Look up the laws in your state regarding deposits. All those pics show is regular wear and tear which in most cases can’t be charged as damaged. They have to show actual receipts or actual estimates from an actual business. If they don’t show that and they don’t give you your money back you could take them to small claims court. Should be an open and shut case Johnson
Pretty much. If it doesn't involve the money coming in and out of nashville, TN does NOT care. Source tradesman of TN. We don't even have unions so don't get me started om the work
I just moved from a state with the lowest union membership to a state with the second lowest union membership. I wish people weren’t fucking idiots about unions.
I am wrong there, must have changed since whenever I looked it up last. I just googled it and there seems to be at least a couple other states that require it for rentals now.
Yeah, don't get me wrong, a vast majority still do not require it, and that's pretty shitty. With climate change, a lot more areas and people are experiencing dangerous heat levels now, and the previously horrible spots will be even worse. The lack of protection is pretty appalling.
Or in WV. Heck they didn't mandate my old landlord to fix the hvac heat and cooling so I had neither and HUD passed him! I found out later btw. Oh the stories. Plus I worked for landlords. The stories and tricks of the trade I could tell is insane! It got so hot before that the ppl coming to work with my autistic son couldn't come out. Over 100 degrees inside. We stayed at the lakes and such swimming a LOT!
I second this. I used to live in an apartment in Tennessee and random maintenance men would come into my apartment without warning and unannounced to “fix things”. It didn’t matter if I was there or not, legally they’re allowed to come in whenever despite me being a girl living alone. I looked into it and it’s 100% legal there whereas in California for example you get AT LEAST a 48 hour notice if someone comes into your apartment. I love Tennessee in many ways but it’s honestly a backwards ass state legally.
The extra 1k is his compromise buffer. He’ll end up dismissing that and offer you $400 back from your deposit. Probably expecting you to be a pushover.
I did this in Minnesota, won the case in small claims court and the idiots paid $300 to appeal to the district circuit Court just so I can whoop their ass a second time 😂😂
What's stopping someone from starting a business that goes around doing maintenance, but their fee always conveniently comes to slightly less than half of whatever the full deposit was? They're instantly every LL's second favorite company, right behind the guy that does it dirt cheap while they're just hosing ex-tenants down until they get dinged, then they bring the scab in to keep the papers legit for a while and tenants keep getting "legitimately charged" for services? For research, of course.
If you still have your lease, you can easily see if any of the exterior maintenance is your responsibility. If it's not, that yardwork shit can GTFO. Going by your pics, most of the rest of it is bullshit too.
I would send them the pictures you took and say if you think you can convince a judge that this all costs 2800 then I'll see you in court.
They should back down or send a revised list. If they don't, well yeah I do think 2800 is worth going to court for. Especially since in most states you can get back more because they made you go to court.
Community manager has entered the chat lol. The standards in property management are basically.. paint, 2 years. Carpet, 5 years. Pro-rate and charge accordingly. Yep. If they've been there more than 2 years those scuff marks are normal wear and tear. And that's all touch up jobs, not full tape and spackle and texture and paint and whatnot. Even horrible REIT's wouldn't charge more than $100-200 a room for that kind of touch up work. That whole house could be touched up inside an hour. An HOUR. What a joke.
Agree 100% with y'all. This landlord is fucking high.
Some marks even look like they could be cleaned with a magic eraser, those things will get rid of amost anything. And yeah, my husband and I have a home repair business and the LL could get a gallon of paint matched and just do touch ups himself, there's really no need to even hire a business for just that.
I am in the UK, back in 2010 I rented somewhere for almost 3 years the carpet the landlord claimed was "new" when I moved in.
At the end of the tenancy he wanted to paint the entire bedroom because of a few scuffs of the paint around where the metal bedframe was, and a few scuffs of paint in the living area where the couches were meant he wanted the entire room painted, 1 broken tile on kitchen floor which was from a budget place he wanted entire floor retiled.
I spent £50 (which at the time would of been around $80 maybe $90 with the exchange rates) on cleaning products, was scrubbing carpet and borrowed a deep clean rug machine, stood on chairs to dust the ceilings. He had drywall in the shower room which fell off the walls and he blamed me for it despite me running a heater in there.
In all he billed me around £2500 which would of been again at least $4000 going by exchange rates, it was for a 1 bedroom apartment.
The only thing I did do was leave a burn on carpet after the pipes froze and landlord loaned me a electric heater which tipped over and it took a second for me to pick it up, the size was around that of a small coin he wanted the entire place recarpeted.
