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My landlord kept my deposit and is saying I owe $300 in addition. Is this legal?
I rented a 4 bedroom house with my 4 kids 3 years ago. It's in a so so neighborhood and i had 3 break in's/theft and my son was beaten a year ago resulting in 3 police reports and an ER visit. I wasn't able to afford to move earlier and in Jan I found another home in a safer area.
During the time we lived their my 2 teens and their friends were hard on the walls and doors (which was 1/2 drywall and cheap hollow luan doors). I notified the landlord I was moving on 1/22/09 and moved the weekend on 2/15/09. I spent 2 weeks repairing the house replacing most of the doors, I hired a contractor to fill the holes in the walls, shampooed carpet, left the house empty and clean. My lease was up on May 15th. I paid rent to 3/15 and she rerented the house on 3/27. had a $920 security deposit. When I moved in everything was in good condition however it was 5-10yrs old then. I spent roughly $2,000 on door knobs, doors, stain, etc. (I have receipts) She is charging me $75.00 for replacement 12" sticky floor tiles that were .39 each and $120 for her labor because 10 were damaged/scuffed and she couldn't find the same design to repair just the damaged tiles. She charged a total of $367 for her labor which included the above, filling nail holes in molding, applying sealer to the doors (I had stained them 3x and it was a 1 step stain). Obviously I can't put the whole list on here but I replaced everything brand new. I did all the prep work so she could just go in and paint. I bent over backwards and took a 401k loan and I still get a $300 bill and no deposit. Is this legal?
5 Answers
- LandlordLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
Legal, yes and no.
The landlord can not bill you for their own time. Not a minute. If she did this herself labor is free. She can only bill you for materials and labor she paid someone else to do. You are entitled to receipts.
Take her to small claims court, you should get most of your deposit back, plus court costs.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Most of what you posted is completely immaterial. Landlords are not responsible for crime in the area and that does not give you grounds to break a lease. You do not say if you did or not, but I just wanted to point that out.
What you spent on repairs is immaterial. All that maters is the additional they had to pay after that. Charging for replacing the damaged floor tiles and all else that you said she had to do is legal.
The bottom line here is that your kids and their friends destroyed the house and you must pay to fix it. If you did not complete the job or do what the landlord considered a good enough job then they can legally charge you. The law is to leave it in same or better condition from when you moved in.
It does not sound like she has done anything wrong.
Source(s): I'm a property manager - Anonymous1 decade ago
bottom line if the LL feels your deposit will not take care of reasonable wear and tear they are with in there rights to charge you more, they do not have to accept any repairs you made and can call in a professional
- KMcGLv 71 decade ago
You may want to call a fair housing agency in your town. Her deposit should have covered anything that was left. after you moved out, that's what the deposit is for.
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- suezLv 61 decade ago
she has to give you copies of the bills to show where the money went - each state has a Tenant Law Handbook on PDF format it will give you instructions on how to confront her.
