- Apr 10, 2000
- 19,579
- 17
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Have a situation with my old apartment complex. I could go into details but it'd just bore you.
So the deal is we gave our notice to leave on December 1, 2008 (included it with our December rent). They require a 2 month notice and our lease expired on January 31, 2009. They're claiming that we didn't give our notice till December 15th and are trying to get a partial rent payment for February (claming we owe rent until Feb 12).
http://www.rentlaw.com/dep/vadeposit.htm
This says the landlord has 45 days to return our deposit or to give us an itemized list of what we owe (if I read that correctly). We passed the 45 day mark and I sent them the following certified letter:
They received the letter today and I received a phone call from the property manager. He tells me he received the letter and he said they sent out a itemized list to us on Feb 24th. We never received anything (this isn't the first time they've claimed they sent something and they didn't) He then confirms our current address. I told him we haven't heard anything from them in over 45 days and he said it doesn't matter, they have 3 months. I told him that according to the rent law for Virginia which I had included a copy of with my certified letter, they have 45 days. His response was then that 45 days from Feb 12 has not arrived yet. I told him that's irrelevant since we were officially out of the apartment and lease on January 31, 2009. I then asked him if he was going to give our deposit back or not and he said no. I asked him why not and he said because of some carpet damage done by the pets. I do know of 2 small sections where they pulled up the carpet. I asked him how much are they trying to charge us to fix those sections and he said $1100 (sounded a little high for the apartment grade carpet but I'm not sure). He then told me we owe a partial rent payment of ~$600 for February and a partial pet fee of $60. I told him since we gave him 60 days notice as required by our lease, we don't owe squat. We went back and forth a little bit and towards the end I told him that after all the crap we've had to deal with at that apartment which included, mold growing for over a month in our pantry, no electric for 3 days, non working dryer for 2 months, and of course the massive roach infestation from our neighbors which the apartment people never did anything about. After that, he asked if there was anything he could do for me. I told him no and we expect our deposit within 2 weeks.
So I guess my question is, is anyone familiar with Virginia rent laws and whether the landlord has 45 days or 90 days? Also, I'm not sure how to proceed at this point. I suppose we have to wait for them to respond since we sent the certified letter. TBH, I really don't care if we get our deposit back or not (it was only $250.00) but I refuse to pay those god damned thieves $1200.
TIA
Cliff Notes:
Apt complex claims we didnt give notice in time (though we did)
Apt complex didn't send us a list of charges or our security deposit in over 45 days.
too lazy to summarize the second half so read the part after the quote
Minor Update: Went to a flooring store and Home Depot this weekend and for apartment grade carpet, they gave me estimates on how much it'd cost to replace the carpet for 800 square feet. The flooring store said $1000 and Home Depot said $800. And these retards want $1100 just to patch the two areas in front of the bedroom doors.
Minor Update #2 (04/06/2009): Got a letter this past Friday. Apparently they decided to send it off to a collection agency. So basically, I heard nothing in writing from these bozos and they never sent me a bill. Anyone know of any good forums for dealing with collection agencies or maybe a sample letter I can send to start the whole dispute process?
I've found this link so far:
http://www.creditinfocenter.co...ms/sampleletter9.shtml
<UPDATE (05/21/2009)
Here's the response I sent back to the Collection agency back in april:
They sent me a letter back within a couple of days. A letter from the apartment complex was attached to their letter detailing what they think I owe them (all false of course). I sent the following reply back to the CA:
I attached both forms/letters to the letter and sent it. I then received another response stating that they have provided evidence proving the debt and they expect payment. I sent another letter back stating that they have not provided the documentation that I had requested (copy of the return receipt for the letter the apt complex claims we sent). I asked again that they send it to me and I also reiterated the fact that the documentation I provided proved their claims were wrong.
I didn't hear anything for over 2 weeks then got another letter from them stating "this account has been reported or is scheduled to be reported to one or all of the following three national credit reporting bureaus: equifax, trans-union, or experian within 90 days. If you intend to resolve this matter, contact them at ###-###-#### or send full payment with the lower portion of this letter. Tradelines, once reported, are not deleted but updated once paid".
I'm not sure how to proceed at this point. I still haven't received any evidence proving the debt from them.
