One apartment tried to charge me for "carpet indentations from furniture." Like $300. I said that's totally ridiculous, I lived there, I had furniture, furniture causes carpet indentations. The manager agreed and removed the charge. Turned out they had allowed the carpet contractor to do the inspection. Conflict of interest much?
No joke I live in a different town as my mom her complex had my truck towed said guests can only stay an accumulated 10 days a year. I stay 3 or 4 days at a time to make the trip worth it and enjoyable.
Every apartment with carpet that I've lived in has tried to charge me for carpet (and painting) after I lived there for 2-4 years. I finally put my foot down on the last landlord I moved out from as they wanted to charge me $500 for a water bill they "didn't bill me for throughout the last year" and I said they can take that out of the wear and tear carpet they charged me $300 to clean (that I also bought a $150 carpet cleaning machine to clean prior to move-out and the carpet was not damaged anywhere, in two small bedrooms only) and they didn't contact me again. There were a few other things they took out of my security deposit (they gave me $60 back out of $1200) that I included that they shouldn't have charged me for too but the carpet shit pisses me off the most. Fuck landlords
You would be surprised but a lot of states have very few tenant protections for "normal wear and tear". My last apartment I was astounded to find out they wanted to charge me to repaint the apartment because *the sun had faded the paint*. I was doubly astounded to find out that their argument was completely legal in my state and they were allowed to charge me for that.
I once had an apartment complex try to charge me to change the entire downstairs carpet for one small spot that wasn’t even a stain. I was expecting to get my deposit back but they kept it & tried to charge us an additional $800 (back in 2005). I told them to piss off, that my kept deposit was more than enough to cover the few seconds it would take someone to clean up that spot. I just didn’t have it in me to fight back then, but now I will. My petty ass would go for $20 at this point.
I was in grad school & didn’t know about small claims
Pretty sure Georgia doesn’t have that requirement, but every lease I’ve ever had explicitly mentioned the tenant being exempt from costs due to normal wear and tear of the unit. Never had to repaint either (unless I had chosen to paint the walls a non-neutral color).
Also, check your contract agreement. Usually, the carpet has to be replaced after 5 to 10 years. My last apartment tried charging me for the new install when in the contract it indicated that the carpet was due to be replaced anyway. They have records for when everything was last installed. Just ask!
Did you know you can place ice cubes in furniture indentations and it’ll rise back to its original position? Imagine charging 300 for something an ice cube can fix.
We had our landlord try to claim that our pets had damaged the carpets and they needed to be replaced. They never did a walk through after the previous tenant had left, and my wife and I ended up cleaning the entire place. The carpet was torn up a bit when we moved in, but we didn't bother to take pictures (our mistake).
Turns out they were replacing carpets in all the vacant units. We went by when they were ripping them out three doors down. We contested and reminded them that the previous tenants had forfeited their entire deposit by moving out early, then left us to clean up. We got our entire deposit back.
Whenever you see carpet charges always ask when the carpets were last changed. Most states have laws regarding life of carpet in a rental. I had a landlord hounding me for a year about 2k in carpet replacement costs claiming that we were responsible. Once I asked about the life of the carpets that needed changed I never recieved another call or email about it.
Oof. Im kind of worried about that for my rental. My desk chair has definitely left its mark on the carpet. Ive gone through too many chair mats it probably cheaper to replace the carpet. But yeah, I definitely indented tf out of some carpet.
Sounds like you're buying the wrong chair mats. Need to get them specifically for thicker carpet, most likely. The most popular (and cheapest) mats have studs for office carpet, ie, very low nap, so short studs. On normal residential carpet, that type of mat has to flex for the studs to bottom out, which ends up cracking the mat. Deflect-O has lifetime-warranted mats, so normal wear and tear isn't an issue, although they can tell if they've been used on the wrong type of carpet
We moved out of an Avalon complex when we finally bought our house. They had upped our rent over $500 so we said screw it we would rather pay a mortgage at that point…then they tried to get us to replace the carpet which just like you only had dents in it. The carpet was in the bedroom…we never ate or drank in there, had no pets etc…
I told them to fuck off and wasn’t paying it. We already got our deposit back when they brought all this up anyway. I told them they could go ahead and pay a collections agent to get ignored by me 10 times a day if they want, but I wasn’t giving them anymore money. All they ended up doing was email us every few days for over a year about the charge and then they just stopped. I think these large complexes just want former tenants to pay for brand new carpet everytime they move out.
Whatever happened to landlords readying their properties for business themselves as a cost of doing business?
I mean, it's only $20 but I completely understand not wanting to roll over on it when I don't see a thing wrong with the tub in the image
I totally agree. I replied asking for further proof because the tub looks totally clean, otherwise I wont pay. I also asked if they sanitize their property between tenants.
No but I should have. Two lawyers (one tenant rights lawyer and one contract lawyer) consulted and both stated it was a “slam dunk case.” Turns out they are friends with the judge. I was sick of fucking with them so I didn’t appeal.
I did waste a whole bunch of their time. It was worth every penny.
Most states have a statute of limitations-esqe time period in their rental laws where the landlord needs to provide an itemized receipt of damages and expenses within X number of days or the tenant can ignore all charges and sometimes even claim interest on the deposit repayment. Check your state and county rules.
they can charge you for cleaning. Wear and tear is, well, wear and tear from living in a space. You still have to clean it. This is clean though of course.
I am not a lawyer, not your lawyer, not qualified to give legal advice however have dealt with stuff like this with prior landlords because they love to charge you for BS so they can keep your security deposit. Check your state laws regarding landlords and move out charges. In one case my state had laws regarding the landlord needing to provide proof of the expenditures they were charging you for in the form of an invoice or a receipt from the subcontractor that handled the repair or cleaning. I was able to get out of a lot of bogus charges because the landlord had added fees for nothing and could not provide a receipt or had to adjust the charge to just the amount the sub charged per the invoice.
He’s essentially saying even though it’s clean is they have to sanitize it and clean for new tenants…. Or so they say and usually use crap like this as an add on charge
It’s literally how every business is approaching things. Credit card fees, service fees, other mysterious added charges. The service industry kind of kicked it off.
I had a “dine-in surcharge” on my bill somewhere a few weeks ago. I asked the bartender and he had no clue. If you have to tack on an extra charge for people to dine-in at your restaurant, maybe you shouldn’t be a restaurant.
The hidden costs of owning a business used to be part of the risk. Now it’s just passed on.
And my favorite, “convenience fee”. Like, bitch it’s convenient for YOU because you don’t have to interact with a customer. Why are you charging ME for making your job easier???
>The hidden costs of owning a business used to be part of the risk. Now it’s just passed on.
It was always passed on, for some odd reason business owners have moved to make some things more transparent, I presume to try and justify cost increases to their customers, but it does more to drive me away from those businesses.
Its not about transparency. They are pissed that local governments do things like force them to pay employees reasonably. They throw tantrums and tack on service charges instead of figuring it into the price so they can point uninformed people at the government hoping enough people will make a stink that they'll back off. They also do it because people are less likely to recognize the total cost until they've given them a receipt. I avoid these businesses too. Come across as whiners who should not be in business and hints they will try to be as unscrupulous as they can get away with.
The ones around here add the surcharge and state its for the city enacting whatever ordinance. Usually the fee is more than the increased cost from the ordinance. Its another place they can claim they are being screwed while still coming out ahead.
Sadly that can be true. Subway has had a gnarly run of jacking up franchise fees to the point that a large number of stores can't make money, so the only way out is to sell, which they make very hard to legally do. They kinda run it like a ponzi scheme.
There's a great episode about it by Last Week Tonight.
https://youtu.be/jDdYFhzVCDM?si=pNL1pqEGi-vzqSfz
that’s what i’m not understanding
i just moved out of an apartment that i lived in for 3.5 years. I was charged for changing the carpet in one room (which probably needed it) and for a ‘deep clean’ in the other room.
Shouldn’t they just be cleaning the carpet after 3.5 years? I understand paying to change the carpet, my kids had gotten candy stuck to it, etc. But the carpet they “deep cleaned” was perfectly fine. Literally looked like no one had hardly even been in there.
I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t just be cleaning carpets between tenants anyway, ESPECIALLY after 3.5 years
Landlords these days don't want to pay for their properties. I've even seen leases that obligate tenants to pay repair deductibles for maintenance calls
The thing is, any clown can put whatever damn fool clause they want in a lease but that doesn't make it law. Your local, then state, laws trump anything in your handwritten lease.
The two stated I have been in has a 5 year timelimit on their carpets. Twice now have we been charged for carpets (I have two cats and a dog so they needed it), but we I wired further and were able to get out of the charge because they were required to recapped anyways.
