landlords... !@$!@%*&!
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I may hate builders, but there is a good reason to buy your own home... landlords.... charging me for turning off the electricity because I was supposed to transfer it into his name.... He didn't set the electricity up under a landlord agreement so it had nowhere to revert to, so he is charging me fees for extra cleaning (using a generator) as well as to turn back on the electricity when he didn't file the right (*^(^(*^!! paperwork. sorry, had to vent... right now I am furious enough to .... drink an extra cup of coffee... I need it. grrr...
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
I just bought a house, and when I moved out of the duplex, the landlord tried to charge me replacement cost of the carpet. I'm getting ready to fight it in court because we're talking about paying $700 for replacing carpet that was at least 15-20 years old. Security deposits are for damages, not replacement costs. The examples I've found state things like if a carpet cost $1000, had an expected life span of 10 years, and was ruined after 8, the landlord can fairly charge $200 (the deprecated value). After 10 years the expense falls on him/her, but they'll find any way they can to keep as much of your deposit as possible and count on the tenant just letting them do it. Crooked landlords are plentiful, fight back. Don't let him rip you off for his own mistakes.
J
Make the logo bigger
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I may hate builders, but there is a good reason to buy your own home... landlords.... charging me for turning off the electricity because I was supposed to transfer it into his name.... He didn't set the electricity up under a landlord agreement so it had nowhere to revert to, so he is charging me fees for extra cleaning (using a generator) as well as to turn back on the electricity when he didn't file the right (*^(^(*^!! paperwork. sorry, had to vent... right now I am furious enough to .... drink an extra cup of coffee... I need it. grrr...
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
I always had good landlords, and I make sure I am a good one ( I am putting in a reverse cycle air conditioner for my tenant soon, although she has a perfectly good wood heater ). I guess it depends, I suspect landlords who are tough on you, are probably struggling to manage their investment and need to squeeze out every penny they can. I prefer to have good, happy tenants who won't leave or wreck the place.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
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Chris Austin wrote:
Typical, once I get a 60 day move out notice I just call up the utilities and schedule the switch over myself. No need for any drama.
that is what bugs me the most... he claims that if we had given him notice that we were terminating our electric service he could have called the electric company and switched it.... we were required to give him 30 days notice, we gave him 30 in writing and 35 by phone because we told him we mailed the written version. This was his reply, he ignored our statements that 30 days notice for vacating the property was notice of termination of utilities as well....
The $26.99 El Paso Electric fee was encoured because you simply had the service shut off and they charged this to turn it back on. A simple phone call to transfer this service back to me would have avoided this charge. I would have made that call if you would have informed me that you were going to shut it off.
:doh: what? we're going to leave electricity running on a 2700 sq foot house that eats more electricity than all my computers at work?_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
You seem like a much more polite person then me. I'd just tell him to kiss my @$# and challenge him to point out anywhere in your lease agreement where you were required to do more than notify him of your move out date. I seriously doubt there is anything there to support his argument. If he persists and the fee isn't too much then I'd pay it but take him to small claims court. Or, if you are up for it, have an attorney send him a demand letter to contractually justify his charges. People like this piss me off and usually, they are my best sources of houses that I buy. They are too lazy/greedy/stupid to understand how to be a profitable landlord.
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Chris Austin wrote:
Typical, once I get a 60 day move out notice I just call up the utilities and schedule the switch over myself. No need for any drama.
that is what bugs me the most... he claims that if we had given him notice that we were terminating our electric service he could have called the electric company and switched it.... we were required to give him 30 days notice, we gave him 30 in writing and 35 by phone because we told him we mailed the written version. This was his reply, he ignored our statements that 30 days notice for vacating the property was notice of termination of utilities as well....
The $26.99 El Paso Electric fee was encoured because you simply had the service shut off and they charged this to turn it back on. A simple phone call to transfer this service back to me would have avoided this charge. I would have made that call if you would have informed me that you were going to shut it off.
:doh: what? we're going to leave electricity running on a 2700 sq foot house that eats more electricity than all my computers at work?_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Bottom line: 1) You gave him proper notice that you were leaving. 30 days per your contract. 2) There wasn't anything in your contract that said you had to do something special with regard to turning off services you'd been paying for and no longer needed. It's not your responsibility to ensure that the service reverted to him; that's his problem if he didn't bother to call the power company when he was duly notified. It's his job to set that up; it's part of Property Management 101. Don't let him railroad you. And don't let him charge you extra for the cleaning, either. Again, the power snafu was HIS problem, not yours. Good luck!
Caffeine - it's what's for breakfast! (and lunch, and dinner, and...)