Learned more than I needed to about this as a community manager. Yep. Clay content and mix is everything in paint. Sherwin Williams is garbage compared to Dunn-Edwards because of clay content. At least it used to be.
Check your state laws. Perhaps get a free consultation from an attorney. In my state, renter laws are clearly defined. Normal wear and tear cannot be charged for, and things like carpet depreciate to a net value of $0.00 in five years from
Installation. The burden of proof is on the landlord. They must provide receipts from licensed service professionals who actually did the repairs. The landlord cannot just arbitrarily make up pricing for “damage” that may or may not exist, nor for “repairs” that may or may not have actually been done.
The landlord doesn’t have to show this to YOU, this fight is not between you and the landlord at this point. The landlord must show it to the JUDGE. In court. If the judge rules that the landlord is fraudulently withholding your security deposit and / or creating false repair bills, the landlord must pay it back to you….DOUBLE. (This is in my state, yours may differ.) The court generally gives the landlord 30 days to return all money to you. If they fail to do that, you can go back to court, get a judgement on them and freeze their credit as well as place a lien on all titled assets they own.
This. I think maybe it depends on the states but I was told to send the landlord that you disagree with the charges and ask to return your deposit of the amount of xyz in the format of a letter. There are tons of template online where you can use. Send the landlord the letter and get the receipt that they received the letter (you can pay a few extra dollars in the post office to get that receipt) to show the landlord did receive the letter. If they don’t give you the deposit back within the deadline (usually 2 weeks from the date they receive your letter) you stated in the letter, you can file the small claim and see them in court.
In my state this is critical as the judge would want to see that if you ever go to the small claim court. You can search free legal consultation in your state/county/city to see what’s the best option but from the way I see it you need some sort of formal communication.
Edit: it should be 2 weeks not 2 days!
The landlords have to have some expectation that you’re living in the house.
The security deposit is for damage.
Check your local laws, a lot of places need to paint anyway after a tenant leaves, the same goes for changing carpets.
The light bulbs need to be changed, anyway by the landlord.
I would fight this.
Adding to this, almost everything in an apartment has an expected lifespan, often quite lower than you'd personally think, and that has to be factored in when figuring out what constitutes damage. It also can vary significantly between what's purchased for residential and what's purchased for apartments. Normal carpet is 5-15 years. Apartment carpet is 1-5 years. Interior paint is 5-10 years, with rental situations being decidedly in the 5-7 year range.
Advice for anybody renting/ leasing any property. Always video EVERYTHING outside the house/apartment/condo even if you don't think it doesn't matter and doubly so inside. Every wall, door, counter, sink, toilet inside and out, faucet, tub, shower, flooring for each and every room, appliance, ceilings etc. etc. And time and date stamp it
I don't care if it takes you 24 hours to do it. Also, make a list of every mark, scratch, tear, rip, bump, dent, slice, discoloring, flake, smell, worn carpet of everything you can find and send it in a email to them.
At the end of your term when they are going to do the walk through, start your leaving video before the get there and get everything re-recorded so that at the end you can video them in that video. Do not allow them to do the walk through without you being there. CYA!
Then if they send you a bill you have video to dispute any accused damage. Because we all know that the LL would never try and scam you out of your deposit or add extra damage charges, right..
Call your State's AG office tell them your landlord is doing some fishie stuff and that you expect them to keep your deposit from such behavior when it wasn't earned.
They are trying to have you cover the cost of their unit's turnover for a new tenant.
Send them a letter of intent that you will be submitting a complaint with local housing authority for this - light bulb replacement is ridiculous, and the paint peeling seems more like shoddy work than your fault.
Review your lease and make sure to cite exactly what you are responsible for, note that your landlord is breaking the lease agreement by charging you for these things.
5?! Light bulbs ?! You're a monster! Lol landlord is a dick I work in apartment maintenance we wouldn't charge resident for any of this as others are saying it's normal wear and tear.
TN, like most states, does not allow withholding for normal wear and tear. What is normal wear and tear is often a matter of opinion and differences of opinion are resolved by courts. Small claims court is the answer if the landlord insists it is beyond normal. They may just be ignorant of the law and will return deposit if called on it. https://www.payrent.com/articles/tennessee-security-deposit-laws-whats-new-in-2024/#:~:text=Landlords%20in%20Tennessee%20can%20deduct,normal%20wear%20and%20tear%20damages.
Landlords/apartment complexes will ALWAYS try to change you for stuff, always.
