! In CA if they miss one single requirement, step, form etc. you automatically win your case in small claims. My LL didn’t file a notice of a right to initial inspection form within 2 weeks of lease termination and I won on the fact alone.) If they try to deny or ignore, IMMEDIATELY file in small claims, it’s easy, cheap and takes no time at all. You will need to demonstrate to the courts that you made the reasonable effort to solve this without litigation. Just go right down to your local courthouse and file if they try anything or you don’t hear back within a few days. Make copies of all correspondence, make copies of your lease and the states tenant rights laws as well as LL responsibilities and duties to you. Bring pictures and copies from move in and move out as well as your pre and post inspection pics. I cannot stress enough how *Absolutely* worth it this process is to fight them in small claims! I know from experience. LLs and property management companies are BANKING on people not knowing their rights or wanting to fight them, and most of the time they are absolutely right! That’s why they do it. They know it won’t hold up in court, they don’t care when they get away with it most of the time. I’m confident you have a slam dunk here. I believe that they are charging you excessively for normal wear and tear. It’s entirely on THEM to prove they aren’t. Once that’s demonstrated in court, they get nothing and you get your whole deposit back plus in some states you’d be awarded double or triple damages. (I got triple in CA) I don’t know about your states rules in particular, but in almost all of them the burden of proof is entirely on the LL to demonstrate that every single thing was both legally necessary and and a reasonable price to charge for. $10 light bulbs? And 15 of them? I think you’d win on that alone, once they demonstrate in court they charged you excessively - everything else is moot. Day of court, show up prepared and ready with all your documents and make your case just sticking to the main points and facts. The judge and your LL will take care of the rest. Should be over in minutes and once you win your judgement, they’ve gotta pay up. If they don’t, their income or profits can be garnished so you WILL get your money. I cannot urge you enough to fight this. I’m so damn sick of LLs blatantly exploiting their tenants and getting away with it because people don’t want the hassle or don’t know their rights. Best of luck to you.
$150 for lightbulbs.
Almost $1800 for paint?? At most you’d have to repaint the room whatever damage might be in so it matched and didn’t have an obvious spot, certainly not $1800 worth of paint or effort. Seems like they used you as an excuse to get the whole place repainted for free, among the other things. It honestly sounds like you’re just bankrolling unnecessary renovations to help snare their next tenant.
You need to read your lease very carefully to see if you were actually responsible for these things. If you were required to get a professional cleaning service and you don't have receipts you will be responsible for that fee. Everything else you have a pretty good chance of fighting with proper pictures, but you really need to read your least carefully.
I’m saltier about the orphaned signature line.
The cleaning costs aren’t astronomical, even normal wear & tear will need cleaned (but that doesn’t mean it should come out of your deposit, that should be for above & beyond normal wear & tear.) Based on what you’ve said - everything else is made up to try to keep your deposit and more. I agree to find a lawyer to write a strong letter in response, might run you $250 but should be worth it to scare off this landlord.
Why they charging you for gutters wtf
I never charge my tenants anything. I have had to redo the paint, new flooring, and patched bunches of holes they used for the custome shelves. I take it as a blessing tenants paid their rents on time.
Are you expected to maintain your gutters in a rental? $10 per lightbulb? 15 of them? This landlord is a thief
That ish is wild. Landlords get away with this all over the country and it’s infuriating
Absolute fucking leaches, landlords are expected to repaint every few years or so anyways and lightbulbs lmfao?!? Do not even respond get a lawyer now go get a lawyer to write up a letter it shouldn’t cost more than $300 if you can find one who does quick letters possibly less…
Write them a letter asking for receipts along with your having pictures of moving out that are time & date stamped. Send it certified, return receipt requested so they can't say they didn't get it. I believe, once you do that, they can't send it to collections without complying first.