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Chris Austin wrote:
Did he have it somewhere in your lease agreement.
no it is not, nor does it say he was going to clean the bloody carpets at our expense ($296) and charge us $25 for his guy to check the house. I would back down on the carpet cleaning except that it was double the price because the electricity was off because he didn't do the right paperwork and blames us. At this point there may be no way to argue down the cleaning, because so many landlords just do this automatically.... but at twice the price? :mad: just making me mad, he didn't know how to set up utilities as a landlord so the city wanted to charage us $900 in development fees when we went to turn on water/gas.... after many months he finally got the right paperwork... and "magically" those automatically reverted back to his name when we turned them off. That is why you set up a landlord account, I may be a lowly programmer, but even *I* know how to call the utility company and ask for a landlord account before a tenant moves in.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
El Corazon wrote:
no it is not, nor does it say he was going to clean the bloody carpets at our expense ($296) and charge us $25 for his guy to check the house. I would back down on the carpet cleaning except that it was double the price because the electricity was off because he didn't do the right paperwork and blames us. At this point there may be no way to argue down the cleaning, because so many landlords just do this automatically.... but at twice the price?
Each state is different, but I know that in some of them (NJ and MA, at least) landlords are forbidden by law for charging you for what is called "normal wear and tear." That would include carpet cleaning unless you had a dog who had accidents or some such. Google a little for something like tenants rights and your state.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
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This is why you should keep a spare flute at the office...
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Coming soon: Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua! www.PracticalUSA.com
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I always had good landlords, and I make sure I am a good one ( I am putting in a reverse cycle air conditioner for my tenant soon, although she has a perfectly good wood heater ). I guess it depends, I suspect landlords who are tough on you, are probably struggling to manage their investment and need to squeeze out every penny they can. I prefer to have good, happy tenants who won't leave or wreck the place.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
Christian Graus wrote:
I prefer to have good, happy tenants who won't leave or wreck the place.
that is the thing... we left the place near spotless... If anything it was cleaner after we had been there because my wife is ... very neat... two rooms were never used... the still showed the imprints from the furnature that was there when the house was a model home. Because the house was a model home before we rented it, the carpets were well used. We pulled the weeds, we cleaned the dust out of every window sill. The place was vacumed so regularly because of their allergies it never had a chance of accumulating anywhere. You could see the imprint of some of the furnature, but no footpaths anywhere except the stairs, which still showed the "signs of extremely high traffic" I noted before we moved in.... I was in an apartment for 5 years the manager talked the owner into giving me a full security deposit even though the lease actually reads that they keep the cleaning fee. Because they saved so much money having me as a long-term resident it was worth their while. I am trying not to be mean, which is why I am venting here. The landlord claims he never got so much trouble as with us in his 7 other leases. He says he knows more about being a landlord than we do, even though we had to find out what he had to do to get the city straightened out because he didn't setup landlord agreements with any of the utility companies. For an "experienced" landlord so far he seems about as experienced as a certain poster in the Visual C forum.... and we had to wait on the workers to fix his house over the last 6 months from heating, cooling, leaks, electrical and phone problems. I thought I was done with this stupid house... and on to my own problems with my own house... but I guess this one is still haunting me.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Chris Austin wrote:
Did he have it somewhere in your lease agreement.
no it is not, nor does it say he was going to clean the bloody carpets at our expense ($296) and charge us $25 for his guy to check the house. I would back down on the carpet cleaning except that it was double the price because the electricity was off because he didn't do the right paperwork and blames us. At this point there may be no way to argue down the cleaning, because so many landlords just do this automatically.... but at twice the price? :mad: just making me mad, he didn't know how to set up utilities as a landlord so the city wanted to charage us $900 in development fees when we went to turn on water/gas.... after many months he finally got the right paperwork... and "magically" those automatically reverted back to his name when we turned them off. That is why you set up a landlord account, I may be a lowly programmer, but even *I* know how to call the utility company and ask for a landlord account before a tenant moves in.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
if you are still in NM NM Landlord/Tenant Hotline! Susan Turetsky, Executive Director 664 Alta Vista Suite B Santa Fe, NM 87505 p. 505-983-8447 and http://www.rentlaw.com/newmexico.htm
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
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I may hate builders, but there is a good reason to buy your own home... landlords.... charging me for turning off the electricity because I was supposed to transfer it into his name.... He didn't set the electricity up under a landlord agreement so it had nowhere to revert to, so he is charging me fees for extra cleaning (using a generator) as well as to turn back on the electricity when he didn't file the right (*^(^(*^!! paperwork. sorry, had to vent... right now I am furious enough to .... drink an extra cup of coffee... I need it. grrr...
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
I have got pretty good with landlord arrangements. Because I travel a lot I sign a lot of leases. They all try the same things but familiarity and adherence to your local laws really makes them back off. Nothing scares them more than filing papers at the court house. Most of them do not have lawyers.
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Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. -- Ernest Hemingway -
Christopher Duncan wrote:
This is why you should keep a spare flute at the office...
well, I have flute music here.... if I had the flute I would just hit a lot more sour notes... :laugh:
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
You may have just solved your squirrel problem.