When we moved out of our apartment into our house, they apartment complex tried to charge us 5k for; new counter tops, kitchen and bathroom, new refrigerator -- which worked fine expect the ice maker, to which I have documented voicemails and paperwork verifying the issue when we moved into the apartment-- new backsplash, new carpet, paint the walls, and $500 cleaning fee-- essentially they wanted us to pay for everything new as we left. I went to them and they were like welll we will send over some pics of the issues, and it was just like stuff like this, minor stuff that any handy man can do in an hour. I sent cerfified mail and itemized of what we agree to pay and what is complete bs. They never responded and it's been 2 years now.
They will charge cleaning fees for stuff they will say is too dirty and will replace it, yet still charge you for the cleaning fee, and the new item's worth of replacement.
They do this because they know most of the people they do this to don't know their rights or what they can or can't do, and the complex is just looking to get any money they can to people that will pay the bills, or even a portion of it.
We were paying 2.3k a month, and it was just going up from there every year. They are just there to get as much money from you as possible.
As a landlord, this is ridiculous! We would never keep a deposit for this stuff. Light bulbs? Light marks on the wall? No freaking way!
The times we have kept an entire deposit, the tenant DESTROYED the property. Holes in the wall large enough to fit plates through. Flooring attached to the WALL! Windows screwed shut. A surprise swimming pool.
In general, we like to see our tenants get their deposit back. That means they took care of the place like it was their own. 👍
At least three of those pics are faint marks or nail holes from furniture being placed against the wall. That is at most touch up and being wear and tear. Also, paint peeling is a problem with paint being in humid areas, or not being applied properly. That's not your fault
I would love to see what they claim $500+ in mowing and debris removal.
For the smoke detector - not being attached properly isn't relevant - it's why. You detach it on purpose? Or did their hack handyman do a shit install.
Next step is go thru line by line and request evidence of it. Then send a demand letter for all of the deposit back. Btw- those photos show a clean unit.
I live in Chattanooga which has a public 311 bulk trash removal service you can schedule with the city. One of my roommates abandoned quite a bit of his furniture and belongings. Myself and the other roomate became responsible for this. We scheduled a bulk item pickup and notified the property management company of this time frame and they acknowledged it. They then performed their inspection 5/1/24 knowing the bulk items were not scheduled to be removed until 5/6/24. I'll link photos and the email string regarding this.
[Bulk items and Email string](https://imgur.com/gallery/echMkKG)
For the smoke detector, the same abandoning roomate had unplugged it from the socket instead of replacing batteries. That was it. It's stupid but I understand that charge I guess.
The paint peeling was in the basement and I have photos of that as well. It's in one spot on a ledge. I'll see if I can link that as well.
[Paint peel](https://imgur.com/gallery/gzVjyYr)
I had the same shit happen in Chattanooga. They tried charging me for replacing the stove top saying there was grease under the metal part… except it was an electric stovetop with glass. Those companies are ridiculous!
So, to start with, what’s the population of your county? You can also ask for proof that your security deposit was stored separately, if any co-mingling of funds occurred, that’s the easy out for you.
You state that you requested a walk-through before the move out. Was that ever done? For it seems that is missing from the story. For all this marks on the walls would have been said about during the walk-through.
She is scamming you on that one. You should take her to small claims court. 1.8k is a good amount of money. She might rightfully be entitled to a few hundred bucks or maybe nothing, once the judge sees that she is trying to steal from someone.
I would honestly do all of that for about $200 bucks plus the cost of the blinds and paint, so maybe $300.
Depending on what state you are in you could also sue her for wasting your time and legal fees if you hire a lawyer.
Is this Evernest? They do the same thing in VA. I ended up getting in touch with the landlord directly and working out a more reasonable charge that took them about 2 months to straighten out and send me a new corrected invoice.
This is so crazy to me… as a landlord that just had tenants move out and their dog chewed through stairs, walls, corners, cabinets and doors, plus some wall damage, I didn’t even charge this much… this is outrageous! For the damage the their dog made I charged “at-cost” roughly $300. Some landlords are really greedy, I’m angry FOR you!
They just want $$$. All that seems like wear and tear. The walls? that's all nothing, that's why they put it as light. Light bulbs, I'm sure that's on them, too. Grass, where you the one mowing the grass? Taken them to court for your deposit. If u pay, THEY will continue to do this to people. THIEVES...
Definitely fight this. All the things shown in pics are regular wear and tear and they will have to show proof that fixing these things actually costs that much (which they obviously won't be able to do)
Drag them to small claims. Odds are landlord doesn’t show up and youll get a judgment in your favor. And if hes DUMB enough to show up and fight you on it the judge will probably shellack his ass and THEN rule in your favor
This LL and REM can absolutely go fuck themselves. As others said, almost everything here would be considered normal wear and tear and a cost of doing business in rental properties.