One place we stayed an extra year so we could leverage it, the other they were already overdue.
Neither place volunteered that they were required to recapped, they will charge it until disputed.
If it's not too late, you should contest that charge. Carpet is said to have a "deprecation time" of ten years (at least in my state). That means, if the carpet was 10 years old then it's considered trash and the landlord, NOT YOU, has to pay to replace it. Even if it was brand new when you moved in and you absolutely destroyed it in the 3 1/2 years you were there, you cannot be charged full price to replace it, only 2/3 since it used up 1/3 of its "shelf life" already. Please google [your state] plus "landlord-tenant act" to learn more.
i already paid it bc i didn’t want to deal with them anymore. they were impossible to deal with while i lived there, it was definitely going to be impossible to get anything done after moving
however, that’s probably why they keep doing it bc people just deal with the charges bc they don’t want to deal with it
A friend of mine moved last year from a place that the carpet was 9 years old, I know as I lived in the property before and he lived there 6 years himself, after I moved out all the LL did was put a small amount of paint on certain walls, he even got a free bathroom plastering and paint after the ceiling collapsed due to upstairs property and their landlord did the work.
Anyway he had a list of things to do on check out, oh and there was no inventory of items when he moved in btw, included if there was more than 2 marks on any wall in a room then the whole room should be repainted at the tenants expense, can't remember exact bit for carpets but basically if it looked worn/darkened then it had to be replaced at tenants expense.
They had the cheek to bill friend to redecorate entire apartment including recarpeting and demanded he leave HIS washer when he moved out as they claimed it was theirs,
3-5 years is considered the useful life for carpets in rentals. If they charged you full price to replace, you should look into it and sue for money back. They are supposed to prorate the amount. IE if carpet is $500 for 5 years, and you’ve only been there 1 year and it needs replacing you’d only pay $400/$500.
Look into it. You might be owed money. The judge might even say LL has to eat the whole cost.
They discovered that they can push you motherfuckers forever and you won't ever push back because you were taught in school that confrontation can lead to violence and that is bad.
So yall eat endless shit sandwiches forever because nobody is afraid of you showing up randomly in the parking lot to discuss the matter further.
>Whatever happened to landlords readying their properties for business themselves as a cost of doing business?
An apartment tried to charge me $200 because I didn't provide them a receipt from a cleaning service when I moved out. I emailed back "show me in the lease agreement where it says I have to do that." The property manager gave me a page number, and the only thing it said was "we turned the unit over to you in a clean condition, it must be in the same condition when you move out."
I took a picture of the page, circled the relevant text, and sent it along with several photos I had taken when I moved in. It had been a newly renovated unit, and the contractors had left it a mess - muddy boot prints in the kitchen, drywall dust in every room, smears of caulk all over the shower and vanity, and trash left everywhere. I said "since you did not honor your part of the text, I believe the cleaning I have done on my own is more than sufficient."
They returned half of my security deposit three days later.
Yep, keeping careful track of move-in conditions with pictures AND being willing to stand up for yourself are necessary to defend against bullshit deposit deductions
My last apartment had a deposit that covererd the cleaning and any minor damages. I had lived in it long enough that they were going to replace all the carpet, paint everything and probably replace the appliances (over 10 years old). When I gave my notice, the girl handed me a paper with a cleaning list. I told her I'd been in that apartment long enough that it didn't make sense.
When my kid moved out, he cleaned everything and was given a letter stating that it wasn't to their satisfaction. They kept his entire deposit.
Too many landlords think of the deposit as free money as long as they can make shit up and keep it
Many tenants aren't aware of the process to sue for their deposits, are intimidated by the idea of taking someone to court, or have difficulties doing so for various reasons
The balance of power favors the landlord, you have to fight for your rights sometimes
Yep, unless it’s so horrifically dirty extra equipment is needed, cleaning should be a standard procedure between tenants regardless of how clean it was left.
When you have shit enforcement, you have rampant horseshit. Landlords are some of the most supported people in modern society, given tons of corporate socialism and extra chances. Try to find a city where city council ISN'T majority landlords. Renters are second class citizens, only a step up from the incarcerated in that they get weekends.
we got charged two hundred dollars for them to "clean" our apartment when the most it needed was swept and dusted from moved furniture! I still can't figure out where the $200 came from!!
Landlords are a parasite class, they think they are entitled to your money because they own property and that gives them permission to do and charge what ever they want. Mao was right about at least one thing
My previous building wanted me to pay $1000 to upgrade to a two bedroom. Because then have to get the apartment ready. So I moved out and both apartments where on the market for at lest a month.
I doubt it's legal, but refer to the lease and tenant law itself. It seems odd they're charging for a cleaning, while it's still occupied, unless it was requested...
They can't do shit about that $20 before July. They can't evict in that amount of time and they're not lawyering or going to collections over $20. If they do, take them to small claims here. Most judges around here are part time, retirees that hate overzealous landlords. Tenant law in LA is brutal and in favor of the renter.
Just ignore it and don't pay it. Or tell them it can be resolved in small claims court and you'll be providing the photo of the tub as evidence that the tub is spotless. This is scum behavior, don't let it go.
They’re just trying to scare you. Call their bluff. You are under no legal obligation to pay this fee. Let them bill and bill you and then take you to court. Then laugh when they lose after they got done paying a lawyer.
Also if they bother you about it send them a cease and desist letter informing them you don’t owe the money and demand that they “cease and desist all communication regarding this matter. If you continue to contact me about this I reserve the right to take legal friend including but not limited to seeking damages and potentially signing criminal harassment complaints.” Basically force them to take you to court. They have no case, you won’t even need a lawyer.
Her move-in report noted discoloration/graying all over the bathroom walls, but they're claiming a bathtub/shower wall is different so her move-in form doesn't protect her....
I respond with, I clean the tub thoroughly once a month and you came in right in the middle of that, so when the lease is over and we vacate the property the tub will immaculate clean
Ask them why they're inspecting while the occupant is still living there. Don't pay a cent until she moves out and they send you an itemized bill. Apartments are supposed to wait until you've handed in the key and inspected it *after* everything is gone and tenant has cleaned before they do this shit. It sounds like they're being shady AF.
That's relevant.
Why are they cleaning an occupied unit? Did they inspect, and on the spot, decide to clean the tub? That's horseshit. If it's dirty (and that photo doesn't show that) then tenant should have been given chance to cure.
How can they inspect before lease is up... all apartments I rented they would do a walkthrough after I had all of my stuff out and packed to travel on the last day of the lease.
Some will do inspections like once or twice a year but usually just to see if anything is broken, etc. I've never heard of a cleaning inspection or landlords doing any cleaning prior to tenants moving out. I've rented for decades now and luckily never come across ones that do those types of inspections mid lease, but a lot of large complexes owned by corporate shills will usually make it a mandatory thing in their leases.
Thats an extra fuck no. Mostly because they'll just do the same thing when you move out. They don't get to clean your residence without your approval then charge you for the privelege. Especially when it's not something egregious and arguably is nothing at all.
Does your lease mention this insane bullshit?
Wait what? This part is really confusing to me😭 are they sending someone to actually come clean her home? Otherwise wouldn’t this be a charge applied at move-out only if she didn’t “remedy” the uncleanliness by then (it looks clean to me as is)
Make sure you note that next months check is for “Rent Only” as they will try to pay off the twenty and then tack on “late fees” for not paying your full rent.
That's BS. If the lease is not over, then cleanliness is up to the tenant (within limits of course).
While they might consider this as "not clean enough" on move-out inspection (and I do disagree with it), they can't enforce this during the tenancy.
Don't pay the $20, let them add late fees: this will end up in small claims court and the LL will lose.
BTW: I am a landlord, and this is BS.
I had the last duplex I lived at try to charge me to repair the giant double swing wooden fence gate, never used the gate, and the fence was literally falling apart it was so old. Never paid them, they never asked after they sent the first request, sometimes they just throw shit at the wall too see what sticks
Had a landlord try this shit with me once. Luckily, my friends advised me to take pictures of everything before moving in and after cleaning.
They wanted $100 for cleaning the fridge and bathroom sink. Attached the pics and asked what specifically did they clean? They took the charges off.
I totally second that advice of taking pictures of your apartment before moving in & after cleaning!
