2010 February 06 | Because I Should Care!

6Feb/10Off

The art of being ripped off…

So back in Sept. we broke our lease on the house. Now we knew this would most likely mean the losing of our deposit and we were okay with that. But of course that wasn't enough for the property management company. They sent us a bill for $902 dollars.

Well we didn't have the money to pay that so we kind have been sitting on it. Today I sat down, because I have the money now, to write out a letter because they were charging a fee, which has no explanation. It's just some amount they put on the bill, no reasoning behind it. Frankly I'll pay for things that need to be paid for, but I won't pay for anything that I'm not legally liable to pay for.

So I sat down to write out my letter and do some research, cause I like to word these things correctly, I don't want to sound like a moron. In my research I found though that the charges for cleaning the house, inside and out, couldn't be charged. I mean they're no real law on it, but since they refused to do a walk thru with us, they gave us no ability to clean the house to their specifications. So according to the website, which I used to break the lease before, if this case was to go to court, they'd probably not get that cost because as a landlord you have to give that opportunity to the tenant to clean the house to your liking, which we weren't given at all.

So that meant 402 off the 902 because that's how much they were charging for cleaning. Then they were charging a 425 termination fee, no explanation of what it was for. Landlords have to prove damages in order to charge tenants. And since the lease itself didn't list a money amount I don't believe they have the right to just pull an amount out of their ass. I mean what prevents them from saying the fee is $1000? So I just am really wondering what the 425 covers, you know damages and loss wise.

So subtract that amount and it drops it down to like 75 bucks. So I'm finishing up the letter and putting together a table to explain better what I did and why and realize they're charging us for a month of rent, when it was vacant. No problem, I fully expected that. But wait, the rent is 1808.33 instead of what we were paying 1750. I'm not sure where they got their rent number. I looked at the paper, it says that it's unpaid rent for just 1 month. The paper says we were out on the 30th of Sept. So there are no days that are over so why 1808.33 and not 1750. I don't know why they did this, whether it was a mistake or just another attempt at getting more money. So I adjusted the price to the correct one.

So once all is said and done, if they take my arguments, even if they hate it, and realize they really have no standing on these things, I'll owe them 17.25. I'm sending a check that says paid in full. We'll see if they cash it, I'm hoping they do so.

I don't ask much, and I certainly don't want to take advantage of anyone, but just because I'm a tenant doesn't mean I get to be taken advantage of myself. And often property management companies do that to their tenants and it's not right. I know the law, and I know how it applies, so the best they could do is at least follow the laws with me.

So we'll see how this turns out. Should be interesting.