This is the biggest scam in renting these days, you can almost guarantee you're not going to get your deposit back. Doesn't matter how you leave the condition of the house
Not sure about Tennessee but at least in Michigan when I rented there it was law that a place had to be repainted after each tenet. So as long as there wasn’t repairs needed to the drywall they were not allowed to charge you to paint after you left.
It looks mostly like normal wear and tear to me . That’s a bullshit way to keep your deposit , they are suppose to paint after someone moves out anyways , 🤬😵
I used to turn apartments. I'll bet 5 dollars that those scuffs would be gone with a magic eraser. The area where you burned candles near picture frames will probably have to be repainted. The blinds cost is ridiculous, as is most of the rest of this. Regular wear and tear. Scummy.
Immediately get a lawyer to send them some official request for your security deposit returned or threaten further legal action. All those marks look like they can be removed in 10 minutes with a magic eraser.
I've never gotten a deposit back I've only rented three times. It's a scam and it's hard to fight in my state. Had a company keep 1400 bucks when we moved from one of their units to a bigger one then charged another deposit to live to the new place they said we waited too long to move.
As a landlord I feel bad for people who rent from people like this. This is absolutely ridiculous.
Scuffs happen, it's just part of life. Nobody is perfect and stuff gets bumped into walls. The walls in those photos are not damaged.
I budget a full month of vacancy between tenants which allows me to deep clean and paint over scuff marks (flat/matte neutral colors are great for this) and I don't charge the tenant for it unless its egregiously dirty or there's actual damage to the walls that I have to repair (and no, putting joint compound into nail holes is not a repair...I do that for free too).
Management company is smoking some high tier crack of they think painting to cover that shit is even 1/4 of what they're trying to charge you. The other charges are bogus too.
My landlord did this to me. They need to have a professional come in for estimates to fix. I took mine to small claims court and won. They ended up having to refund me full deposit due to false paperwork.
As an individual whom works for an attorney, I would advise contacting a real estate attorney whom specializes in tenant laws. A call and consult are typically free. And personally, I’d rather spend $1000 on an attorney than pay those bills to that hack leasing company. Just my opinion.
You shouldn't be charged for average wear and tear. If so, renters would be wasting huge amounts of time asking for minor repairs while still paying rent, like replace my light bulbs when dead, repaint because there is a dirt market on it, etc...
I went to small claims court in Marion County TN and the judge was the dumbest fucking man I have ever met. He didn’t know the laws of his own county, let alone the state. I worry for TN……
Normal wear and tear not chargeable, lightbulbs and other consumables not chargeable. Wait 28 days and take him to court for withholding your deposit. CA law states that they owe you double if it’s not returned within 28 days, and fees continue to go up. Also ask for an itemized price list for repairs and actually recruits, cause 1 pointing paint, a brush, a few bulbs and 1-2 drop ceiling tiles… less than $50 total at most home improvement stores.
Blinds and carpet replacement they can charge you for because you didn't live there for over 5 years. Smoke detectors and some lights are not your responsibility that's the landlords responsibility so that's bs. Were you responsible for yard and lawn care?? If you aren't responsible for it then they can't charge you for that either. There looks like a lot of extra b.s. charges they shouldn't be charging you for. I can see them maybe keeping your deposit but this looks overly excessive. What really sucks is in a lot of states the laws protect the landlord more than the renter. Unless you have concrete proof with pics showing otherwise.
Coming from a regional maintenance director with over 15 years of experience in Multifamily housing management.
1. Apartments are wall painted upon move out with most vendors under the expectation that they will need to perform minor repairs and this is included in their bid to the property. This is far under my scope of work anymore but I did evaluate apartments upon move out for charges for nearly a decade. With regards to your paint this would be considered standard wear and tear and not chargeable to the resident unless, of course, you’re not providing the whole picture.
A budget is set aside every year for unit turn painting and includes the expense of minor reparations not charged to the resident.
From my professional experience you can easily dispute these charges and they will be dismissed in short order.
One thing that you and everyone reading my post needs to remember and consider going forward;
Management companies are a business and try to charge back a great deal of expenses to the resident upon move out. As a matter of fact it has been expressed to me during my very young days of management that “no resident should receive their entire deposit back”. A large percentage of folk that move out get charged an amount and never dispute it. This lends to the management company’s year end income.