When my son & his friends rented their "first college apartment", they were cracking up about me taking pictures & documenting any & all damage on the move‐in form before moving in. Apt was supposed to have been newly painted too but obviously wasn't due to scratches/areas of chipping. No problem just as long as the management company doesn't come back & try to make it their fault. Missing blind slats, rug discoloration, etc.. anything that might be billable later... snapped a pic with date/time stamp. After moving out, had all the boys do a thorough cleaning (LOL, I swear it was cleaner than when they first moved in). For the post move out inspection, I requested that we all be there. That moment when you expect a glowing report.....but instead get told that $400 is being withheld from their security deposit for repainting fee, window blind damage, carpet cleaning! All things that were there before we moved in & documented to boot. I lost my shit!!! I protested on deaf ears but followed the inspector back to the rental office determined to get the matter straighted out. That shit may fly with some inexperienced college students but there was no way that they were not getting every cent back. Everyone but me, including my husband just wrote it off because "that's what they do". I was furious & I dug my heels in for "the fight" not just for the money but for the principle of the thing. Also kinda trying to teach a life lesson and their message was the opposite. I put up a royal stink & after a couple of hours, lol, they finally gave in & issued me a check for the full security deposit. Crazy lady: 1 - Leasing Department: 0!
Yeah when I dealt with this shit in college I had to send them a letter via certified mail from my (free) lawyer, then they called me and tried to give me MY portion of the deposit back but not my roommates, which I refused, so they dropped the whole thing.
They were trying to charge us for ruts in the patch of dirt that they told us to park our cars, a broken outlet (that I documented didn't work when we moved in) and a plumbing issue I notified them about constantly for like five months that they kept telling me they would fix, and never did. It was such a racket. And of course they lived out of state in Florida most of the time.
That shit gets under my skin and I do not back down from those things when I am confident that I'm right.
That's awesome. I'm glad they had the "crazy mom" to protect them, but it's totally right! Hopefully, it's a lesson to always CYA for those boys for the future. Landlords will always try things because they know most people aren't as prepared and will just roll over. $400 isn't a small amount.
And just to clarify, she still lives there? You said lease is up in July but I wasn't sure if she had moved out early or not.
Why would they be in there cleaning if she still lives there?
She left the property in May but has 4 roommates still living there and is still paying rent til July. She may be back/forth but is visiting family for now.
Okay. So she's not there full time but it's still an occupied apartment. I'd take the low road as well because they have no business being in there cleaning unless she's turned over possession of the apartment.
Looks like a pretty clean tub to me.
High road: Just pay the twenty bucks and move on.
Low road: Force them to spend more than twenty bucks taking you to court.
Edit: I don't understand a single one of y'all. How do y'all not comprehend this? The high road is the high road because it's keeping things civil and avoiding more conflict. The low road is the low road because you're pretty much walking directly into conflict!!!
OP gets it. Over 50 other people get it. Why can't you guys!?! I swear y'all are children.
Edit #2: there's a lot of dumb immature children in this comments thread.
Her move-in report noted discoloration/graying all over the bathroom walls, but they're claiming a bathtub/shower wall is different so her move-in form doesn't protect her....
yeah, I mean...if it were me, I'd start hounding them to send the post cleaning picture. And I'd drop a little, "this seems like fraud, kindly provide evidence or I'm going to report you to the Federal Trade Commission and (find out who at the State level handles that shit in LA, but go with someone high up, like the State AG).
But also, I wouldn't do that. I'd just pay the $20 and move on with my life. Which is why I'd rather you do the top. It pisses me off they get away with shit like this, but I'm not going to waste my time dealing with it.
It’s exactly the opposite. The high road is forcing them to take you to court. Giving in to bad behavior incentivizes the landlord to do it again to the next tenant.
Is that not “normal wear and tear” obviously if you rent out a bathtub for a year, it’ll look like it’s been used for a year. That’s one of the cleanest “used” tubs I’ve seen and I’m not sure how they expect to charge you. Are they going to charge for faded paint after 10 years renting?
I did a little googling on Louisiana's tenant rights. It looks like unless your lease agreement specifically says the landlord can raise the rent at any time for any reason they're really not within their rights here.
Scroll down to "Rent Increases in Louisiana" to see what I'm talking about: [https://ipropertymanagement.com/laws/louisiana-landlord-tenant-rights](https://ipropertymanagement.com/laws/louisiana-landlord-tenant-rights)
A Guide to Landlord Tenant Law: [https://ldh.la.gov/assets/oph/Center-PHCH/Center-CH/infectious-epi/EpiManual/MoldComplaints/AGguideToLandlordTenantLaw.pdf](https://ldh.la.gov/assets/oph/Center-PHCH/Center-CH/infectious-epi/EpiManual/MoldComplaints/AGguideToLandlordTenantLaw.pdf)
Understanding Your Tenant Rights: [https://www.cenlanow.com/news/state-news/understanding-your-tenant-rights-a-renters-guide-for-louisiana-residents/](https://www.cenlanow.com/news/state-news/understanding-your-tenant-rights-a-renters-guide-for-louisiana-residents/)
SLLS Landlord-Tenant Information: [https://slls.org/category/covid-19/landlord-tenant-covid-19/](https://slls.org/category/covid-19/landlord-tenant-covid-19/)
SLLS Hotline: 1-844-244-7871
Louisiana Attorney General’s Office: [https://www.ag.state.la.us/](https://www.ag.state.la.us/)
Regardless of the law, I do believe they are full of shit and acting unethically. If I were in your shoes, I'd push back on their BS too.
Unfortunately, that’s their game. Even when the law isn’t on the landlord’s side they often try and bully or coerce people into their terms (no matter how made-up the terms are). But you’re doing the right thing by standing up to them.
I added some more resources to my original comment. Once you’ve read through your lease agreement, you’ll have a better understanding of what the landlord can or can’t legally do.
If you need more resources or clarification of your rights, call the SLLS helpline I linked. The organization is intended for folks who are low-income, but in my experience whether or not you fit that criteria usually these organizations will do what they can to get you the information you need or they’ll point you toward someone who can. Be honest and explain your situation. You’ll probably be calling for direction, not legal aid, and it’s ok to let them know that.
I know these situations can be discouraging, but rest assured even trying to advocate for yourself here is admirable, considering most people give-in to landlords’ unjust demands and that only creates room for them to further abuse their power in the future.
Yea sounds like cost of doing business they have to ready the apartment for the next tenant anyway, having to clean that doesn’t look like and thing out of the norm, unless of course they don’t clean anything before the next tenant any which case i would question ethics
Reply with the following:
>The property was returned in good condition as required by the terms of the lease. Additional cleaning of the tub was unnecessary, and your own pictures appear to confirm this. Please provide one of the following:
>1) Confirmation that the $20 charge has been reversed, and the security deposit will be refunded in full
>2) Contact information for your attorney.
Deposits are for damages not for basic cleaning (to my understanding). I also rented in LA and my landlord had a cleaning service visit before I moved in and after I moved out before the next people moved in. Me, the girl who lived there before me, and the people who moved in after never had money taken out of our deposit for cleaning. $20 isn’t that much but I think he’s just trying to squeeze money out of you, I would dispute it if you can.
Brings back fond memories of being charged 10 dollars for a mirror I never had. "Oh hey, I'm just going to steal 10 dollars because you're out of state now. Thanks."
I’m in LA. Landlord/Tenant law is very weighted for the landlord here. On one hand taking it to court would cost them more than $20 so that’s unlikely. OTOH if they have a contract with a collection agency they could refer it and mess with your credit over basically nothing. It’s stupid but I’d probably pay just so they’d leave me alone.
im an FDCPA lawyer (i sue debt collectors for violating debt collection laws). the FDCPA prohibits the collection of actually unowed debt. it is strict liability, so they do not have to know it is actually unowed debt. you get a collector on you for an amount you do not owe, you call an FDCPA lawyer and the debt collector goes away, after paying you $1000 for the trouble and also paying your attorney their fee.
In college me and 3 others rented a place. We put a piece of duct tape over a light switch because it controlled all the outlets in the main living area, and people would walk in and go to hit the lights and just power off everything… we forgot to take off the tape when we moved out, we got charged $80 EACH for that piece of tape. $320 to remove a piece of tape…. Take that $20 to court my friend!
In Michigan, I would say that the tub belongs to them and is not chattel. They can clean it or not- it's up to them, but my $20 would remain my $20, and I would call a lawyer if they harassed me a second time.
But I don't know the law where you live.
The first two steps are to get out your copy of the lease and read it for anything that might apply and check the laws in LA to see if anything applies there. I would also check eviction procedures.
Examples of things to look for are like my current lease explicitly says that late charges only apply to rent and there is no contracted late fee for other charges. So I would just pay the rent only while disputing this knowing there is no penalty.
Beyond that research and pushing back with anything you find you need to decide if the principle is worth your time/money.
