need a little advice about getting a security deposit back
 

the boyfriend & I just moved from 1 apartment, we were lived for 6 years, to a new place this month. we got the letter in the mail yesterday saying that not only are we not getting our security deposit back, but we OWE THEM $230! They charged us $450 for washing & painting the walls "due to excessive smoking" in a non smoking apartment. (i stopped smoking months ago but i did smoke in the apartment for years).

now, i know they have to wash the walls & paint after every tenant anyways, but can they really charge me $450 for it? Theres a few loop holes that i found so far, one of them being that the orignal lease stated that it was a non-smoking/no pets apartment but 2 yrs into living there, the managment changed & the lease from yearly to monthly & we were allowed to have pets (with a deposit of 1/2 of rent). so i figured the old lease meant nothing.

any advice on this? we're thinking about taking them to small claims court. besides the $450 charge for painting, they also made up some bullshit charges for $100 here & there, completlely making up bogus charges & lies. (and yes, i took pictures of the apartment before I left for evidence).

:helpme

come onnnn, wheres all the GFY lawyers at night LOL

Doesn't sound way out of line to me. Seriously. Pay it and move on.

I'm not a good adviser when it comes to security measures ;) so here's a bump.

normally i wouldnt give 2 shits. the landlords are assholes. the husband is a real dickhead & the wife is a real [insert the C word here]. Ever meet people that are just unhappy to be alive & want others to be miserable to? thats these people.

in a way, i just wanna pay it so i never have to look at there faces again & hear them talk, but in another way, i want stir some shit in their life. its not a money thing, its a principal thing. they also degraded us in the letter & we almost didnt even get THIS place becuase they were telling our (now) new landlord a bunch of lies, which they were later caught in a lie so that was good. but these people have/are trying to fuck us over once again for no reason.

It doesn't sound like you have a case :(

Check the laws in your state but in GA you'd be responsible for the payment.

Well see, it would have been nice to know that before I commented ;)

Sucks, I know thy type, but there probably is nothing you can do except throw some aggravation their way. In that case, I would do it, if they don't find it worth their time, they won't show and you'll win be default. If they show, they'll probably win, but at least you will have wasted their day. I'm guessing this is what you want to accomplish.

LOL sorry, that was my fault for not including it.
but ya, i just want to do something to ruin their day or have their boss call them & bitch at them or something lol :) anything more to get them more pissed off about living another day, im all about it :winkwink: the filing cost is only $80 bucks anyways, not like im losing anything.

I always figured I would never see it and I havent been wrong yet lol

oh, and how can they base the non-smoking rule from the older lease, which was a year-to-year lease, but when the owner sold the apartments to a mangement company, they changed it to month-to-month? wouldnt that automatcially void out the old lease?

as stated, the money isnt the issue at hand . i never expected to get it back either. 6 yrs at any place, no matter how clean you leave the place, you'll never get it back lol

What do you mean he changed the lease? Were you given a new lease or did the original just go to month to month.

I think as far as the painting/cleaning of the walls goes you're out of luck. If the lease stated it was a non smoking apt and you smoked you will lose.

we didnt get a new lease. we got a piece of paper slid under our door lol

Saying what?

management has changed, the new rent went up $5 a month, the name to write the rent check to, now on a month-to-month terms, 60 days moving notice.
(i cant remember if we had to sign it or not, i dont think we did.)

bong smoke causes $420 worth of wall damage, not $450

hahaha ;)

Not in GA. Here the existing lease terms are in effect 100% except for the term. Again, all depends on the laws in your state.

Depends on where you live and the local laws. In some states they have to paint the walls and replace the carpet every two years.

Once in California they charged me $200 for cleaning the blinds. What they didn't know is that I had a very smoking hot room mate who was dressed up in short shorts that day, so I pulled out the camera while she was crawling around on her hands and knees cleaning the blinds we had taken down. This was back in the day when cameras put the date stamp on the picture. Just to be a dick I took them to small claims court. The produced a "receipt" with no company name on it; I produced my picture. They ended up oweing me the $200.

Score one for the little guy.

Just pay it and then send them some dog shit in the mail from http://www.smellypoop.com/ :thumbsup

:1orglaugh :thumbsup nicely done!

same thing with me too, they said that we didnt do a few things here & there & charged us for them. i have pics as proof though, so i know i'd definatly win on those other things, just not sure about the painting thing.

:(
http://www.smellypoop.com/order.html
"All Ordering has been removed from our site as we have recently learned it is not legal."
:(

Oh shit, didnt realize :(

If there was no new lease signed then all the terms on the original lease apply regardless if it went month to month. Look at the lease, I'm willing to bet it has provisions in it on what happens when it expires and most likely it will say that it goes to a month to month, or automatically renews.

Regardless, you are still bound by the provisions of that original lease while the original lease was in effect. So they could claim that you smoked while the original lease was in place. I know your argument, that they didnt enforce the no pet clause. But that doesnt make the rest of the lease invalid. I know its not what you want to hear and I'm not trying to defend these idiots but owning several rental properties over the years thats the way it is.

Now, if you want to play dirty and get even go to camophone.com and start calling the other tenants with the landlords number appearing on their caller id and tell them they have to move because they're fat, black, whatever. Call in the middle of the night and tell them you need a place to crash cause you're drunk, just fuck with them any way you can think of, you'll sleep better.

I used to have a rental property. It would be really hard for you to fight it and not worth the court costs and lawyers. If your lease states non smoking and if you break that and cause damage then you are going to have to give up your security deposit. I don't know what else you can do. :(

Mark

we always dont hear what we wanna hear but i think you're right.
either way, as long as i can fuck with them somehow, and get my $230 worth, im fine! LOL :thumbsup thanks for that little camophone.com tip too! I think im gonna use that :winkwink:

Pay them in pennies if you have to pay in the end.