Rental Security Deposit

[Anonymous]

I recently moved out of a townhome that I had rented for 3.5 years. When we moved in, we put down a security deposit of $2,000. According to our lease, the landlord would refund the security deposit and give us a list of any deductions within 30 days. After 90 days and several phone calls to the landlord, we received a refund of $1,000. No explanation for the deductions. We emailed and were sent a list of the deductions a week later. Basically they are charging us for carpet cleaning (the carpets were not soiled, just normal wear and tear), house cleaning (we spent HOURS cleaning the house before we moved out), painting of the "trim" (I'm assuming the paint had chipped in a couple of places), and to repaint a portion of the fence in our backyard that our 3-year old chalked on.

Here are the issues I have:

1. The landlord notified us PRIOR to the walk through that she was having the house cleaners/carpet cleaners come in the day of our move. Since she had no idea of the state of the house, I assumed she was doing this as her standard procedure. I did NOT know she was planning on charging us $500 for this!

2. She had new tenants move in literally the day after we moved out. She did not give us any opportunity to make repairs/cleaning ourselves, nor did she notify us of any repairs/cleaning that needed to be done. For example, she charged us $350 to re-paint the fence. I could have spent 10 minutes and removed the chalk with soap and water. Unfortunately it was something I overlooked on the day of the move.

We are not covered under the Virginia Landlord Tenant Act because the landlord owns less than 4 condos/houses. Is there anything I can do to dispute her deductions? I just don't think it's fair that a landlord can keep as much money as they want, and seemingly the tenant has no rights...

[Anonymous]

I am a landlord and I think what yours did was completely wrong and unethical. I'm not in VA, so I don't have specific resources, but what I would do if I were you would just to be keep calling her and telling her you deserve your entire deposit back. Maybe she'll just pay you back to not have to deal with the phone calls anymore.

[Anonymous]

http://www.rentlaw.com/dep/vadeposit.htm has some great information re: landlord/tenant laws.

No need to dispute whether or not the wear was "normal" or not. The landlord forfeited her right to withhold any portion of your security deposit when she failed to give you written notification within 45 days of your lease end. Send her a certified letter, along with a print-out of the Virginia tenancy laws that addresses this (Section 55-248.15:1 of the VRLTA) and tell her that she has 15 days to pay the remaining deposit due. Let her know that in the event of nonpayment, you will be filing a suit in small claims court.

BTW, did she pay the $1k by check? If so, don't cash it.

[Anonymous]

First, normal wear and tear is usually acceptable. I know its in my lease. However, often times there is a stipulation that the tenant is responsible for professional carpet cleaning after vacating. I had a good relationship with my landlord, and I paid the carpet cleaner directly but he arranged the date. Same with the cleaning service. We did this after we moved out, but while we were still officially paying rent (moved out on 25th, lease ended on 30th). The hom should be ready to be moved into the day after your lease is over.

That said, $1k is too much for these things. Good luck getting the money back.

[Anonymous]

I've been renting for 10 years and the lease always say to use a professional service to do the move out cleaning and the carpet steaming. We have to show receipts when we return the keys.

If you moved out on the day your lease ended the landlord was right to let people move in the next day.

We always plan our moves to 5 days before the end of the lease so we have time to do minor repairs.

Yes your landlord is being a jerk but you should pay attention to the details.

[Anonymous]

OP, the moral is check your lease (if you had to clean professionally, lease has to say so), check with tenant court in your county, and threaten legal action. 11:07 had good, clear directions.

[Anonymous]

OP here: thanks for all the feedback so far. I am very good about reading/knowing my lease. Our lease stated that we "accept the property in it's current condition" and that we agree to leave it the same way, and that IF we do not maintain it's condition the owner will have it professionally cleaned.

My problem is that she hired the cleaners BEFORE she inspected the house. Meaning either way, she was planning to charge us for a professional clean - which was not how it was outlined in the lease.

The lease goes on to say that the paint/carpets are not repaired/replaced everytime a property changes possession. But rather, at intervals determined by the landlord.