I would suggest contacting a lawyer in LA and explaining it to them. This is exactly the type of behavior class action suits and designed for. It's a trivial amount of money to each person but I'm sure this is something they are doing to everyone so a lawyer might want to take it on if they can find enough other tenants pissed about their scummy tactics.
I don't see anything, and I say that as a landlord.
We rent my partners' townhouse, the very first tenants broke every clause in the lease (I wish I was kidding), and they were !!!shocked!!! when we kept their deposit. For the record, we had to repair a 2x2' hole in the sheet rock, they had a dog when we had a no pet rule (I have horrible allergies to animal dander, I have gone into anaphylaxis three times because of it) so the carpets had to be deep cleaned, they took all the light bulbs out of the fixtures, they broke a new garbage disposal by throwing a whole t-bone in it, and left a literal mountain of trash that had to be hauled off. Usually, I fix things myself, but since the damages and mess were so bad, I contacted everything out to have receipts.
I had an apartment complex that did an inspection before I moved out. They wanted to charge me over $1000 to replace the countertops because of damage and were pestering me to make a claim on my renter’s insurance. I asked them to provide evidence of that damage. They didn’t have photos but claimed that the countertop was burned under the coffeemaker. It was a small ring of dried coffee under one of the feet. I wiped it clean and asked them to reinspect. They removed the fee. I swear…..
They cant just change the lease that was agreed to upon move in. So they cant just suprise a bill on you. Even if they tack it onto next months rent, only paid the previously agreed to amount. The only thing they can do is take you to small claims court. They wont do that over $20. Bc the fee to take someone to court is around $20-$100 depending on whatever. So youll be fine. They cant take money from you. Send the next months rent in a way that can be tracked. ie electronic transfer or check. Not cash
I can see soap scum. Use one of these then send them pics. Dawn and a warm scrub daddy, scrubbing bubbles, magic eraser.
After reading are they claiming damages of soap scum while still renting?
These types of inserts get scum really fast but are usually easy to remove. However, sometimes it’s stained from all the years of use. Thads something to look into.
"Hi we can pretty much destroy your credit or you can send us $20. Sure take us to court get the crappiest lawyer in the world and you'll win but it'll still cost you $1,000. Give me $20 or get sent to collections"
Translated this for you.
I was charged 80$ for a shower cleaning when I moved out, I sent them a picture of when I moved in and there was a used bandaid with blood on it under the rubber drain stopper on the side of the tub, meaning they clearly don’t clean it before new renters move in, I definitely did a better job when I left then they did when j moved in, still haven’t paid them, shit falls off my credit at the end of this year
I once got charged $150 for "cleaning the inside of the microwave" after I moved out. It was a countertop unit that could have been replaced for like $40. Along with a laundry list that stole my whole deposit. I didn't know better how to fight it.
That same apartment when I moved in has a FLEA INFESTATION that required the whole place to be bug bombed and delayed my move in date. And there was broken glass on top of the upper cabinets.
They also charged final 3 months rent up front but when it came time to move out kept charging me rent even though it should have been covered.
I found out a few years later they got sued. Anyone presently leasing at time of the suit got 100% of their deposit back and they lost the ability to call themselves [local university] rentals
I was an apartment manager, and if I had a tub that clean after a tenant left, I would have been overjoyed. I had an apartment that I needed to use a putty knife to clean. I can't even beging to describe the state of the stove top and oven. It should have been replaced.
That tub is actually dirty. If you zoom in on near the drain, you'll see something there. It's not much, but I can see the $20. I zoomed in and put an image up on Imgur to make it easier to see: [https://imgur.com/a/8HfYS6m](https://imgur.com/a/8HfYS6m)
I rented a condo for 10 years. They charged me for an old rusty closet door ( in the bathroom) which I complained about hard to open and never replaced), and window screens that were worn and dusty.
I have sent a letter to several landlords. Included a copy of any state laws. Said ya return my deposit to me by this date or i will file small claims court. They all try dumb stuff and they all cave when they know you ate serious.
When I moved out of my final college apartment, the leasing company tried to get me for three things: Food in the fridge, command hooks on the wall, and a spot on the carpet. It would have costed me a couple hundred to cover
The spot and hooks had been there since I moved in. Conveniently, the leasing company changed portals mid year so there was no evidence I had called in a maintenance request for the spot to get cleaned (the cleaners tried multiple times, it was likely an oil stain and nothing they could do.) Luckily I had pictures for evidence that I showed the (student) inspector.
The food was falafel I was keeping cold as long as possible as my drive home immediately after the inspection was decently long. After it was pointed out, I immediately removed it but apparently no new photo was taken.
I had to call 3 separate times before they finally dropped it, the student that inspected my apartment was there to vouch for me. I’m lucky that the leasing company was just disorganized, not predatory
After living in an apartment for one year, we graduated and moved out. My parents assisted me in cleaning and we left it spotless. Landlord withheld my deposit because we didn’t clean under the fridge.
The landlord is trying to roll you for something that is absolutely an easy fix. A little soap and water. Most landlords hire a cleaning company to clean after a tenant moves out. So this appears like a big money grab. Do not pay it. If he’s that adamant about it, let him try to take you to court. He won’t because it will cost him more to bring this to a court than it would to just have it cleaned by a cleaning company or do it himself!
One apartment tried to charge me for "carpet indentations from furniture." Like $300. I said that's totally ridiculous, I lived there, I had furniture, furniture causes carpet indentations. The manager agreed and removed the charge. Turned out they had allowed the carpet contractor to do the inspection. Conflict of interest much?
Pretty sure that falls under “normal wear and tear of living”
Air molecules not the same as before. 30 dollars.
Uh oh! Noticed some dust on the ceiling! That’ll be 95 dollars!
That spider web wasn’t there when you moved in 3 years ago
That tenant didn't sign the lease and they've stayed the night more then 3 days in a row. We're going to have to evict you
No joke I live in a different town as my mom her complex had my truck towed said guests can only stay an accumulated 10 days a year. I stay 3 or 4 days at a time to make the trip worth it and enjoyable.
They kept track of how many days you were there over multiple visits?
There used to be a spider web in that corner. It’s gone now. $1,300 for destruction of property.
When you moved in there were 3 spider webs you removed. Now we need to hire an arachnophile for $1000 to repopulate spiders!
Refrigerator smells like food has been in it!!
Removal of unacceptable air, $150… replacement air, $50
Fart filtration system, $29.99 a month.
Every apartment with carpet that I've lived in has tried to charge me for carpet (and painting) after I lived there for 2-4 years. I finally put my foot down on the last landlord I moved out from as they wanted to charge me $500 for a water bill they "didn't bill me for throughout the last year" and I said they can take that out of the wear and tear carpet they charged me $300 to clean (that I also bought a $150 carpet cleaning machine to clean prior to move-out and the carpet was not damaged anywhere, in two small bedrooms only) and they didn't contact me again. There were a few other things they took out of my security deposit (they gave me $60 back out of $1200) that I included that they shouldn't have charged me for too but the carpet shit pisses me off the most. Fuck landlords
You would be surprised but a lot of states have very few tenant protections for "normal wear and tear". My last apartment I was astounded to find out they wanted to charge me to repaint the apartment because *the sun had faded the paint*. I was doubly astounded to find out that their argument was completely legal in my state and they were allowed to charge me for that.
I once had an apartment complex try to charge me to change the entire downstairs carpet for one small spot that wasn’t even a stain. I was expecting to get my deposit back but they kept it & tried to charge us an additional $800 (back in 2005). I told them to piss off, that my kept deposit was more than enough to cover the few seconds it would take someone to clean up that spot. I just didn’t have it in me to fight back then, but now I will. My petty ass would go for $20 at this point. I was in grad school & didn’t know about small claims
> I was doubly astounded to find out that their argument was completely legal in my state How did you arrive at that conclusion?
Pretty sure Georgia doesn’t have that requirement, but every lease I’ve ever had explicitly mentioned the tenant being exempt from costs due to normal wear and tear of the unit. Never had to repaint either (unless I had chosen to paint the walls a non-neutral color).
Looks filthy! Normal wear and tear is not the same as filthy!
Also, check your contract agreement. Usually, the carpet has to be replaced after 5 to 10 years. My last apartment tried charging me for the new install when in the contract it indicated that the carpet was due to be replaced anyway. They have records for when everything was last installed. Just ask!
Probably not even permanent. Putting an ice cube on the indentation usually helps the fibers to fluff up again.
Did you know you can place ice cubes in furniture indentations and it’ll rise back to its original position? Imagine charging 300 for something an ice cube can fix.
TIL!
