My Landlord/Realtor Dilemma...

[jennifert9]

Thanks Captain! Great advice!! I think I will change the mesage and tell them not to come until next week. I don't know why I can't think of these things myself! I guess I'm just so angry!!
And no, I have NO patince, I just want my security deposit back!! LOL!
Thanks for the help and great advice everyone...It was a HUGE help!

[Logan]

I cannot believe the number of showings, Jenn! Surely someone has expressed interest at this time.

Good heavens...........glad you're getting away tomorrow.

Logan

[AlleyCat]

I am a licensed real estate agent in Minnesota. Here, realtors have to arrange for all showings - you are under no responsibility to arrange these yourself. Pass on those messages to your landlord and wash your hands of it. Also, I don't know about your state's laws, but most states have laws that, for tenants, there has to be a minimum number of hours' notice for any reason (unless it is an emergency) so check that out.

[jennifert9]

I swear, sometimes I feel like my life is just one big series of calamities!! LOL!!

Now, my former landlord is refusing to return our security deposit! According to the lease, she had 4 weeks from the date we moved out to return it to us. That would have been 7/28. I figured I would go with July 1st as the "start" date of that 4 weeks however since technically we did not have to be out before then. So August 1st, the security deposit should have been in our mailbox. Nothing! We were in Jersey 2 weeks ago and I drove by the old homestead and saw a sold sign in the yard. I was trying to be generous and thought, "Oh, maybe she is just waiting for the closing...."

I called her on 8/5 and left a very nice message oh her home answering machine wondering if the check was lost in the mail, we never received it, giving her our address in PA AGAIN! No response. So I called her at her home number again yesterday. This time no machine picked up at all so I had no choice, I called her at work. I don't like doing that because I know it's difficult to discuss personal business at your workplace but I didn't have a choice. Again, I was very very nice to her on the phone. SHE however, was her usual rude self. She told me I needed to talk to her brother as "she no longer deals with that stuff." (Her mother owned the house and was actually our landlord. Roseanne was the "contact" person. Her mother passed away in March so we started making the checks out to Roseanne at her request. Her brother is not on the lease, nor have I ever met him, I only know his first name is Paul.) She tells me that he will call me in a little while. I asked for his number and hung up. I waited about 10 minutes and he didn't call so I called him. He said that there were "damages" to the apt. I was flabbergasted!!!!! (You don't get to use that word very often and it's a funny one!! )
He said there was "dog mess"? in the corner, the rugs were "urine stained" and there was mold growing through the floor due to the shower leaking because we didn't have enough shower curtains up.
Even typing it makes me angry again!! What rubbish! First of all, Duncan has not gone to the bathroom in the house since he was 6months old and even then he was housebroken within 2 weeks. He is excellent at that. He would never do such a thing unless I left him alone for days, which of course, I would never do!! The rugs...when we moved in, there were 4 filthy durty stained rugs in the apt. We asked the landlord if we could dispose of them since they were so gross and we prefered the hardwoods underneath. She said, "sure, they belonged to the previous tenant, do whatever you want with them." We promptly tossed the 2 in the LR and DR but kept the area rugs in the bedrooms. They were filthy and nasty too but the rooms were very small and our furniture covered 90% of them anyway. I put down some throw rugs on top of the rug. So yes, the rugs were dirty...but certainly not because of us!! What do they think, Duncan crawled under the bed to do his business?! NO WAY! It's preposterous! Anyway, the rugs were garbage! We had told our movers to throw them out, but admittedly, I did not see them do so as I had to keep Duncan away from them so we were outside most of the time. I did go in and sweep up the living room and dining room before we left. I had scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom with Clorox the day before.
The mold: yes, there was mold....!!! I noticed it about a month or so before we moved out. My computer desk sat against that wall so it covered it but when I was packing, I moved it and saw this nasty stuff growing up from the floorboards. Now, when we moved in, the floor had water damage already. You could see where the floor was stained and darker in that corner. The tub sat on the opposite side of the wall. It was one of the clawfoot tubs, caulked to the wall on one side. We had 2 shower curtains up the whole time we lived there. At the end of May, after the plumber had to come and fix our leaky sink and our leaky toilet, he came back the next day to check the shower. he told me to put up ANOTHER shower curtain along the wall. I went out that same night, bought one and the hooks and hung it up. NOW, this brother is telling me that we didn't have enough curtains up and it is OUR fault that the floor is damaged! Are these people insane!?? They act like it's MY house and MY responsibility that it is falling down! We would have problems with stuff, like the bathroom that I described above, the front door lock was broken, the living room ceiling leaked when it rained, the bedroom ceiling COLLAPSED on me while I was sleeping!!! The whole thing fell onto the bed!! We would call her and she wouldn't do a d*mn thing. The only way I got her to fix anything at all was to withhold rent finally! It was absolute h*ll living there, it really was. Between all these problems, the super expensive oil furnace from the early 1900s that heated the basement great, the realtors...I mean, seriously!!
I CANNOT believe that they are even attempting to keep the security deposit! And it's not a couple hundred bucks either! IT'S $1,612.50!! That's ALOT of money! SO the brother told me he would call me back and I have yet to hear from him. Tomorrow I am sending a demand letter certified return receipt and filing in small claims court. I have to go to the library to download the forms since this computer just can't handle it! According to NJ law, if the landlord doesn't provide you with an itemized list or the $ in 30 days, a tenant is entitled to sue for DOUBLE the amount of the security deposit! So that is what I am going to do. Actually, I'm going to sue for $3000 because any more than that and we will need a lawyer and I don't think we want to go that route yet unless we have too. With me not working, we don't have alot of disposable income right now so that may be an expense we can't afford right now. Although when we win, she will have to pay that too. I am not sure they are aware of the law since they showed blatant disregard for it. I'm excited to sue her actually. I know we are right and did absolutely no damage to that place!! In fact, it was cleaner when we left than when we moved in! It took us 3 days to clean it when we first moved in at the end of December! There was all sorts of garbage and random furniture and tools left in the place. There wasn't even a window in the bedroom! Just a piece of cardboard! (They fixed it a few days later BUT it was supposed to be done before we moved in. Unfortunately, we do not have pictures of the apt on the day we moved in... But I do have pictures of all the problems we dealt with and some pictures of the day we left.
What a pain though! Especially since we will have to drive 4 hours back to Jersey to deal with it...and I'm sure it will be ugly. She has never been nice to us and she has a very strange sense of responsibility about the apartment. She always acted like it was our house and our problem, not hers....I had to remind her that we RENTED the apt, not owned it and the care of it was HER problem, not mine...
I will let y'all know how it goes!! Wish me luck!