I realize I'm probably going to have to take the legal route to fix this but I'm not even sure how to find a lawyer for this sort of thing. Any help/advice would be appreciated
So the deal is we gave our notice to leave on December 1, 2008 (included it with our December rent). They require a 2 month notice and our lease expired on January 31, 2009. They're claiming that we didn't give our notice till December 15th and are trying to get a partial rent payment for February (claming we owe rent until Feb 12).
http://www.rentlaw.com/dep/vadeposit.htm
This says the landlord has 45 days to return our deposit or to give us an itemized list of what we owe (if I read that correctly). We passed the 45 day mark and I sent them the following certified letter:
They received the letter today and I received a phone call from the property manager. He tells me he received the letter and he said they sent out a itemized list to us on Feb 24th. We never received anything (this isn't the first time they've claimed they sent something and they didn't) He then confirms our current address. I told him we haven't heard anything from them in over 45 days and he said it doesn't matter, they have 3 months. I told him that according to the rent law for Virginia which I had included a copy of with my certified letter, they have 45 days. His response was then that 45 days from Feb 12 has not arrived yet. I told him that's irrelevant since we were officially out of the apartment and lease on January 31, 2009. I then asked him if he was going to give our deposit back or not and he said no. I asked him why not and he said because of some carpet damage done by the pets. I do know of 2 small sections where they pulled up the carpet. I asked him how much are they trying to charge us to fix those sections and he said $1100 (sounded a little high for the apartment grade carpet but I'm not sure). He then told me we owe a partial rent payment of ~$600 for February and a partial pet fee of $60. I told him since we gave him 60 days notice as required by our lease, we don't owe squat. We went back and forth a little bit and towards the end I told him that after all the crap we've had to deal with at that apartment which included, mold growing for over a month in our pantry, no electric for 3 days, non working dryer for 2 months, and of course the massive roach infestation from our neighbors which the apartment people never did anything about. After that, he asked if there was anything he could do for me. I told him no and we expect our deposit within 2 weeks.
So I guess my question is, is anyone familiar with Virginia rent laws and whether the landlord has 45 days or 90 days? Also, I'm not sure how to proceed at this point. I suppose we have to wait for them to respond since we sent the certified letter. TBH, I really don't care if we get our deposit back or not (it was only $250.00) but I refuse to pay those god damned thieves $1200.
TIA
Cliff Notes:
Apt complex claims we didnt give notice in time (though we did)
Apt complex didn't send us a list of charges or our security deposit in over 45 days.
too lazy to summarize the second half so read the part after the quote
Minor Update: Went to a flooring store and Home Depot this weekend and for apartment grade carpet, they gave me estimates on how much it'd cost to replace the carpet for 800 square feet. The flooring store said $1000 and Home Depot said $800. And these retards want $1100 just to patch the two areas in front of the bedroom doors.
Minor Update #2 (04/06/2009): Got a letter this past Friday. Apparently they decided to send it off to a collection agency. So basically, I heard nothing in writing from these bozos and they never sent me a bill. Anyone know of any good forums for dealing with collection agencies or maybe a sample letter I can send to start the whole dispute process?
I've found this link so far:
http://www.creditinfocenter.co...ms/sampleletter9.shtml
<UPDATE (05/21/2009)
Here's the response I sent back to the Collection agency back in april:
They sent me a letter back within a couple of days. A letter from the apartment complex was attached to their letter detailing what they think I owe them (all false of course). I sent the following reply back to the CA:
I attached both forms/letters to the letter and sent it. I then received another response stating that they have provided evidence proving the debt and they expect payment. I sent another letter back stating that they have not provided the documentation that I had requested (copy of the return receipt for the letter the apt complex claims we sent). I asked again that they send it to me and I also reiterated the fact that the documentation I provided proved their claims were wrong.
I didn't hear anything for over 2 weeks then got another letter from them stating "this account has been reported or is scheduled to be reported to one or all of the following three national credit reporting bureaus: equifax, trans-union, or experian within 90 days. If you intend to resolve this matter, contact them at ###-###-#### or send full payment with the lower portion of this letter. Tradelines, once reported, are not deleted but updated once paid".
I'm not sure how to proceed at this point. I still haven't received any evidence proving the debt from them.
I realize I'm probably going to have to take the legal route to fix this but I'm not even sure how to find a lawyer for this sort of thing. Any help/advice would be appreciated
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