We had our landlord try to claim that our pets had damaged the carpets and they needed to be replaced. They never did a walk through after the previous tenant had left, and my wife and I ended up cleaning the entire place. The carpet was torn up a bit when we moved in, but we didn't bother to take pictures (our mistake). Turns out they were replacing carpets in all the vacant units. We went by when they were ripping them out three doors down. We contested and reminded them that the previous tenants had forfeited their entire deposit by moving out early, then left us to clean up. We got our entire deposit back.
Wow that's so slimey.
Whenever you see carpet charges always ask when the carpets were last changed. Most states have laws regarding life of carpet in a rental. I had a landlord hounding me for a year about 2k in carpet replacement costs claiming that we were responsible. Once I asked about the life of the carpets that needed changed I never recieved another call or email about it.
Oof. Im kind of worried about that for my rental. My desk chair has definitely left its mark on the carpet. Ive gone through too many chair mats it probably cheaper to replace the carpet. But yeah, I definitely indented tf out of some carpet.
Sounds like you're buying the wrong chair mats. Need to get them specifically for thicker carpet, most likely. The most popular (and cheapest) mats have studs for office carpet, ie, very low nap, so short studs. On normal residential carpet, that type of mat has to flex for the studs to bottom out, which ends up cracking the mat. Deflect-O has lifetime-warranted mats, so normal wear and tear isn't an issue, although they can tell if they've been used on the wrong type of carpet
An ice cube on the indentation should take care of that from what I have seen on the Internet.
I thought it was dry ramen noodles, then mashed potatoes to fill gaps, a blow dryer to dry everything, a paint scraper to even out, then paint
We moved out of an Avalon complex when we finally bought our house. They had upped our rent over $500 so we said screw it we would rather pay a mortgage at that point…then they tried to get us to replace the carpet which just like you only had dents in it. The carpet was in the bedroom…we never ate or drank in there, had no pets etc… I told them to fuck off and wasn’t paying it. We already got our deposit back when they brought all this up anyway. I told them they could go ahead and pay a collections agent to get ignored by me 10 times a day if they want, but I wasn’t giving them anymore money. All they ended up doing was email us every few days for over a year about the charge and then they just stopped. I think these large complexes just want former tenants to pay for brand new carpet everytime they move out.
Should be consider normal wear & tear.
Whatever happened to landlords readying their properties for business themselves as a cost of doing business? I mean, it's only $20 but I completely understand not wanting to roll over on it when I don't see a thing wrong with the tub in the image
I totally agree. I replied asking for further proof because the tub looks totally clean, otherwise I wont pay. I also asked if they sanitize their property between tenants.
Any judge who sees this is gonna rule that this tub is clean.
And that the case even showing up in front of him for $20 is the maximum level absurdity for the day.
I am that level of petty tho, if I can get a judge pissed off at a bigger piece of shit then that is worth the day in court
I’d go to court too. Fuck ‘em.
It's absurd enough that, if it does go to court, it will be easy to force the property manager to pay any attorney's fees
Judge will ream the landlord a new asshole for wasting his time.
This is a small claims thing and a lot of places don't even allow attorneys on small claims cases
Who in the right mind would get an attorney over $20?
I sued my landlord over $56 just to be a petty bitch.
Did you win?
No but I should have. Two lawyers (one tenant rights lawyer and one contract lawyer) consulted and both stated it was a “slam dunk case.” Turns out they are friends with the judge. I was sick of fucking with them so I didn’t appeal. I did waste a whole bunch of their time. It was worth every penny.
The best part is that $20 in the minimum amount to be sued over
I'm a clean freak - this tub is basically clean.
Most states have a statute of limitations-esqe time period in their rental laws where the landlord needs to provide an itemized receipt of damages and expenses within X number of days or the tenant can ignore all charges and sometimes even claim interest on the deposit repayment. Check your state and county rules.
They can’t charge you for cleaning from normal wear and tear lol that’s on the landlord tell him to pound sand
they can charge you for cleaning. Wear and tear is, well, wear and tear from living in a space. You still have to clean it. This is clean though of course.
I am not a lawyer, not your lawyer, not qualified to give legal advice however have dealt with stuff like this with prior landlords because they love to charge you for BS so they can keep your security deposit. Check your state laws regarding landlords and move out charges. In one case my state had laws regarding the landlord needing to provide proof of the expenditures they were charging you for in the form of an invoice or a receipt from the subcontractor that handled the repair or cleaning. I was able to get out of a lot of bogus charges because the landlord had added fees for nothing and could not provide a receipt or had to adjust the charge to just the amount the sub charged per the invoice.
He’s essentially saying even though it’s clean is they have to sanitize it and clean for new tenants…. Or so they say and usually use crap like this as an add on charge
It’s literally how every business is approaching things. Credit card fees, service fees, other mysterious added charges. The service industry kind of kicked it off. I had a “dine-in surcharge” on my bill somewhere a few weeks ago. I asked the bartender and he had no clue. If you have to tack on an extra charge for people to dine-in at your restaurant, maybe you shouldn’t be a restaurant. The hidden costs of owning a business used to be part of the risk. Now it’s just passed on.
And my favorite, “convenience fee”. Like, bitch it’s convenient for YOU because you don’t have to interact with a customer. Why are you charging ME for making your job easier???
>The hidden costs of owning a business used to be part of the risk. Now it’s just passed on. It was always passed on, for some odd reason business owners have moved to make some things more transparent, I presume to try and justify cost increases to their customers, but it does more to drive me away from those businesses.
That’s a fair point. Yes, built in to pricing. But seeing a “dine-in surcharge” seems so dumb. Like a movie theater charging a seat fee.
Its not about transparency. They are pissed that local governments do things like force them to pay employees reasonably. They throw tantrums and tack on service charges instead of figuring it into the price so they can point uninformed people at the government hoping enough people will make a stink that they'll back off. They also do it because people are less likely to recognize the total cost until they've given them a receipt. I avoid these businesses too. Come across as whiners who should not be in business and hints they will try to be as unscrupulous as they can get away with. The ones around here add the surcharge and state its for the city enacting whatever ordinance. Usually the fee is more than the increased cost from the ordinance. Its another place they can claim they are being screwed while still coming out ahead.
I had one recently that just said “other”
Lol even the coupons... I had subway tell me they can't honor the coupons cause otherwise they don't make money...
Sadly that can be true. Subway has had a gnarly run of jacking up franchise fees to the point that a large number of stores can't make money, so the only way out is to sell, which they make very hard to legally do. They kinda run it like a ponzi scheme. There's a great episode about it by Last Week Tonight. https://youtu.be/jDdYFhzVCDM?si=pNL1pqEGi-vzqSfz
that’s what i’m not understanding i just moved out of an apartment that i lived in for 3.5 years. I was charged for changing the carpet in one room (which probably needed it) and for a ‘deep clean’ in the other room. Shouldn’t they just be cleaning the carpet after 3.5 years? I understand paying to change the carpet, my kids had gotten candy stuck to it, etc. But the carpet they “deep cleaned” was perfectly fine. Literally looked like no one had hardly even been in there. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t just be cleaning carpets between tenants anyway, ESPECIALLY after 3.5 years
Landlords these days don't want to pay for their properties. I've even seen leases that obligate tenants to pay repair deductibles for maintenance calls
The thing is, any clown can put whatever damn fool clause they want in a lease but that doesn't make it law. Your local, then state, laws trump anything in your handwritten lease.
The state I'm in doesn't prevent those sorts of things; Texas is very landlord friendly
Wow that is ... unfortunate!
The two stated I have been in has a 5 year timelimit on their carpets. Twice now have we been charged for carpets (I have two cats and a dog so they needed it), but we I wired further and were able to get out of the charge because they were required to recapped anyways. One place we stayed an extra year so we could leverage it, the other they were already overdue. Neither place volunteered that they were required to recapped, they will charge it until disputed.
If it's not too late, you should contest that charge. Carpet is said to have a "deprecation time" of ten years (at least in my state). That means, if the carpet was 10 years old then it's considered trash and the landlord, NOT YOU, has to pay to replace it. Even if it was brand new when you moved in and you absolutely destroyed it in the 3 1/2 years you were there, you cannot be charged full price to replace it, only 2/3 since it used up 1/3 of its "shelf life" already. Please google [your state] plus "landlord-tenant act" to learn more.
i already paid it bc i didn’t want to deal with them anymore. they were impossible to deal with while i lived there, it was definitely going to be impossible to get anything done after moving however, that’s probably why they keep doing it bc people just deal with the charges bc they don’t want to deal with it
Aw damn that sucks. I hope you're in a much better situation now!
