Security Deposit Fight

By Jynxmom

My son and 3 friends leased an apartment near campus.    When they toured the apartment, the landlord assured them he would have it professionally cleaned before they moved in.   The tenants at the time were big partiers and the apartment was a mess, with clutter all over effectively  hiding the true condition of the apartment.    On move-in-day, there were still piles of the previous tenant’s belongings that she removed over the next few days.     The carpets were filthy, and there were fish hooks embedded in the carpet for some unknown reason.    The kitchen was filthy, and the bathroom was disgusting with vomit, urine & feces splattered all over.     Several calls were placed to the landlord that day, who promised he would get on everything, but he never did.   There was a narrow flight of stairs leading up to the apartment entrance, and the light did not work in the stairwell.   Took the landlord 3 weeks to fix that dangerous situation.     He again promised them at the end of that school year that he was going to do a lot of maintenance to the place over the summer to fix the code violations, so they went ahead and signed a lease for the next year.    In early December last year, the ceiling in the bathroom developed a steady leak.   They reported it a number of times and the landlord told them they were crazy because he had put a new roof on just last year.   The leak turned into a major leak that spread to the kitchen and was dripping water down through the lights.    Finally, late at night during their finals week, the entire ceiling in the kitchen and bathroom collapsed to reveal massive amounts of black mold.     He sent someone up to the apartment in the middle of the night.   They simply turned off the electric, leaving the kids with no electric and no heat in the middle of finals week and with it cold outside.   

When my son moved out in early May, he told the landlord he was leaving and asked what he should do.   The landlord told him to leave his name and address, along with the key, on the kitchen counter, and he would send back the security deposit.    6 weeks went by and nothing.   We mailed a written request, and my son called the landlord several more times, and finally 2 weeks ago, we got $110 of his $200 security deposit back.    There was a sticky note attached to it with some undecipherable language about carpet cleaning, wall damage, etc.      The kicker is that before my son’s lease was even up, and 24 hours before he even had to be out, the landlord had already leased the apartment to someone else, and they were moving their stuff in while my son was desperately trying to get his out!   I called the landlord after the security deposit check was finally received, and he was really loud and aggressive on the phone and told me there had to have been some damage to that apartment and he was just getting his fair share.    I told him that by law we had to be provided with a list of charges within 30 days, which he had failed to do.    He finally mailed me a big envelope with receipts for various things for his OTHER apartments.    No carpet cleaning has been done to that apartment in over 2 years, and since someone moved in before my son could move out, how can he prove any damage?   Besides he was way over the 30 days allowed by law.  

 I tried to contact the landlord by phone one more time to resolve the issue, and he just blasted me with attitude.   He kept telling me I was a stupid, stupid woman and that I should thank him for taking care of my kid for 2 years.    I told him again I was just asking him what I was legally entitled to, and he told me he didn’t have to prove anything, that no one in their right mind could believe a college kid would rent an apartment for 2 years and not cause damage.  

 I would pay for the carpet cleaning if it had ever been done before my son moved in or in the 2 years since.   They rented a machine and did it themselves their first few months in the place.   The first year’s lease was one page, with the kids all putting their names and address and signing.    The second year, they signed basically the same thing, and now he’s attached 4 pages to this original one-page lease with all sorts of conditions they  never saw before.   They were to pay all utilities, which the landlord had billed in his own name and would split out for them once a month.   Rent was always paid on time, as were the utilities.    Now he’s claiming he’s going to sue for utilities he says he never collected.

 Any help would be appreciated.   The $90 isn’t much, but it is a month’s worth of groceries to a college kid, and those 4 kids cleaned that apartment from top to bottom several times when they were living there, and again prior to moving out.   I hate to file a claim in small claims court, and wondered if anyone could tell me where would be the most effective place to file a complaint and get results.    I would like to see this guy get called on his shenanigans, since there are several of his tenants who never got a dime back.   

Thanks!

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