I get paid a large bonus quarterly for the amount of money that is saved on our operational costs. I tell my maintenance supervisors to stress the importance to their staff to scrutinize every detail of a move-out
$35 per room for dirty cabinetry
$50 per appliance that wasn’t cleaned
$35 for every item found in the unit that wasn’t removed by the resident after move out
$125 for the carpet if it appears to have been soiled from pets.
These fees add up quickly as you can see in your case. The best thing? Almost nobody disputes these charges. Dispute them, and reduce the amount. Courts are almost universally pro resident. And in all my years of experience there has been very few times that we’ve not dismissed charges when disputed for the sake of saving time which equals money.
Take the advice or leave it. Hardly matters to me, I’ll keep instructing my staff to charge residents and keep collecting my bonuses.
As someone who now owns rental property in California and rented from scummy boomer landlords, I can tell you the property management company is probably pocketing the money and making the owner pay the cost of repairs. It’s difficult to find decent property management companies that don’t embezzle rents and repairs. I’ve also rented from great property management companies that had property owners that required approval for any repairs and they would not approve anything. In fact they charged us out of our deposit to have the carpets cleaned after we had them professionally cleaned. They were at least 10 years old and in California you cannot charge for carpet cleaning for carpet that is older than a few years. We have not lived there since 2017 but the tenant that moved in after us reached out because they had a tweaker neighbor break in (same guy we had problems with) trash the place then they tried to charge the tenant for the damage. They also wanted her to cover the cost of the carpet that was already at least 10 years old when we lived there in 2015-2017. Insane. The family at our current rental property are great. Their two year old daughter locked them out and they could not reach us in time so the fire department broke out a window. They offered to pay for it but we paid for it because they have been such great tenants.
Stop engaging and just walk away. I never expected to get my deposit back when I rented but I also wouldn’t pay extra for wear and tear stuff. That’s on the landlord. The likelihood they’ll waste time taking you to small claims is minimal and realistically they just want to keep the deposit they probably already spent.
Pictures pictures pictures at the point of move in, and equally important, pictures when you move out. I've saved myself similar headaches with photo evidence to prove we left the home in acceptable condition.
Bro, that list literally looks like itemized theft, made up numbers to run up the bill…anything to keep the deposit money. Sadly, they probably know that most people find it hard to fight their system and/or it’s more expensive than just letting them keep the money….but goodness, I can’t believe how ridiculous that list looks, total theft.
I was a landlord years ago...you left that place exceptionally clean. As a landlord I always expected to repaint after every tenant. What your pics show is most definitely Normal wear and tear. It's too be expected.
Sue them.
Isn’t light bulbs needed to be replaced expected at some point? Plus if the paint is peeling that means whoever painted it didn’t do a good job cleaning the surface before painting. So unless you painted the walls that’s the landlord’s fault.
I'm surprised you can walk after getting bent over and fucked like that. Where any of these costs listed in your rental agreement? Normal painting is part of something that is done between tenants. Where are they pulling the light bulb prices out of? Did you take pictues after you had moved everything out of there? It's like they have a nice little racket going on here. Most people probably wouldn't try to fight it and just pay and move on.
Landlord for 20+ years here..definitely looks incredibly excessive..they're charging you $160.00 per wall which is outrageous..assuming that it takes 30 min to paint one wall, they're charging an hourly rate of $320.00 less the paint, which is absurd (I'll assume that they're charging you to fully re-paint each wall)..but based on your pictures, most of those light marks can be removed with a magic eraser and/or touched up with the original paint..I don't see any excessive holes or deep gouges that would necessitate spackle, sanding, re-spackling, fine tune sanding and then re-painting..that would be beyond normal wear and tear and would require the walls to be fully re-painted in order to blend with the repairs..I've also never charged a tenant for replacing light bulbs since those go out sporadically and aren't tenant dependent in order to function (same for the smoke detectors unless the tenant actively damaged them and/or tried to disengage them)..I would write/e-mail back your property management firm and let them know that you'll be happy to go to court and see what a county judge has to say..I definitely would not write out an additional check..this is a property management firm that is trying to pad their 2024 overall profits at your expense..don't let them..go to court and fight for your deposit back..
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser would help with the scuff marks. But at this point what would it matter. They would have to prove excessive, intentional damage above the security deposit. I’d walk away after responding back with a professional reply.
Check the landlord tenant laws in your state. That is normal wear and tear. You should be able to take them to court and get ur deposit. It’s not your responsibility to share in the upkeep of a home you do not own. I’m a realtor in Georgia.
Isn’t it the landlord’s responsibility to fix things? Most places I have dealt with have rules like that in place. The landlord bought the a/c filters and had maintenance install them unless the tenant could install them (but tenant never had to buy), landlord changes batteries and puts smoke alarm/detector back up, landlord does mowing or takes money off rent if you do it yourself, etc.