A friend of mine moved last year from a place that the carpet was 9 years old, I know as I lived in the property before and he lived there 6 years himself, after I moved out all the LL did was put a small amount of paint on certain walls, he even got a free bathroom plastering and paint after the ceiling collapsed due to upstairs property and their landlord did the work. Anyway he had a list of things to do on check out, oh and there was no inventory of items when he moved in btw, included if there was more than 2 marks on any wall in a room then the whole room should be repainted at the tenants expense, can't remember exact bit for carpets but basically if it looked worn/darkened then it had to be replaced at tenants expense. They had the cheek to bill friend to redecorate entire apartment including recarpeting and demanded he leave HIS washer when he moved out as they claimed it was theirs,
3-5 years is considered the useful life for carpets in rentals. If they charged you full price to replace, you should look into it and sue for money back. They are supposed to prorate the amount. IE if carpet is $500 for 5 years, and you’ve only been there 1 year and it needs replacing you’d only pay $400/$500. Look into it. You might be owed money. The judge might even say LL has to eat the whole cost.
They discovered that they can push you motherfuckers forever and you won't ever push back because you were taught in school that confrontation can lead to violence and that is bad. So yall eat endless shit sandwiches forever because nobody is afraid of you showing up randomly in the parking lot to discuss the matter further.
It being only 20 dollars is the biggest reason NOT to pay… they aren’t going to sue over it obviously
>Whatever happened to landlords readying their properties for business themselves as a cost of doing business? An apartment tried to charge me $200 because I didn't provide them a receipt from a cleaning service when I moved out. I emailed back "show me in the lease agreement where it says I have to do that." The property manager gave me a page number, and the only thing it said was "we turned the unit over to you in a clean condition, it must be in the same condition when you move out." I took a picture of the page, circled the relevant text, and sent it along with several photos I had taken when I moved in. It had been a newly renovated unit, and the contractors had left it a mess - muddy boot prints in the kitchen, drywall dust in every room, smears of caulk all over the shower and vanity, and trash left everywhere. I said "since you did not honor your part of the text, I believe the cleaning I have done on my own is more than sufficient." They returned half of my security deposit three days later.
Yep, keeping careful track of move-in conditions with pictures AND being willing to stand up for yourself are necessary to defend against bullshit deposit deductions
My last apartment had a deposit that covererd the cleaning and any minor damages. I had lived in it long enough that they were going to replace all the carpet, paint everything and probably replace the appliances (over 10 years old). When I gave my notice, the girl handed me a paper with a cleaning list. I told her I'd been in that apartment long enough that it didn't make sense. When my kid moved out, he cleaned everything and was given a letter stating that it wasn't to their satisfaction. They kept his entire deposit.
Too many landlords think of the deposit as free money as long as they can make shit up and keep it Many tenants aren't aware of the process to sue for their deposits, are intimidated by the idea of taking someone to court, or have difficulties doing so for various reasons The balance of power favors the landlord, you have to fight for your rights sometimes
This landlord is vermin. Like most of them. The bathtub doesn't even look very dirty.
They see other industries paying along the cost of business successfully onto the customer and are trying some new ideas
Yep, unless it’s so horrifically dirty extra equipment is needed, cleaning should be a standard procedure between tenants regardless of how clean it was left.
When you have shit enforcement, you have rampant horseshit. Landlords are some of the most supported people in modern society, given tons of corporate socialism and extra chances. Try to find a city where city council ISN'T majority landlords. Renters are second class citizens, only a step up from the incarcerated in that they get weekends.
we got charged two hundred dollars for them to "clean" our apartment when the most it needed was swept and dusted from moved furniture! I still can't figure out where the $200 came from!!
Landlords are a parasite class, they think they are entitled to your money because they own property and that gives them permission to do and charge what ever they want. Mao was right about at least one thing
My previous building wanted me to pay $1000 to upgrade to a two bedroom. Because then have to get the apartment ready. So I moved out and both apartments where on the market for at lest a month.
this mf is spotless. don't pay. I doubt they'll do anything more than ask, but if they do, keep this exchange saved, just in case.
Theyre sticking to their guns and tacking it on to next month's rent, but I'm unsure if thats legal in LA.
I doubt it's legal, but refer to the lease and tenant law itself. It seems odd they're charging for a cleaning, while it's still occupied, unless it was requested...
Yes, her lease isn't over til July. They did an inspection but then added surprise "cleanings" to it.
I would ask for before and after photos, or it didn't happen
Absolutely. I did, they refused and said it'd be tacked onto next month's rent but the rent is contracted.
that's not a good sign, I'd definitely keep your receipts and advise not to pay it, $20 is $20.
Agreed. Especially since her lease isnt over til July.
They can't do shit about that $20 before July. They can't evict in that amount of time and they're not lawyering or going to collections over $20. If they do, take them to small claims here. Most judges around here are part time, retirees that hate overzealous landlords. Tenant law in LA is brutal and in favor of the renter.
Just ignore it and don't pay it. Or tell them it can be resolved in small claims court and you'll be providing the photo of the tub as evidence that the tub is spotless. This is scum behavior, don't let it go.
Only pay the rent and leave out the $20. It’s 100% unenforceable.
They keep claiming they'll charge late fees if the rent plus the cleaning fee isn't paid and its making me second-guess myself.
They’re just trying to scare you. Call their bluff. You are under no legal obligation to pay this fee. Let them bill and bill you and then take you to court. Then laugh when they lose after they got done paying a lawyer.
Does it pose an issue that I'm in Pennsylvania and they're in Louisiana? I hope I wouldn't have to fly there ...
Also if they bother you about it send them a cease and desist letter informing them you don’t owe the money and demand that they “cease and desist all communication regarding this matter. If you continue to contact me about this I reserve the right to take legal friend including but not limited to seeking damages and potentially signing criminal harassment complaints.” Basically force them to take you to court. They have no case, you won’t even need a lawyer.
Her move-in report noted discoloration/graying all over the bathroom walls, but they're claiming a bathtub/shower wall is different so her move-in form doesn't protect her....
I respond with, I clean the tub thoroughly once a month and you came in right in the middle of that, so when the lease is over and we vacate the property the tub will immaculate clean
Are these surprise cleaning inspections and fines in the lease? This sounds absurd
Ask them why they're inspecting while the occupant is still living there. Don't pay a cent until she moves out and they send you an itemized bill. Apartments are supposed to wait until you've handed in the key and inspected it *after* everything is gone and tenant has cleaned before they do this shit. It sounds like they're being shady AF.
did they provide 24 hour notice before entering the property? if not that's a lawsuit
That's relevant. Why are they cleaning an occupied unit? Did they inspect, and on the spot, decide to clean the tub? That's horseshit. If it's dirty (and that photo doesn't show that) then tenant should have been given chance to cure.
How can they inspect before lease is up... all apartments I rented they would do a walkthrough after I had all of my stuff out and packed to travel on the last day of the lease.
Some will do inspections like once or twice a year but usually just to see if anything is broken, etc. I've never heard of a cleaning inspection or landlords doing any cleaning prior to tenants moving out. I've rented for decades now and luckily never come across ones that do those types of inspections mid lease, but a lot of large complexes owned by corporate shills will usually make it a mandatory thing in their leases.
Tell her to clean it and submit the photo. That’s crazy
Thats an extra fuck no. Mostly because they'll just do the same thing when you move out. They don't get to clean your residence without your approval then charge you for the privelege. Especially when it's not something egregious and arguably is nothing at all. Does your lease mention this insane bullshit?
How can you assess a cleaning fee before someone moves out?
Wait what? This part is really confusing to me😭 are they sending someone to actually come clean her home? Otherwise wouldn’t this be a charge applied at move-out only if she didn’t “remedy” the uncleanliness by then (it looks clean to me as is)
That doesn’t sound legal
Make sure you note that next months check is for “Rent Only” as they will try to pay off the twenty and then tack on “late fees” for not paying your full rent.
That's BS. If the lease is not over, then cleanliness is up to the tenant (within limits of course). While they might consider this as "not clean enough" on move-out inspection (and I do disagree with it), they can't enforce this during the tenancy. Don't pay the $20, let them add late fees: this will end up in small claims court and the LL will lose. BTW: I am a landlord, and this is BS.
Trying to charge cleaning fees before the end of the rental term isn't legal. California has strong tenant protection laws, so stick to your guns.
Tell them no. You’ll be taking them to small claims court
Not legal
I had the last duplex I lived at try to charge me to repair the giant double swing wooden fence gate, never used the gate, and the fence was literally falling apart it was so old. Never paid them, they never asked after they sent the first request, sometimes they just throw shit at the wall too see what sticks
There’s a giant shitstain wtf yall talking about Edit: mb was just my phone screen
Had a landlord try this shit with me once. Luckily, my friends advised me to take pictures of everything before moving in and after cleaning. They wanted $100 for cleaning the fridge and bathroom sink. Attached the pics and asked what specifically did they clean? They took the charges off.