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Think inside the box! ProActive Secure Systems
I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopes -
Christian Graus wrote:
I prefer to have good, happy tenants who won't leave or wreck the place.
that is the thing... we left the place near spotless... If anything it was cleaner after we had been there because my wife is ... very neat... two rooms were never used... the still showed the imprints from the furnature that was there when the house was a model home. Because the house was a model home before we rented it, the carpets were well used. We pulled the weeds, we cleaned the dust out of every window sill. The place was vacumed so regularly because of their allergies it never had a chance of accumulating anywhere. You could see the imprint of some of the furnature, but no footpaths anywhere except the stairs, which still showed the "signs of extremely high traffic" I noted before we moved in.... I was in an apartment for 5 years the manager talked the owner into giving me a full security deposit even though the lease actually reads that they keep the cleaning fee. Because they saved so much money having me as a long-term resident it was worth their while. I am trying not to be mean, which is why I am venting here. The landlord claims he never got so much trouble as with us in his 7 other leases. He says he knows more about being a landlord than we do, even though we had to find out what he had to do to get the city straightened out because he didn't setup landlord agreements with any of the utility companies. For an "experienced" landlord so far he seems about as experienced as a certain poster in the Visual C forum.... and we had to wait on the workers to fix his house over the last 6 months from heating, cooling, leaks, electrical and phone problems. I thought I was done with this stupid house... and on to my own problems with my own house... but I guess this one is still haunting me.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Sounds like you have done everything proper. Echoing the comment of others, try small claims court. I had to use it once and it worked fine. No hassle, cheap, and the judge first asked the parties to talk things over. Just have your agreement and other documentation available on court date. If the landlord never shows up nor contacts the court, you should win the case automatically. Heck, even if talking it out in front of the judge gets you 50% back it's probably worth a hour of your time.
Gary
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Sounds like you have done everything proper. Echoing the comment of others, try small claims court. I had to use it once and it worked fine. No hassle, cheap, and the judge first asked the parties to talk things over. Just have your agreement and other documentation available on court date. If the landlord never shows up nor contacts the court, you should win the case automatically. Heck, even if talking it out in front of the judge gets you 50% back it's probably worth a hour of your time.
Gary
ghle wrote:
If the landlord never shows up nor contacts the court, you should win the case automatically.
it's not a bad idea, though a bit cruel... the landlord lives in california.
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. - Carl Sandburg
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ghle wrote:
If the landlord never shows up nor contacts the court, you should win the case automatically.
it's not a bad idea, though a bit cruel... the landlord lives in california.
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. - Carl Sandburg
El Corazon wrote:
it's not a bad idea, though a bit cruel... the landlord lives in california.
OMG He's one of those. GET HIM!
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
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John C wrote:
Tell him to "piss up a rope" as they say around here.
unfortunately he is keeping all this out of the security deposit.... so telling him to piss off in local vernacular still doesn't get back the money....
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
I learned back in my renting days that a security deposit was just found money as far as the landlord was concerned. The only time I ever got the security deposit back was when I rented a house from my mother. The worst time was my first apartment. I had a lease for the first year we lived there, and then went month-to-month afterward. When we left after four years, we gave the landlord a month's notice. Six months later I got a bill in the mail for six month's rent. Supposedly it had taken them that long to re-rent the apartment. That was a complete crock, as we had visited friends in the building shortly after we moved out, and our old apartment was occupied. I called the landlord and told his bookeeper that they would not harass me about paying the supposed back rent, and I wouldn't report them to the FBI for fraud. Bastards.
Software Zen:
delete this;
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I may hate builders, but there is a good reason to buy your own home... landlords.... charging me for turning off the electricity because I was supposed to transfer it into his name.... He didn't set the electricity up under a landlord agreement so it had nowhere to revert to, so he is charging me fees for extra cleaning (using a generator) as well as to turn back on the electricity when he didn't file the right (*^(^(*^!! paperwork. sorry, had to vent... right now I am furious enough to .... drink an extra cup of coffee... I need it. grrr...
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
As an employee of a power company I can assure you - the landlord is entirely at fault for having to use a generator to clean the carpets. Unless there are terms in the lease agreement that require you to keep the power in your name until the cleaning is done, he hasn't a legal leg to stand on. Find a lawyer, and you can own the house. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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As an employee of a power company I can assure you - the landlord is entirely at fault for having to use a generator to clean the carpets. Unless there are terms in the lease agreement that require you to keep the power in your name until the cleaning is done, he hasn't a legal leg to stand on. Find a lawyer, and you can own the house. :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Roger Wright wrote:
the landlord is entirely at fault for having to use a generator to clean the carpets.
plus he owns the property next door, never rented it, so a long extension cord is easy, I even own two.
Roger Wright wrote:
Find a lawyer, and you can own the house.
the hard part is getting the time... I wonder if my cousin (a lawyer) would make a nice kindly firm letter.... hmmmmm
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)