Old Landlord send me a bill for "repairs" and states that he will have his...

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Sunshine78

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...lawyer call me...? I moved into this apt when I was in my early twenties. Its was my first apt. It was very outdated and not in the best shape "smelly hallway, old carpet, stained bathroom shower". I didn't get a walk through and advised of the pre-exisiting conditions nor did I know I was suppose to take pictures. A year later someone purchased the 4 family house. Honestly, I was happy I had my first apt. The new landlord never did a walk through or asked if anything need to be fix, etc. During my time there I had many migraines and found out that the pilot light was not working in the oven and told the landlord he said he fixed it. Once he stopped by to fix the entry door and noticed the crack tile and told me he would fix it. I let him know it was there when I moved in. In the winter he would only put the heat to 65degrees and sometimes there wasn't any heat at all. I would call him and he would say he "fixed" it but it would work and then not work again. So when I give him my notice 28 days before I was moving, I was surprised to see how much of a hard time he gave me. He said I would owe him for the following month because I didn't give him enough notice. Fine.......take it out of my deposit. When I moved out he did a walk through and pointed out that the shower need to be cleaned more. My husband cleaned it again to his best ability. Mind you the shower was never in perfect condition. So we thought everything was done because he said in 30 days he would return the remainder of our deposit. To my surprise again I get an email from him with charges for the following:

Extra Cleaning than normal $105.00
Broken Lock Repair $137.00
Broken Radiator Cover Repair $33.27
Replace 20 broken Kitchen tiles $670.00
Replace 7 broken Bathroom tiles $270.00
Repair Damaged Bathroom Electrical socket $102.00 Clean Bathroom Stain $22.70
Repair Mold and Wood Rot damage $98.78
Repair Broken Closet Door $148

What can I do and what are my rights?
 
Without proof and pictures, I'm not sure there's much you can do. Going to court would just cost you even more money, and I'm not sure you even have a case.

Your best bet would be to write the landlord a letter proposing a payment plan if you can't afford to pay it all at once. Send the letter by certified mail so you will have proof that the landlord received it. Make sure any correspondence from now on is written and you keep a record of it. If you propose a payment plan and send a check as a sign of good intent, you will look a lot better in the eyes of the judge if he ends up taking you to small claims court.
 
A friend of mine recently had a similar issue arise with regard to flooring. What I told him was this: I'd let them sue me for the money. *Never* pay up just because somebody sends you an email asking for money. It takes virtually no time and no commitment (and no legitimacy) to ask for money, but it takes a lot of time, commitment, and a legally correct position to convince a court you're entitled to it. The trouble is that many people, especially tenants, are conflict-averse, and therefore there's a strong tendency to just pay up money when asked.

Landlords know of this reality. Many of them exploit it.

This is a little more difficult of a position to take when they already have your money, as in the case of a deposit.

However, I'd not take it lying down, even if they had a deposit. I'd send a polite letter stating that all the things wrong with it existed at the time Itook possession of the unit, and likewise at the time he purchased it from the old landlord, and therefore I'm entitled to the return of my deposit, failing which I would have no choice but to institute legal proceedings.

Here's the other thing. Let's say I rent an apartment with a ten-year-old carpet in moderate condition. Over the next two years, I destroy the carpet, then move out. Am I liable for damaging the carpet? Yes. Am I responsible to replace the carpet completely? Heck no. Had I not damaged the carpet, the owner would have a carpet with twelve years of wear and tear. It unjustly enriches him for me to be required to pay for him to get a brand new carpet (and likely one of a better quality than the one I destroyed in the first place). I'm liable for the *value* of the carpet I destroyed (being a twelve-year old carpet) and the cost of installation pro-rated for the expected life of the carpet.

Therefore, I'd also ask him for several things, if he decided not to return my deposit and/or if he insisted upon payment: (A) Invoices for the actual repairs, replacements, and cleaning, by the providers of said services; (B) Invoices for the *original* objects being repaired/replaced, particularly in the case of the flooring (The landlord is unlikely to have these. Talk about having an appraisal done to determine the undamaged value of the objects.); and (C) a copy of the Agreement of Purchase and Sale, with all schedules and appendices. (The last is unlikely to be useful; however, it's possible that there was some disclosure or representation about the condition of the property by the vendor. If the vendor disclosed such deficiencies, then you're sitting pretty. If the vendor asserted that the place was spic-and-span, then you may need to get the vendor involved in your discussions. If there's some express clause that the house is "as-is", then that may be useful as well, suggesting that the purchaser knew and accepted that there would be some existing deficiencies.)

Here's the bottom line: $1600 is always a lot more money to a tenant than it is to a landlord. If departing tenants make it abundantly clear that they're not going to pay up quietly, but will force the landlord to jump through a stack of [reasonable] hoops to prove entitlement to the money, especially when the landlord isn't going to be able to prove such entitlement, it's a strong incentive for the landlord to back off.
 
Tell him you will see him in court when he files. State your case to the judge. Normally you would be screwed because of no walk through and no pics but being he bought the property after you moved in he has no first had knowledge of the condition of the apartment when you moved in so he cannot determine what would constitute damaged by you. He will not get a lawyer for $1586.75 He will have to take you to small claims court.
 
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