[Oggyflute]

Good luck with it mate. I've learn't over the years to be meticulous when inspecting a property. I write down everything and even take photo's of any damage. I also keep records of all interacting between the landlord/agent and myself. This has helped me a few times over the years from landlords trying to keep the bond. At my last place the landlord tried to hold onto the bond, when he didn't have a copy of the original inspection report! Needless to say when I pointed out the serious cacka he would be in if he took it to the tribunal, he very quickly released the money.

[jennifert9]

Thanks Trevor! We unfortunately, were not meticulous enough... We do have pictures but not that many and none of the place when we moved in...You know, it was so frustrating living there. It seemed like every week was something different...first the sink started leaking, then the toilet...then the roof...then the ceiling fell on me...! I sat down last night and wrote up 8 pages of stuff that happened while we lived there, everything I could remember! I think I will print out the first few posts I made in this thread to describe the realtor problem to the courts as just thinking about it makes me angry all over! And it was written at the time so the details are fresh and accurate. It's just so upsetting. I mean, we tried to be nice to her, especially after her mother passed away...I felt bad. That is a horrible thing to deal with so we tried to be kind in all of our interactions with her. But she is just a very nasty person, very unfriendly and defensive, always quick to yell. One time, we called her because the furnace had stopped working AGAIN and it was one of those bitter cold nights, temps in the single digits. Collin, Duncan and I were all huddled around an elctric heater in the bedroom for over a week!!! We called her and she said she wanted to be "friends" with us, not enemies! I said, "well then invite us to sleep at your house, because we're freezing!!" LOL!! Needless to say, she didn't!!
So, it should be interesting...I will update as it proceeds. I have a feeling we will get something from them in a day or two, now that they know we are looking for the money and that they are in violation of the law. Can't wait for that!!