Heres some more info as well. And if this helps, heres a link to a video walkthrough i did because the property manager they hired REFUSED several times to do a walkthrough, i have copies of the emails with constant excuses not to do it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH6rTn-Bv8o
Here is a email from my landlord today.
The house was in horrible condition when you moved out. Our prop manager said it was the worst condition house he had ever seen. We didn’t charge you for all the damage as its pointless. The lawn was maintained in a near perfect condition before you moved in (regardless of flooding which you never advised of). You left a patch of dirt when you moved out. The stove has a burn on the face plate when you moved out, which was not there before. The house still needed a cleaning of the areas I advised; that’s why you were only charged a portion. There were stains in the carpet which were new, we didn’t charge you for that. There was garbage left outside the house and in garage, the rep and handyman said so. They have a receipt of dump fee. It was not the painters or carpet guys. The handyman had to return many times as he kept finding things which were missing or broken. The blinds all had to come down as they were broken. You never advised when you moved in that any of them were not working, this was news to us. We had plenty of handymen come out there through the years. The broken kitchen drawer was not there either and you never advised us to fix it when the handymen were out there in the past. So we are out of pocket a huge amount of money just to get the place into a condition to rent, not to mention the additional time for our rep (whose time we have not added into this equation yet.) This was not normal wear and tear and the repairs have continued to delay us getting a new tenant in. George
I have talked to my neighbors tonight ont he phone, and they said they would write statements saying the house was fine, they have been inside and out of the house before for parties and such so know what it looked like inside. He is trying to over charge me on items, i will list eerything he is trying to charge me for, which to me 90% of them is considered wear and tear. I already wrote him a demand of deposit letter i will be mailing in the morning. Heres the list since my picture did not post earlier.
Item Cost Percent charged to deposit Amoun tto deposit
Paint inside 1463.00 25% 365.75 (this is wear and tear issue, was not new when moved in.
4hvac vents. 64.00 100% 64.00 wear and tear, people walk, and move things on these, just needed a repaint.
Bushes in back need cutting. 200. 25% 50.00 There are no bushes
Lawn damage 250. 100% 250. paid pet deposit, back yard has issues with flooding.
Missing light covers 45.00 100% 45.00 I agree with this one.
Burned out bulbs in house. 35.00 100% 35.00. Wear and tear isue.
Garbage left in house. 75.00 100% 75.00. In the video you see no trash in the house, and there was no trash outside the house. only thing left was a lawn equipment tub that was there when we moved in with a push mower. I told him to supply pictures of the thrown away items if they really exist.
Broken kitchen drawer. 150.00 100% 150.00. Do you see any broken drawrs in the video..? i also have pictures, whos to say his contractors didnt break since he didnt do a walktrhough like asked.
Broken blinds in all windows. 500.00 100% 500.00 Now this falls under a few. Wear and tear as NOT new when moved in, also a lie as upstairs NEVER had any blinds, only 1 was ever damaged by me but still wear and tear. And not only that, i have pictures of the painters having removed the blinds, and THROWING them into the garage, and piling **** on top of them, so most likely damaged by the painters, hows this my fault?
Cleaning in house. 400.00 50% 200.00. Im fine with this, always expect to pay some for cleaning even though in the video the house looked clean.
Missing fridge filter. 44.00 100% 44.00. I didnt even know it had a damn filter? so how could it be missing if i didnt know?
Missing key from door/re keying. 75.00. 100% 75.00. When i moved in i was given 1 titan key, 1 garage opener, and 1 mail key, i returned those, HE is not the one who gave me the keys, his old property manager was, so they re-keyed the house, how is this my responsiblity? i gave him all the keys i had.
So any advice here would be great, i did the math, and it seems he owes me back around 955, since 90% of the things fall into the wear and tear category, even though he is trying to say they dont. His property manager is a joke, never saw the house before, did not have copies of our walkthrough whenw e moved in, to him it should be as if the house was just built, he bashed me and the house constantly, it pisses me off majorly to see him get away with this behavior to to make me out as so horrid to the land lord i NEVER had issues with for 4 years. We never had a problem untill this property manager got involved. SO any advice would be great. , i already wrote a demand letter based on the links abouve. But to me it is NOT his right to decide what is normal wear and tear, seems to me age decides that on items that can be replaced such as bulbs, blinds, vents. I can see paying for the drawer if it was me who broke it, but i didnt, i have a feeling a painter did, and i dont even know what drawer. He has refused to send me pics, or my copy of the move in walkthrough, or receipts and a list of items that were new when we moved in to show that it may not be normal wear and tear, like if the blinds were new when we moved in then great. But i know he cant charge me for the paint, since wear and tear shows 2-3 years life for wall paint when livving in a rental unit. So any thoughts on this.?