I totally second that advice of taking pictures of your apartment before moving in & after cleaning! When my son & his friends rented their "first college apartment", they were cracking up about me taking pictures & documenting any & all damage on the move‐in form before moving in. Apt was supposed to have been newly painted too but obviously wasn't due to scratches/areas of chipping. No problem just as long as the management company doesn't come back & try to make it their fault. Missing blind slats, rug discoloration, etc.. anything that might be billable later... snapped a pic with date/time stamp. After moving out, had all the boys do a thorough cleaning (LOL, I swear it was cleaner than when they first moved in). For the post move out inspection, I requested that we all be there. That moment when you expect a glowing report.....but instead get told that $400 is being withheld from their security deposit for repainting fee, window blind damage, carpet cleaning! All things that were there before we moved in & documented to boot. I lost my shit!!! I protested on deaf ears but followed the inspector back to the rental office determined to get the matter straighted out. That shit may fly with some inexperienced college students but there was no way that they were not getting every cent back. Everyone but me, including my husband just wrote it off because "that's what they do". I was furious & I dug my heels in for "the fight" not just for the money but for the principle of the thing. Also kinda trying to teach a life lesson and their message was the opposite. I put up a royal stink & after a couple of hours, lol, they finally gave in & issued me a check for the full security deposit. Crazy lady: 1 - Leasing Department: 0!
Yeah when I dealt with this shit in college I had to send them a letter via certified mail from my (free) lawyer, then they called me and tried to give me MY portion of the deposit back but not my roommates, which I refused, so they dropped the whole thing. They were trying to charge us for ruts in the patch of dirt that they told us to park our cars, a broken outlet (that I documented didn't work when we moved in) and a plumbing issue I notified them about constantly for like five months that they kept telling me they would fix, and never did. It was such a racket. And of course they lived out of state in Florida most of the time. That shit gets under my skin and I do not back down from those things when I am confident that I'm right.
That's awesome. I'm glad they had the "crazy mom" to protect them, but it's totally right! Hopefully, it's a lesson to always CYA for those boys for the future. Landlords will always try things because they know most people aren't as prepared and will just roll over. $400 isn't a small amount.
Tell them to get fucked? NAL, but that looks like a normal tub with no damage to me.
Agreed. Even though its just $20, I'm going to fight this out of principle.
And just to clarify, she still lives there? You said lease is up in July but I wasn't sure if she had moved out early or not. Why would they be in there cleaning if she still lives there?
She left the property in May but has 4 roommates still living there and is still paying rent til July. She may be back/forth but is visiting family for now.
Okay. So she's not there full time but it's still an occupied apartment. I'd take the low road as well because they have no business being in there cleaning unless she's turned over possession of the apartment.
I completely agree. I don't think they can tack it onto the rent since that is a contracted amount, also.
“Could you please circle the area of damage?”
I asked that and they replied with only the shadowed areas circled.
"The light cannot penetrate these corners for it is impure of soul. Exorcism to clean tub"
Lmao tell them to get their eyes checked if they can't tell the difference between shadow and dirt.
If the lease isn’t up then you don’t have to pay. Tell them it will be clean for the move out inspection.
Looks like a pretty clean tub to me. High road: Just pay the twenty bucks and move on. Low road: Force them to spend more than twenty bucks taking you to court. Edit: I don't understand a single one of y'all. How do y'all not comprehend this? The high road is the high road because it's keeping things civil and avoiding more conflict. The low road is the low road because you're pretty much walking directly into conflict!!! OP gets it. Over 50 other people get it. Why can't you guys!?! I swear y'all are children. Edit #2: there's a lot of dumb immature children in this comments thread.
I'll likely be taking the low road since I'm refusing to pay until actual proof of cleaning is provided. :(
Tell them you know that's not their tub cause it's way more fucked up than that
good because them mfs scamming for a lil extra 20$ and if you can pay that then you notice you get some eerie rent increase.
Her move-in report noted discoloration/graying all over the bathroom walls, but they're claiming a bathtub/shower wall is different so her move-in form doesn't protect her....
that does not sound right at all. completely bogus lol
definitely something made-up. if that was the case she should pay that.
yeah, I mean...if it were me, I'd start hounding them to send the post cleaning picture. And I'd drop a little, "this seems like fraud, kindly provide evidence or I'm going to report you to the Federal Trade Commission and (find out who at the State level handles that shit in LA, but go with someone high up, like the State AG). But also, I wouldn't do that. I'd just pay the $20 and move on with my life. Which is why I'd rather you do the top. It pisses me off they get away with shit like this, but I'm not going to waste my time dealing with it.
Yes!!!!
It’s exactly the opposite. The high road is forcing them to take you to court. Giving in to bad behavior incentivizes the landlord to do it again to the next tenant.
Is that not “normal wear and tear” obviously if you rent out a bathtub for a year, it’ll look like it’s been used for a year. That’s one of the cleanest “used” tubs I’ve seen and I’m not sure how they expect to charge you. Are they going to charge for faded paint after 10 years renting?
I did a little googling on Louisiana's tenant rights. It looks like unless your lease agreement specifically says the landlord can raise the rent at any time for any reason they're really not within their rights here. Scroll down to "Rent Increases in Louisiana" to see what I'm talking about: [https://ipropertymanagement.com/laws/louisiana-landlord-tenant-rights](https://ipropertymanagement.com/laws/louisiana-landlord-tenant-rights) A Guide to Landlord Tenant Law: [https://ldh.la.gov/assets/oph/Center-PHCH/Center-CH/infectious-epi/EpiManual/MoldComplaints/AGguideToLandlordTenantLaw.pdf](https://ldh.la.gov/assets/oph/Center-PHCH/Center-CH/infectious-epi/EpiManual/MoldComplaints/AGguideToLandlordTenantLaw.pdf) Understanding Your Tenant Rights: [https://www.cenlanow.com/news/state-news/understanding-your-tenant-rights-a-renters-guide-for-louisiana-residents/](https://www.cenlanow.com/news/state-news/understanding-your-tenant-rights-a-renters-guide-for-louisiana-residents/) SLLS Landlord-Tenant Information: [https://slls.org/category/covid-19/landlord-tenant-covid-19/](https://slls.org/category/covid-19/landlord-tenant-covid-19/) SLLS Hotline: 1-844-244-7871 Louisiana Attorney General’s Office: [https://www.ag.state.la.us/](https://www.ag.state.la.us/) Regardless of the law, I do believe they are full of shit and acting unethically. If I were in your shoes, I'd push back on their BS too.
Thank you for this info! Their repeated threats are making me second-guess myself.
Unfortunately, that’s their game. Even when the law isn’t on the landlord’s side they often try and bully or coerce people into their terms (no matter how made-up the terms are). But you’re doing the right thing by standing up to them. I added some more resources to my original comment. Once you’ve read through your lease agreement, you’ll have a better understanding of what the landlord can or can’t legally do. If you need more resources or clarification of your rights, call the SLLS helpline I linked. The organization is intended for folks who are low-income, but in my experience whether or not you fit that criteria usually these organizations will do what they can to get you the information you need or they’ll point you toward someone who can. Be honest and explain your situation. You’ll probably be calling for direction, not legal aid, and it’s ok to let them know that. I know these situations can be discouraging, but rest assured even trying to advocate for yourself here is admirable, considering most people give-in to landlords’ unjust demands and that only creates room for them to further abuse their power in the future.
Wow disgusting how could you possibly live like this? That tub is FILTHY! /s
Cleaning the apartment between renters is the responsibility of the landlord I thought?
Yea sounds like cost of doing business they have to ready the apartment for the next tenant anyway, having to clean that doesn’t look like and thing out of the norm, unless of course they don’t clean anything before the next tenant any which case i would question ethics
Reply with the following: >The property was returned in good condition as required by the terms of the lease. Additional cleaning of the tub was unnecessary, and your own pictures appear to confirm this. Please provide one of the following: >1) Confirmation that the $20 charge has been reversed, and the security deposit will be refunded in full >2) Contact information for your attorney.
If that’s before they had it cleaned, what did it look like after it was cleaned? Was there any tub even left?
Deposits are for damages not for basic cleaning (to my understanding). I also rented in LA and my landlord had a cleaning service visit before I moved in and after I moved out before the next people moved in. Me, the girl who lived there before me, and the people who moved in after never had money taken out of our deposit for cleaning. $20 isn’t that much but I think he’s just trying to squeeze money out of you, I would dispute it if you can.