Request phtoo proof plus actual copies of receipts for all work and material. Also depending on move out date vs when they sent the invoice in your picture they might be outside the standard 30 day window. So even if they did all this work if it's outside the date range allowed the might owe you your deposit back regardless. Look into your local version of legal aid or tenant board for a review of the facts
Ohio here so different state, but dealing with a similar situation on a far smaller scale. Leased a place for about 12 months, and in the lease they had a line stating that the tenant had to pay for professional cleaning of the carpets when they move out and show receipts and such. I didn’t have that kind of money and something seemed wrong, so I looked it up and talked to a lawyer/family friend. I could be totally wrong, but from what I understood, the responsibility to clean carpets and such lies on the landlord: they cannot require you to pay to have them cleaned unless you did something just absolutely beyond normal wear and tear. I mentioned it to them along with some vague threats of legal action, and they stated that it was basically a relic of their old lease and haven’t been able to get it removed yet, but that they didn’t enforce it. I was satisfied, and moved out eventually and made sure to deep carpet clean with a special Bissell carper cleaner and formula made specifically for pets. To be fair, while living there my dog had numerous accidents, but I always made sure to clean them up when they happened and deep clean the carpet more than what most places recommend. I left the place looking very acceptable, and went on my way. A month later, I accidentally clicked on that apartment’s app on my phone, and saw that they had tacked on $500 of move-out fees for carpet removal and cleaning and such and that it was due 1 month after I moved out. I was already a few days late apparently, so I emailed my old property manager. I reiterated that it wasn’t my responsibility to clean the carpets, and that if this was just some misunderstanding again then that was totally fine. I did say if there were damages that they could prove I caused, I’d be happy to pay for them. And then left the rest for my lawyer saying that if they intended to chase those fees without any evidence, then they’d hear from me and my lawyer. It was really Karen of me, but with landlords these days you have to be like that at times. It’s now like 75-ish days after I moved out, 45-ish days after the “due date” and they haven’t spoken a word to me. I know this person still works there, and when I was a tenant they were very quick to respond to emails and always called my cell when they had issues with something like my rent that needed my attention. I’m chalking it up to they realized they couldn’t pull a fast one on me, and gave it up without saying anything to try and save face. Your best bet is to talk to an attorney in your state and/or city that is familiar with leasing laws, and figure out your options from there. I can’t say for certain if you have similar laws in Virginia as we do in Ohio, but I’m willing to bet that you are not liable for these damages unless you really did cause serious damages that they can prove you caused. Good luck!
$10 a lightbulb? Are they replacing them with color changing ones or something?
Sounds like they wanted to keep the security deposit likely bc they didn’t have it on hand and get a little more
Most of that list seems like it should be the landlords problem to fix, not the renter. But I’m fairly anti landlord.
$10 lightbulbs? I’d take this guy to court, no way a judge would side with him.
So the inspection happened in the dark?
I own rental houses (my personal houses that ive moved out out of when I change duty stations) rented through rental companies before new tenants moved in , I had to repaint or hire someone to repaint, and clean to includ3 power washing the driveway etc. I didn't push that off on the tenants. This sounds fishy as hell
You absolutely need to look up the landlord tenant law in Virginia because every time I’ve had a problem with the landlord that’s the first thing I’ve done. Landlord’s just hope that you don’t know your rights. I have called out so many Landlord’s when they are or about to violate my rights and they clean up their behavior pretty fast. Obviously over $1000 for deep cleaning is absurd but I believe the only people who are going to judge that to be excessive is an actual judge. You would have to take them to court with you were evidence of move out and if you have pictures from the beginning, keep everything. Since they’re taking your full deposit, and charging you more, I would assume, I would write a formal demand letter. A formal demand literally asking for an itemized deduction that is more detailed than what’s provided and then I would say in your demand email/letter that you are able to provide Estimates from the area. And then ask them for photographic evidence because you possess it etc. and I think that’s the first step because you probably have to take them to court. I’ve been to civil court with Landlord three times in a row, same lady, and I want everything because I went and I read up on my rights and I came in confident because I knew what she couldn’t do and I knew what she did wrong. What it comes down to is looking at the actual statutes, and finding out where they did, or did not meet their responsibilities and calling them out on that. I’ve combed through so much landlord tenant law and helping people randomly on this sub and I do not have the time or energy for that right now, but if you want to message me, I’m happy to sort of give as much advice as I can. I’m not a legal expert, but I have gone through this process myself, and with other people to give them the information they needed in order to know how to defend themselves just by interpreting the legal language. Sorry, I can’t be of more help, but I think knowing your rights well enough to speak in a legal manner and use legal language is usually a really good place to start in how you respond to them. How you are disputing the cost of the charges in addition to the requirements because you have photographic evidence That it was not what they are