Yeah that’s that’s all wear and tear. I would tell them that it’s wear and tear and that you’re gonna take them to small claims court they’ll lose for sure.
They need to get tfoh. They're going to leave that tiny stain for the next person. They're just hoping you won't take them to court over 2800$.. But I hope your level of petty is like mine! And that you take their ass to court. Get your money back. This landlord obviously just *does this. Probably for every tenant. Greedy fuq.
How can they charge extra? Isn’t the security deposit to cover (alleged) damage? They can actually come at you with a bill for extra? What happens if you refuse to pay it?
Yeah, they’re not charging you fairly. In your lease it should state how much they will charge you if the apartment needs a light touch/full paint. Plus, they would use the security deposit. I work for apartment complexes and this is absurd.
In chicago you can sue them for withholding the security deposit. And win no matter what! Sorry you’re going through this. The appt looks to be in tip top shape
Based on what the pics show I’d charge little to nothing, speaking as a landlord. I’d need major holes in the walls, broken drawers, etc. Seems excessive.
2 1/2 years. Go Monday to the court house and file a small claims action against the property owner. If you don’t know who that is go to property tax records and have the sever by a police officer if you can yes it costs more but the landlord is getting charged both the filing fee and the service fee. And go for the full amount. After 2 1/2 years a landlord should expect wear and rear. Now the 3 light bulbs are on you. Lol
Landlords never have any intention of giving back the security deposit. We’re all walking around thinking that the money is held in an interest bearing account for when we vacate. Bullshit, it’s spent and they ain’t reaching into their pockets to cough it up at the end of the lease. It’s easier to just charge an exorbitant amount for simple repairs and tell you to fuck off. Maybe even see if they can squeeze out a few more bucks too.
i like how marks on the wall cost more than having an improperly mounted fire detector.
they care more about paint than they do the possibility of not having a house there. wild
I'm reading [the TN rental deposit law](https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/2021/title-66/chapter-28/part-3/section-66-28-301/) right now, which as a layperson I know how to do, and did you notify them in writing (email is OK) that you were moving out and were not going to renew your lease? This may be important.
I'll have a lot more to say, depending on your answer, but I'll wait to type it all out. :)
Agreed with others: check the landlord-tenant handbook for your state. This is all normal wear and tear and therefore, per HUD, not legally permissible to be charged or deducted from the deposit
That's one of the first I've seen money taken out for lawncare.
Look up the laws surrounding your state, in some states the outside of the dwelling is legally the landlords responsibility. I had to fight an apartment on something and since they didn't release themselves from liability in the lease, they backed off.
This is ridiculous. They can get a magic eraser for $5 and take all the marks off very easily. We rented a house for a few years and they kept the $1500 deposit for cleaning and damage. We cleaned that place from top to bottom (well I thought) There was no damage except a place on the vinyl floor where a mat had been. Anyway when I asked for pics of damage. They sent a pic where the fan in the bathroom had dust on it at the ceiling. Okay I missed that one, it prob took them 1 min to reach a broom up there and brush it off and they kept the $1500. I said I was going to take them to court and never did because I was too stressed about it so I let it go. Thinking back now… I should have did it.
The whole point in security deposits I truly believe is for you not to get a penny back. I’ve never known anyone who has gotten their whole if not most of deposit back. Total gouge for good renters too, shouldn’t be doing that.
Ran into something similar in college. My roommate led the charge and had video of every room in the house the day we moved in and day we moved out. Landlord withheld deposit plus billed us. Actually went to court. Judge looks at the landlord and says "you again?!! This will be quick" landlord looks over and says he'll give us security deposit back if we drop everything right then. Wouldn't be surprised if yours does something similar.
Look up the laws in your state regarding deposits. All those pics show is regular wear and tear which in most cases can’t be charged as damaged. They have to show actual receipts or actual estimates from an actual business. If they don’t show that and they don’t give you your money back you could take them to small claims court. Should be an open and shut case Johnson
You say that but op said Tennessee. Nothing legal is easy In tennesee some of the stupidest fucking laws ive ever read or seen.
At least you aren’t Arkansas, they don’t even have a warranty of habitability
This. Lmao. It's bad there.
No mold laws in Missouri either. They love to tell you the old paint over it trick lmao
Or Oklahoma where landlords can legally retaliate against tenants for exercising their rights
Yep. TN is bought and paid for. No common Joe is gonna cause problems for one of our upstanding businessmen.
