A little bit of background: My girlfriend and I had been renting a two bedroom house for almost two years, and during that time caused no trouble. The house is owned by an older woman probably mid 50s to 60 and was initially being managed by a realty company that she hired. The realty company was great, and we got along well with them and had no problems. After a little less than a year of living there the realty company informed us that they were fired by the old woman out of nowhere and that the house would no longer be under their management. She ended up hiring someone who lived down the end of the street who did manage some properties, and he ended up being great too. After a while he told us how often she was making complaints and how she even tried to rewrite the lease randomly. He said he would have never agreed to manage the house if he knew how unprepared and uneducated she was in leasing a place. She showed up a couple times without giving a 24 hour notice and one time even tried to enter the house without our permission when we were gone, but she lost her keys (she loses and forgets everything). There was no emergency of any sort in any of these situations, she was just snooping. She also went through the tenant downstairs mail and marked it return to sender while he was still residing there (that's somewhat unrelated, just again pointing out the kind of person she is).
So that was just some background on what we dealt with the whole time. When our lease was ending we found a new place and moved out as quickly as we could. We gave her our forwarding address and gladly left her behind.
Fast forward to today, we finally (31 days after moving out) receive something in the mail from her. Its a list of damages that exceeds the entire security deposit. We left the place sparkling clean and in great condition. The main thing that was complete bullshit was $640 charge for the refridgerator. It says there was "chip and dent of the refrigerator door." First off, we didn't damage the door, we have no idea what she's talking about, and second off, $640 for a fucking chip/dent? lulz. The old woman is nuts. But here's where I think she fucked up. See, she's not very versed in being a landlord, and when it comes down to legal stuff she's absolutely clueless (see earlier trying to randomly rewrite lease). I read online that it must include, in 4 point font larger than the rest of the text, “You must respond to this notice by mail within 7 days after receipt of same. Otherwise you will forfeit the amount claimed for damages.” My girlfriends brother is a lawyer and says that that must be included and we talked to the realty company's owner who managed the property originally, and he said the same thing and to just respond with "We dispute all listed charges."
So right now the plan is to send a letter saying we dispute the charges. Have it mailed priority and get a receipt for it.
I also read that she has 45 days from end of lease to then sue us for that amount, and we have 7 days from getting list of damages to notify her that we are disputing the charges.
So my main questions for you guys are:
1) Do you think legally she has to return the entire security deposit now?
2) We can't really be charged that amount for a phantom dent in a fridge right??
3) Does she have 15 days from when we send the letter disputing the charges to sue us, or is it just 45 days from end of lease and we need to make sure to get it there within the next week? Main reason for this question is that we will wait till the end of the week to mail it to her so she has less time to sue (even if we are going to win in small claims court I'd rather avoid that and just get the money back without the fuss).
4) I also read that she could be liable to pay up to twice the securtiy deposit for messing this up if we do go to court. What are the odds of getting extra compensation out of her? Honestly, at this point I hate this woman more than anyone else (constant, stupid harassment the whole time we lived there despite being quiet and paying rent on time EVERY month, and now this shit??) so making her pay extra for being an idiot would make me very happy.
Any and all responses are greatly appreciated, we really could use your advice. Thanks!
Submitted September 01, 2015 at 05:05AM by BABYPUBESS http://ift.tt/1IACDQ4 legaladvice
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