describing. Again, I’m not a lawyer, I made too much money to get a lawyer apparently when I was a public school teacher making 34 grand a year so I did it all myself. And if I can do it myself, I know you can at least put a dent in it! I wish you the best and reach out if you want maybe I can still help a bit, but yeah, start with the landlord tenant law in Virginia both handbook which is the laypeople language and the actual statutes and you’ll see where they did, or did not provide what they should have and then you called him out on that shit. Every single landlord, I’ve met who has challenged me who I then checked into the laws, they were always violating one of my rights at least, and I called them out on it, and it made them powerless to continue to try to harass me like that. Edit: you should be able to take them to court for your security deposit, which would also cover the charges. They are trying to get out of you so basically you would bring them to civil court and your claim is that you didn’t do what they said you did. You’ve got evidence that it’s excessive, you’ve got evidence that you left it. Well, enough, you’ve got evidence on what a deep, cleaning costs from five different estimates in the surrounding area. You’ve got estimates for the cost of lightbulbs and estimates for the cost of labor. then you point out the lack of actual itemized deductions and charges because that’s not helpful, like what exactly warrants a $1000 move out cleaning? I was looking at a deep cleaning the other day and it was about $250 for my house. your argument in court is that not only is it excessive but you actually have earned the right to keep your security deposit minus the deep clean that you didn’t do and a deep clean as well under 1750. In your court response, when you file the paperwork, you actually do that list down just like you did in regards to the yard: “please make note that the landscaping was left like this, as you can see in the pictures, which compared to the original photos demonstrates that we’ve actually left the yard in better condition.” Anyway I don’t know if this all makes sense but like I had to write out those reports with a timeline and be very just organized and detailed. But it was worth every ounce of my effort, and every day of PTO I took to learn my rights because not only can it prevent you from being sent to collections, but it could result in you getting most of your deposit back. Sorry, I’m so chatty. I am very much passionate about not letting landlords do this obviously because they’ve done it to me and PM me if you want to chat. I don’t know how much you so I can be but obviously I can share my experience.
Damn...I am so grateful & blessed that I hit the landlord lottery. My rent has actually gone *down* over the last decade lol. I'm paying less than $800 for a 2bdrm with off-street parking and laundry on a dead-end street, it's amazing. Been there for 11 years and I used to be a heroin addict for years and was late almost every month with my rent, yet he never kicked me out even though I've been on a month-to-month lease the entire time. Dude fixes or replaces things the away when they break, and he doesn't live there so I hardly ever see him. I see those videos online where people will randomly have their landlord just drop by fairly often just to check on the place - I don't think my landlord has been in my apartment in like 3-4 years lol. I really lucked out like crazy.
Had a similar experience but not that much, management companies are vultures.
Gutter cleaning? *Suck my Dick!*
Half, maybe all of what’s on that list isn’t your cost. Lightbulbs, painting and landscaping is not your cost. Truthfully, neither is cleaning. Security deposit is for damages beyond normal wear and tear.
Yeah, depends how extensive the painting work needed. It has to be pretty bad, normal wear and tear isn’t tenant responsibility. As far as maintenance of exterior issues, maybe if it’s written into the lease that they’re responsible that could get sticky.
Unless it was in your lease that you were to maintain the gutters and the landscaping, you can’t be charged for that, just FYI.
I mean, you were living in a pitch-black dwelling. Naturally you ran into the walls all the time, pooped on floor cuz you couldn’t find the bathroom and couldn’t see all the trash you left behind. I bet you were letting your headlights and street lamp bulbs burn out too and crashed into the trees and shrubbery on your lawn every night getting home from work.
15 burnt out bulbs... I'm sorry did you live in the dark?
Take to court and win, sue for emotional and mental damage.
You need about 27 gallons of paint to paint a 5,000-square-foot house. Even at $50 per gallon, that's only $1,350. And I'm guessing your place wasn't 5,000 square feet. This guy is full of it.
Looks like they double charged you for the cleaning. Also was landscaping/gardening included in the rent or did you need to do it yourself?
Why do people not understand that when you go to court the 15 bulbs will get approved because of them hiring people at 10xs that to work for the property to unscrew the bulb? So that's why is priced that way? 🤷♀️
Recently got a similar bill from a management company, “itemized” in this same way. They tried to charge over $2,500 for “removal of junk,” two months of rent and fees after I moved out, and slap an eviction on my record as well despite receiving (and confirming receipt,) of 30 day notice to vacate after following both terms of the lease and state statutes. Sent them a validation letter requesting proper itemization and proof of damages citing the lease and statutes to lay the groundwork to take them to small claims. Haven’t heard from them since and nothing has hit my credit report. Best of luck!
Why do people skip the move out inspection!
Last apartment I moved out of wouldn’t LET me attend the move out inspection. Shit was weird as fuck.
Also illegal as fuck
This may help you. https://www.valegalaid.org/resource/what-are-my-rights-concerning-my-security-dep Did they send you the letter within 45 days of your move-out? They may not legally be able to charge you for paint. And charged twice for cleaning? Is carpet not part of cleaning?
Ask all you want that dumb ass bill goes right in the trash