I lived at an apartment for a year and a half and left the apartment in great condition, I also took a video recording walking through the apartment just before returning my keys. I cleaned counters, bathrooms, window sills, cupboards, vacuumed, everything you can think of other than shampooing the carpet because the lease states the landlord will have the carpet and professionally cleaned and bill the tenant no matter what (unless the entire carpet is being replaced). The lease also states that the expected lifetime of the carpet is 5 years and the expected lifetime of paint is 2 years.
When I received the final statement they stated they were not only keeping my $349 deposit but that I owed an additional $470. They itemized the costs as light cleaning ($80), carpet replaced in living room due to pet damage ($487), carpet cleaning in bedrooms with pet treatment ($105), touch up paint of 2 gallons ($26.25, 2 gallons wtf?) and the remaining charges itemized under 3 categories for final utility payments ($120.69).
I replied that I accepted the charges for the final utility statements and the carpet cleaning but I was disputing the remainder of the charges. For the cleaning charge they replied with pictures showing a small amount of lint in the dryer vent, a few splotches under the vent fan area above the oven that I missed and a small amount of dirt between the oven/refrigerator and inside the windows. For the carpet replacement/cleaning charges they sent photographs showing three small stains no larger than the size of a business card or so only visible with a blacklight. For the paint charge they gave pictures of about a half dozen barely visible marks on a few walls (literally not much bigger than the size of a pin head).
I filed an appeal with the Better Business Bureau which they replied to with the same canned response I got from my initial dispute that I communicated via e-mail. I've rejected their resolution explanation and demanded a return of the difference between my deposit and the charges I accepted but the date I set has come and gone (December 31, 2017). They seem to have gone silent since my last BBB reply but they were threatening to send the amount they claim I owe to collections, do I have any recourse here? Should I just let it go to collections and then dispute the validity of the debt? I have plenty of money to pay the charges but I'm not going to be bullied into paying something I don't owe. Thanks.
Submitted January 08, 2018 at 07:43AM by hoodskier http://ift.tt/2ma8k2c legaladvice
No comments:
Post a Comment