This is never going to END!!!!
AHHHHHH!!!!
Back story: FI and I were renting a house that was a part of a contract for deed in Minnesota. The real landlord (who bought the house via contract for deed) is in California, but we were to go through the owners of the house (in MN) who is still taking care of the house for the landlord who bought the house. FI and I went to the owners and asked if it'd be okay for us to break our lease early since we found a house to buy. The owners said it was not a problem at all as long as we found new tenant. All good.
We've been waiting to see if we'd get our deposit back ($700), but we thought we might not be able to since we broke the lease. We were okay with that.
Today I get a letter from the actual landlord in California with all of the charges that we have NEVER discussed in the past. The charges include:
1. Propane filling at $687 (for 300 gallons of propane for a 500 gallon tank which is incorrect, it was at 55% when we left and they are NOT allowed to fill it more than 80%))
2. Pet cleaning fee at $150
3. Refrigerator cleaning 2 hours at $30, total of $60
4. Stove cleaning 1 hour at $30, total of $30
5. Garage cleaning & Yard clean up 3 hours at $30, total of $90
6. Replaced screens- 3 screens at $50, total of $250
7. Storm door replacement- 2 doors at $50, total of $100
8. Microwave replacement $50
Which brings the total to $1,417 and he told me to send him $717 (he kept our deposit of $700).
I am in shock. This has never happened to us before. Nothing was agreed- it was not even on the agreement nor in writing. The microwave, screens, and storm doors were already damaged when we moved in and he knows this. Never told us about shampooing the carpet, cleaning the refrigerator, stove, garage, and yard. We cleaned up very well. The owners know nothing about this and they said it may be how people do this in California? Huh?
It looks like he hired people to go over to the house and do a deep cleaning or something. During the final walk through of the house with the owners- nothing was mentioned. If we knew we were supposed to clean up more, we would have done it ourselves.
Is it our responsibility to pay him back? FWIW the letter is typed on a simple paper- not certified or anything.
Re: This is never going to END!!!!
I personally wouldn't pay it. If you showed the house to the people they had in charge and they ok'd it then that will have to suffice. He put them in charge so they should have told you this, this, this and this will cost this.
IMO. This sounds INSANE. Sorry
We broke nothing. Actually I think we left the house in a better condition than when we moved in. The previous tenant did some damages and the landlord knows this- he sent people to come over to fix it up.
I'm just worried that he's going to sue us. I went over the agreement and there's nothing there except for "Within 30 days after Tenant has vacated the premises, returned keys, and provided Landlord with a forwarding address, Landlord will give Tenant an itemized written statement of the reasons for, and the dollar amount of, any of the security deposit retained by the Landlord, along with a check for any deposit balance."
If we were to sue us for this, he'd need to be at the court, right? That means flying here from California. Which is probably unlikely.... ugh... I get intimated by "big" and "mean" people
I am sad that we did not take photos or anything. We have never had something like this happen to us in the past so we didn't see any reason to take pictures.
Or am I thinking about this wrong?
In the letter it also states we never turned in the keys nor the remote garage opener. HUH? We turned them in the day we left. I'm scared of this guy. He sounds so mean
Good catch ajmom- I knew the $250 seemed off in the letter.
I do agree not to pay ANYTHING and do not agree to pay anything until you get further information from him. I would absolutely ask for receipts for the work that was done.
Just throwing something else out there (not sure if it would work): If you can't prove that the damages pre-dated your tenancy because you lack documentation, maybe your best bet would be to get a quote for those services/repairs/materials from someone else? Maybe if you could counter with a separate quote for the cost of repairs, you could come to some agreement about how much you'll pay much less than he's quoting. That's my only suggestion other than contesting it outright.
Sorry that's not very helpful!
Thanks for your advice, ladies- we are working on writing a letter.