I apologize in advance if this gets lengthy, but I will do my best to condense it.
Ok, so towards the end of October I moved from my leased apartment (in Oklahoma) at the time to a new city for a new job. I am now getting bills in the amount of $1,400.00 from my former landlord for some expensive 'repairs' that are totally ridiculous. I am trying to determine if I am actually liable for these charges.
The bill I received for the repairs was actually from a restoration company that my landlord actually owns. That right off the bat seemed illegal. How can he write bids for his own property when he is the owner of the company? There is no oversight or fairness to the tenant in that situation. The repairs were for a full paint job, professional carpet cleaning, and duct cleaning. He claims that 50% value was reduced from his property due to soot damage. I do not smoke, I only burn candles when the electric goes out, there is no fireplace, and it has an electric heating system.
First is the Move IN/OUT Checklist where I NOTED stains on carpet and discolorations on walls upon move in: LINK
Next is the pictures he provided as 'damages' (I apologize, they are scans of crappy prints onto computer paper): LINK
Here is the response I sent to dispute his charges. It goes into pretty good details on the whole situation of living there:
I am writing to dispute charges in the amount of $1425.00 on my account. These charges are false, inflated and inaccurate. I will not be paying them and am ready to defend myself in court if need be. You are trying to charge me for cleaning and various other things for an apartment that was dirty when I moved into it. I left the apartment much cleaner than it was left for me upon moving in. At move-in, I spent the length of a full day cleaning the apartment because of how it was left - including several things that any cleaning service would have been sure to check for such as the refrigerator still having food in it, soap scum in the shower, and stains/discolorations on the walls that were ALL noted on my Move-In Checklist. Also you are making charges for filters. I first want to point out that it was never instructed to perform any maintenance on the filters. Every apartment complex I have ever lived in before cared for this. However, while I was moving in, the air conditioning did not seem to be working very well so I checked to find out the filter was incredibly clogged. I changed the filter at my own expense, which alleviated my air conditioning issue. I also changed the filter again approximately 3-4 months before moving out.
My time living at Lakeridge left me with some serious doubts about your character and your practices as a landlord. When I did have problems, it took multiple times of trying to contact you to get anything done. Upon moving in and using the kitchen sink for the first time and it flooding the room, it took me calling 4 times to get someone to look at it. Also when my dish washer stopped working, I called you 3 times before calling the only other number I had, your wife, and getting her to relay the message to you did someone come to fix it. That is not even considering the staff that you employ. I had one of your repair men just enter my house without knocking looking (IN THE WRONG APARTMENT) for the broken washing machine. Do you have any idea how intrusive that is? I felt unsafe.
Speaking of feeling unsafe, the people you allow to move into your apartments really left me with a feeling of being unsafe. My next-door neighbor, who I made multiple complaints to you about (which you never did a single thing about), were housing a convicted burglar who I witnessed firsthand buying pills in our parking lot, less than six feet outside my living room window. That was reported to the police, as well as some of our other issues so those will all be on file if we need to look back.
Not to mention that you lied to me about the apartments in general from the very start. When I was touring the apartments, I informed you that I was a Surgical Registered Nurse working at the hospital across the street and how important a quiet apartment was. I did not want to live near children because, “I did not want them waking me up in the day, and I didn’t want to wake them up at night when I got called out.” You told me that, “There are very few children here…Two last time I checked.” You moved me next door to Gloria who has three grandchildren that she basically raises. Almost every single day I could have anywhere between 3 and 12 of the children from the apartment complex PLAYING on the porch I shared with Gloria. I have video evidence of multiple occasions of what it was like living next door to Gloria and how disruptive it was at all hours of the day. It started becoming impossible to sleep which took a toll on my mental and physical health. I had some health problems related to stress and exhaustion for which I had an emergency room visit and multiple trips to my doctor.
The final reason I will not be paying this bill, is that I find it highly suspect that you are writing your own estimates being the local owner of ServiceMaster Clean. That sounds to me like a bit of a conflict of interest and something a judge would probably be interested to hear. You did not even send me receipts. You sent me a single estimate from your own company. There is no proof that any of this work was actually completed. I know that there was a new inhabitant in the apartment within days of my moving out, so it couldn’t have been in such bad shape. Luckily as I was about to walk out, I took a video walkthrough of the apartment with a 360 degree spin of every room showing all surfaces. I have plenty of evidence such as my parents and girlfriend as eyewitnesses to the movie-in/out condition, video, audio, and pictures to protect myself against a crooked landlord.
I am requesting that the error be corrected, that any finance and other charges related to the disputed amount be credited as well, and that I receive an accurate statement. Enclosed is a copy of the ServiceMaster website showing you as current owner of the business who wrote the estimate. Please correct this matter and do not harass me any further.
His reply: LINK
What should I do at this point?
Submitted December 30, 2014 at 03:43AM by SteveTheZombie http://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/2qr3g6/reddit_i_am_in_need_of_some_legal_advice/ legaladvice
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