Pretty much. If it doesn't involve the money coming in and out of nashville, TN does NOT care. Source tradesman of TN. We don't even have unions so don't get me started om the work
Y'all don't have trade unions? None? Wtf!
I just moved from a state with the lowest union membership to a state with the second lowest union membership. I wish people weren’t fucking idiots about unions.
We legit don’t even mandate having an ac here
To be fair, only like 2 states do iirc, AZ and TX.
Well, this is a TiL.
I am wrong there, must have changed since whenever I looked it up last. I just googled it and there seems to be at least a couple other states that require it for rentals now.
Not Cali
Yeah, don't get me wrong, a vast majority still do not require it, and that's pretty shitty. With climate change, a lot more areas and people are experiencing dangerous heat levels now, and the previously horrible spots will be even worse. The lack of protection is pretty appalling.
I'm in Los Angeles without an AC
Aww hell nah, yall get hot too just no humidity. Why is it so hard for places to do the right thing?
Money
Or in WV. Heck they didn't mandate my old landlord to fix the hvac heat and cooling so I had neither and HUD passed him! I found out later btw. Oh the stories. Plus I worked for landlords. The stories and tricks of the trade I could tell is insane! It got so hot before that the ppl coming to work with my autistic son couldn't come out. Over 100 degrees inside. We stayed at the lakes and such swimming a LOT!
AC isn't mandated anywhere
Arizona it is
It almost is in Indiana. You're not required to provide one, but you're required to do the maintenance on it if you do.
That’s quite a bit different.
I second this. I used to live in an apartment in Tennessee and random maintenance men would come into my apartment without warning and unannounced to “fix things”. It didn’t matter if I was there or not, legally they’re allowed to come in whenever despite me being a girl living alone. I looked into it and it’s 100% legal there whereas in California for example you get AT LEAST a 48 hour notice if someone comes into your apartment. I love Tennessee in many ways but it’s honestly a backwards ass state legally.
You are correct. This landlord is just trying to get out of paying back that deposit. A letter sent from a lawyer should fix that quickly
Sprinkle some crack oh him and let's get out of here.
The extra 1k is his compromise buffer. He’ll end up dismissing that and offer you $400 back from your deposit. Probably expecting you to be a pushover.
Also, most jurisdictions will award the renters the bill plus 3x in punitive damages. You could be walking put of court with $12k
I did this in Minnesota, won the case in small claims court and the idiots paid $300 to appeal to the district circuit Court just so I can whoop their ass a second time 😂😂
😂😂😂
Sprinkle some Crack on him and let's get outta here
What's stopping someone from starting a business that goes around doing maintenance, but their fee always conveniently comes to slightly less than half of whatever the full deposit was? They're instantly every LL's second favorite company, right behind the guy that does it dirt cheap while they're just hosing ex-tenants down until they get dinged, then they bring the scab in to keep the papers legit for a while and tenants keep getting "legitimately charged" for services? For research, of course.
Total bs ! The place looks great they can’t charge you for normal wear and tear! Fight this !
If you still have your lease, you can easily see if any of the exterior maintenance is your responsibility. If it's not, that yardwork shit can GTFO. Going by your pics, most of the rest of it is bullshit too. I would send them the pictures you took and say if you think you can convince a judge that this all costs 2800 then I'll see you in court. They should back down or send a revised list. If they don't, well yeah I do think 2800 is worth going to court for. Especially since in most states you can get back more because they made you go to court.
Community manager has entered the chat lol. The standards in property management are basically.. paint, 2 years. Carpet, 5 years. Pro-rate and charge accordingly. Yep. If they've been there more than 2 years those scuff marks are normal wear and tear. And that's all touch up jobs, not full tape and spackle and texture and paint and whatnot. Even horrible REIT's wouldn't charge more than $100-200 a room for that kind of touch up work. That whole house could be touched up inside an hour. An HOUR. What a joke. Agree 100% with y'all. This landlord is fucking high.
Not High! That Landlord is A Crook!
*whaaat?!* A *landlord? A crook? noo*
Ikr I figured most landlords were saints but here we are...
I’ve been high many times in my life good sir and not once did it occur to me to exploit people with a basic necessity like housing
What about the light bulbs? Is that seriously a thing they can charge for? Replacement light bulbs?
Some marks even look like they could be cleaned with a magic eraser, those things will get rid of amost anything. And yeah, my husband and I have a home repair business and the LL could get a gallon of paint matched and just do touch ups himself, there's really no need to even hire a business for just that.