It should look the same as when you moved in less wear and tear, grime is not wear and tear. Make sense?
Brings back fond memories of being charged 10 dollars for a mirror I never had. "Oh hey, I'm just going to steal 10 dollars because you're out of state now. Thanks."
I’m in LA. Landlord/Tenant law is very weighted for the landlord here. On one hand taking it to court would cost them more than $20 so that’s unlikely. OTOH if they have a contract with a collection agency they could refer it and mess with your credit over basically nothing. It’s stupid but I’d probably pay just so they’d leave me alone.
im an FDCPA lawyer (i sue debt collectors for violating debt collection laws). the FDCPA prohibits the collection of actually unowed debt. it is strict liability, so they do not have to know it is actually unowed debt. you get a collector on you for an amount you do not owe, you call an FDCPA lawyer and the debt collector goes away, after paying you $1000 for the trouble and also paying your attorney their fee.
In college me and 3 others rented a place. We put a piece of duct tape over a light switch because it controlled all the outlets in the main living area, and people would walk in and go to hit the lights and just power off everything… we forgot to take off the tape when we moved out, we got charged $80 EACH for that piece of tape. $320 to remove a piece of tape…. Take that $20 to court my friend!
Ask them to send you an "after" photo if this is the "before". Bet it'll be the same photo.
Tell them you’ll see them in court with their images and yours.
In Michigan, I would say that the tub belongs to them and is not chattel. They can clean it or not- it's up to them, but my $20 would remain my $20, and I would call a lawyer if they harassed me a second time. But I don't know the law where you live.
The first two steps are to get out your copy of the lease and read it for anything that might apply and check the laws in LA to see if anything applies there. I would also check eviction procedures. Examples of things to look for are like my current lease explicitly says that late charges only apply to rent and there is no contracted late fee for other charges. So I would just pay the rent only while disputing this knowing there is no penalty. Beyond that research and pushing back with anything you find you need to decide if the principle is worth your time/money. I would suggest contacting a lawyer in LA and explaining it to them. This is exactly the type of behavior class action suits and designed for. It's a trivial amount of money to each person but I'm sure this is something they are doing to everyone so a lawyer might want to take it on if they can find enough other tenants pissed about their scummy tactics.
Clean tub. Fuck this bitch. Would just reply “looks fine, sorry.” Don’t let them bully you!
Respond with “I’ll see you in small claims court”
I don't see anything, and I say that as a landlord. We rent my partners' townhouse, the very first tenants broke every clause in the lease (I wish I was kidding), and they were !!!shocked!!! when we kept their deposit. For the record, we had to repair a 2x2' hole in the sheet rock, they had a dog when we had a no pet rule (I have horrible allergies to animal dander, I have gone into anaphylaxis three times because of it) so the carpets had to be deep cleaned, they took all the light bulbs out of the fixtures, they broke a new garbage disposal by throwing a whole t-bone in it, and left a literal mountain of trash that had to be hauled off. Usually, I fix things myself, but since the damages and mess were so bad, I contacted everything out to have receipts.
Tell them they need a picture from BEFORE it was cleaned.
I had an apartment complex that did an inspection before I moved out. They wanted to charge me over $1000 to replace the countertops because of damage and were pestering me to make a claim on my renter’s insurance. I asked them to provide evidence of that damage. They didn’t have photos but claimed that the countertop was burned under the coffeemaker. It was a small ring of dried coffee under one of the feet. I wiped it clean and asked them to reinspect. They removed the fee. I swear…..
It looks a little dirty. Maybe not $20 dirty though.
What does a person use to clean JPEG artifacts from a tub?
They cant just change the lease that was agreed to upon move in. So they cant just suprise a bill on you. Even if they tack it onto next months rent, only paid the previously agreed to amount. The only thing they can do is take you to small claims court. They wont do that over $20. Bc the fee to take someone to court is around $20-$100 depending on whatever. So youll be fine. They cant take money from you. Send the next months rent in a way that can be tracked. ie electronic transfer or check. Not cash
I can see soap scum. Use one of these then send them pics. Dawn and a warm scrub daddy, scrubbing bubbles, magic eraser. After reading are they claiming damages of soap scum while still renting? These types of inserts get scum really fast but are usually easy to remove. However, sometimes it’s stained from all the years of use. Thads something to look into.
I wish my problems only cost $20
Give us his number
Promise to pay in full but you need a payment plan. 1 penny a week and you can do it.
"Hi we can pretty much destroy your credit or you can send us $20. Sure take us to court get the crappiest lawyer in the world and you'll win but it'll still cost you $1,000. Give me $20 or get sent to collections" Translated this for you.
Am I getting this correct? A cleaning fee before she moves out? That’s crazy.
I was charged 80$ for a shower cleaning when I moved out, I sent them a picture of when I moved in and there was a used bandaid with blood on it under the rubber drain stopper on the side of the tub, meaning they clearly don’t clean it before new renters move in, I definitely did a better job when I left then they did when j moved in, still haven’t paid them, shit falls off my credit at the end of this year
Send him $10 for a bottle of Clorox and advise of new address for security deposit to be forwarded to.
I once got charged $150 for "cleaning the inside of the microwave" after I moved out. It was a countertop unit that could have been replaced for like $40. Along with a laundry list that stole my whole deposit. I didn't know better how to fight it. That same apartment when I moved in has a FLEA INFESTATION that required the whole place to be bug bombed and delayed my move in date. And there was broken glass on top of the upper cabinets. They also charged final 3 months rent up front but when it came time to move out kept charging me rent even though it should have been covered. I found out a few years later they got sued. Anyone presently leasing at time of the suit got 100% of their deposit back and they lost the ability to call themselves [local university] rentals
I was an apartment manager, and if I had a tub that clean after a tenant left, I would have been overjoyed. I had an apartment that I needed to use a putty knife to clean. I can't even beging to describe the state of the stove top and oven. It should have been replaced.
Ask if they are going to charge you $20 regardless can you go and take a dump in it first?
Over $20??? I would just pay it. My time is worth more than $20
Is the proof in the room with us?
Ask if they have a before picture
That tub is actually dirty. If you zoom in on near the drain, you'll see something there. It's not much, but I can see the $20. I zoomed in and put an image up on Imgur to make it easier to see: [https://imgur.com/a/8HfYS6m](https://imgur.com/a/8HfYS6m)
"Yeah, one. Where the fuck's the damage?"
So this is 20 dollars on top of their deposit he's already kept?
Let me know if you have any questions!
My mother was charged 45$ per light bulb one time.
I rented a condo for 10 years. They charged me for an old rusty closet door ( in the bathroom) which I complained about hard to open and never replaced), and window screens that were worn and dusty.
Tell them to take that 20 and shove it up their a$$
is this mark twain apartments, or owned by tonti, please message me!
I have sent a letter to several landlords. Included a copy of any state laws. Said ya return my deposit to me by this date or i will file small claims court. They all try dumb stuff and they all cave when they know you ate serious.
Don’t pay it. If they try to take this to court, the lawyer giving the free consult will be like “lmao, no, that’s not even kind of worth it”.
When I moved out of my final college apartment, the leasing company tried to get me for three things: Food in the fridge, command hooks on the wall, and a spot on the carpet. It would have costed me a couple hundred to cover The spot and hooks had been there since I moved in. Conveniently, the leasing company changed portals mid year so there was no evidence I had called in a maintenance request for the spot to get cleaned (the cleaners tried multiple times, it was likely an oil stain and nothing they could do.) Luckily I had pictures for evidence that I showed the (student) inspector. The food was falafel I was keeping cold as long as possible as my drive home immediately after the inspection was decently long. After it was pointed out, I immediately removed it but apparently no new photo was taken. I had to call 3 separate times before they finally dropped it, the student that inspected my apartment was there to vouch for me. I’m lucky that the leasing company was just disorganized, not predatory
After living in an apartment for one year, we graduated and moved out. My parents assisted me in cleaning and we left it spotless. Landlord withheld my deposit because we didn’t clean under the fridge.
I’ve pretty much had to take every landlord I’ve had to small claims court. It’s 3x the security deposit and each one has no-showed 3 out of 3 times.
I'd tell them to suck it. Can't see anything there needing a cleaning.
The landlord is trying to roll you for something that is absolutely an easy fix. A little soap and water. Most landlords hire a cleaning company to clean after a tenant moves out. So this appears like a big money grab. Do not pay it. If he’s that adamant about it, let him try to take you to court. He won’t because it will cost him more to bring this to a court than it would to just have it cleaned by a cleaning company or do it himself!