***hole landlords

So I'm getting ready to move out of my current apartment to a new one soon, but I've been on my property manager's ass about trying to open windows in my bedroom that are stuck/painted shut and great for the current "heat wave" of "summer." He's neglected to come try to do this as well as tell me he has, but he insists he's personally come over and tried to open them against what my roommates have told me and the fact he hasn't gotten in contact with me about it in over 10 days. So, I e-mailed one of the owners of the building to see if he could coax him into finally getting in touch with me.

Just got an e-mail from him today CC'd to the owners of the place saying that he would "appreciate not relaying to my cleints misinformation of not returning communications." I promptly e-mailed him back with specific dates and times of a week-and-a-half ago of when we last actually talked. Now we're entering the "I'm going to try to screw you out of as much of your security deposit as possible" phase, too.

I know there's got to be worse stories than this out there. Anybody got anything good?

 

I got screwed out of ALL of my security deposit when I left Ohio. I knew he was shifty wen I moved in, and was all buddy buddy when I arrived. But was a dick when I left.

The place was old and everything in it was old. But I left the place in good enough shape to get most of it back.

But the asshole was finding small shot saying it was going to cost so much to clean when he didn;t have mine cleaned before I moved in. We had a nice shouting match, and he said he'd back in tough with me.

A month went by and nothing. So I left him a message and he calls back saying I was supposed to call him and he hadn't decided what to do. Knowing I would have to come back to drag him to court to get my money, I decided to leave it alone and he got my money.

But karma's a bith and he'll get his.

 

That's what I want to do, but I don't want to damage the windows or the pane, resulting in less money back. I'm going to be getting out of the place within the next week, so I hope that the night's aren't too hot.

 

Makes me really appreciate the people who own my complex.

 

Oh, man. I had a landlord who visited me and said, "We've had some complaints from your downstairs neighbor about footsteps after midnight." Amazing! I get home from work after midnight! The next time she showed up, it was with a 30-day get-out-of-Dodge notice. I shouldn't have been surprised; she had ushered out three of our neighbors for similarly minor reasons. She was, in a word, a loon.

She received this letter upon our move-out:

Dear Landlord:

As my wife and I leave Apartment 67, I would be remiss if I didn't express, again, how disappointed I am that you chose this method of dealing with the noise problem created by the normal conduct of our affairs -- a noise problem that you readily concede owes more to the construction of your building than to the heaviness of our feet.

To give a valued and rule-abiding tenant a lesser-of-two-evils choice -- move to a different apartment, or move altogether -- was well within your rights as the property owner, but it shows an utter absence of creative and compassionate managerial skill. Apartment complexes are not chapels; when one chooses to live in close proximity to others, one must be willing to accept the byproducts of that communal living. These byproducts include, but are certainly not limited to, hearing footsteps in an upstairs apartment. In 18-plus years of living on my own, I've heard plenty of feet overhead. I've tolerated it, as it wouldn't have occurred to me to do anything else. In 18-plus years of living on my own, prior to this bizarrely concluded residence, I've never so much as heard a peep from a neighbor or a landlord about my living habits. I'll take that track record over your assessment every time.

So now you've cast out tenants who paid their rent on time and were mindful of the rules of the establishment, and for what? A nameless, faceless future tenant who just might walk the floors after midnight (although God help him if he does). I certainly hope he's told beforehand that any deviation from a standard 9-to-5 schedule will lead to regrettable consequences.

(I'm sure, from your position, that the offer of Apartment 42 mitigates against my description of having been cast out. We'll simply have to disagree on that point. I could not, in good faith or good conscience, continue living in a place where rigidity carried the day. Make no mistake: The only palatable choice was choosing to leave.)

In conclusion, I'm sorry that circumstances have led to this note, although I'm certainly not sorry for anything I've said here. When we spoke about this in the apartment on Jan. 31, I pointedly described the situation as "shitty." While the word is not the pinnacle of a learned person's vocabulary, it remains the most accurate and incisive description I can conjure.

Regards,
The former tenants of Apartment 67

 

I had a similar case in a former apartment I lived in. These were all single-level apartments, fairly well built, but with one major design flaw.

My apartment door was right next to the neighbor's bedroom wall. I came home from work after midnight and this prick of a neighbor says i slam my door when I come in.
So this guy doesn't complain to the manager or myself, he goes right to corporate, who issues a notice that my lease won't be renewed (I was nearing my renewal date).

Like you, Bump, I was in good standing with the complex manager. She even knew my name since we had chit chatted every so often. The prick neighbor ended up leaving on his own about the same time my lease was up and I was moving. But like someone else said on here, karma is a bitch and that prick neighbor will get his.

 

I just got my security deposit back yesterday from a place I moved out of at the end of last month. By law landlords must give back the security deposit or reason for not returning it within 30 days and these miserable pricks waited until the 30th day to give mine back despite the fact I now live two blocks from them.

In short I receied $10 less than half of my SD back for the following reasons: 1. Carpet wasn't vacuumed (that was the last thing I did before I left); 2. Carpet wasn't shampooed (the only time that carpet saw shampoo was never); 3. The oven wasn't clean (I only used it to make pizzas); 4. The Blinds weren't cleaned (the same ones I bought b/c only two of the five windows in my place had blinds when I moved in); 5. The refrigorator wasn't cleaned out (I defrosted and cleaned the damn thing!); 6. I left over 72 holes in the wall (How do you leave over 72? Was there 73? Also bullshit....I hung 10 things with two nails per so you do the math).

Like someone else said karma is a bitch. The old man has diabetes and probably won't have his right foot by this time next year. And the old whore.....well her face looks like a used napkin so I guess she already got hers.

 

I haven't lost a security deposit since college. I've had wonderful luck that way.

Today, however, my landlord showed up at 9:30 to inspect my apartment. Just unlocked the door and walked in. Told me she assumed I was at work. I was rather pissed off to say the least. Then the bitch just left the door open while she walked around. Luckily my cats decided that they didn't want to be outside, but I have flies all over the place.

 

sc --

Don't know the laws where you are at, but if she didn't give you notice, that's illegal in most places.

I'd fire off a cordial letter to that effect to her so it's on record that you want 24 hours notice before any more "inspections".

 

Did she have a letter with her that she would have left, telling you that your apartment was entered?

Everytime I've had a repairman enter one of my apartments, they've always left a paper saying they entered, what they did, etc.

Don't know for sure if it's a state law or anything, but I'd guess it should be the same where you are.

 

I've had pretty good luck getting security deposits back, but had one situation that was odd. The landlords informed us that our rental house was going to be torn down. While there we were told we would receive all of our damage deposit, there was the matter of the "non-refundable carpet cleaning deposit" of $200. I realize the lease was legally binding and all, but I talked to the landlords to see if I could reason with them and get the money back. I mean, the house and carpet were going to be destroyed. They wouldn't budge, even got snotty about it. So, I decided to be a dick and told them I wanted proof the carpet was cleaned or I'd contact the tenants' rights organization. Carpet cleaners showed up the day after we moved out. Bitches.