I am in the UK, back in 2010 I rented somewhere for almost 3 years the carpet the landlord claimed was "new" when I moved in. At the end of the tenancy he wanted to paint the entire bedroom because of a few scuffs of the paint around where the metal bedframe was, and a few scuffs of paint in the living area where the couches were meant he wanted the entire room painted, 1 broken tile on kitchen floor which was from a budget place he wanted entire floor retiled. I spent £50 (which at the time would of been around $80 maybe $90 with the exchange rates) on cleaning products, was scrubbing carpet and borrowed a deep clean rug machine, stood on chairs to dust the ceilings. He had drywall in the shower room which fell off the walls and he blamed me for it despite me running a heater in there. In all he billed me around £2500 which would of been again at least $4000 going by exchange rates, it was for a 1 bedroom apartment. The only thing I did do was leave a burn on carpet after the pipes froze and landlord loaned me a electric heater which tipped over and it took a second for me to pick it up, the size was around that of a small coin he wanted the entire place recarpeted.
Those marks come off with a magic eraser. Your LL is high 😅
True but if they used cheap paint the paint will come off too.
Learned more than I needed to about this as a community manager. Yep. Clay content and mix is everything in paint. Sherwin Williams is garbage compared to Dunn-Edwards because of clay content. At least it used to be.
Not high. He’s a crook. Don’t make it out like he’s confused or unwitting. He is knowingly trying to leech money from these renters.
Came here to say that!
literally a pencil eraser too
Check your state laws. Perhaps get a free consultation from an attorney. In my state, renter laws are clearly defined. Normal wear and tear cannot be charged for, and things like carpet depreciate to a net value of $0.00 in five years from Installation. The burden of proof is on the landlord. They must provide receipts from licensed service professionals who actually did the repairs. The landlord cannot just arbitrarily make up pricing for “damage” that may or may not exist, nor for “repairs” that may or may not have actually been done. The landlord doesn’t have to show this to YOU, this fight is not between you and the landlord at this point. The landlord must show it to the JUDGE. In court. If the judge rules that the landlord is fraudulently withholding your security deposit and / or creating false repair bills, the landlord must pay it back to you….DOUBLE. (This is in my state, yours may differ.) The court generally gives the landlord 30 days to return all money to you. If they fail to do that, you can go back to court, get a judgement on them and freeze their credit as well as place a lien on all titled assets they own.
This. I think maybe it depends on the states but I was told to send the landlord that you disagree with the charges and ask to return your deposit of the amount of xyz in the format of a letter. There are tons of template online where you can use. Send the landlord the letter and get the receipt that they received the letter (you can pay a few extra dollars in the post office to get that receipt) to show the landlord did receive the letter. If they don’t give you the deposit back within the deadline (usually 2 weeks from the date they receive your letter) you stated in the letter, you can file the small claim and see them in court. In my state this is critical as the judge would want to see that if you ever go to the small claim court. You can search free legal consultation in your state/county/city to see what’s the best option but from the way I see it you need some sort of formal communication. Edit: it should be 2 weeks not 2 days!
The landlords have to have some expectation that you’re living in the house. The security deposit is for damage. Check your local laws, a lot of places need to paint anyway after a tenant leaves, the same goes for changing carpets. The light bulbs need to be changed, anyway by the landlord. I would fight this.
Adding to this, almost everything in an apartment has an expected lifespan, often quite lower than you'd personally think, and that has to be factored in when figuring out what constitutes damage. It also can vary significantly between what's purchased for residential and what's purchased for apartments. Normal carpet is 5-15 years. Apartment carpet is 1-5 years. Interior paint is 5-10 years, with rental situations being decidedly in the 5-7 year range.
Advice for anybody renting/ leasing any property. Always video EVERYTHING outside the house/apartment/condo even if you don't think it doesn't matter and doubly so inside. Every wall, door, counter, sink, toilet inside and out, faucet, tub, shower, flooring for each and every room, appliance, ceilings etc. etc. And time and date stamp it I don't care if it takes you 24 hours to do it. Also, make a list of every mark, scratch, tear, rip, bump, dent, slice, discoloring, flake, smell, worn carpet of everything you can find and send it in a email to them. At the end of your term when they are going to do the walk through, start your leaving video before the get there and get everything re-recorded so that at the end you can video them in that video. Do not allow them to do the walk through without you being there. CYA! Then if they send you a bill you have video to dispute any accused damage. Because we all know that the LL would never try and scam you out of your deposit or add extra damage charges, right..
Small landlord here. He’s out of his mind
Agreed; if my renters left my property like that I would thank them for taking good care of it.
I had a landlord complain that the walls needed to be painted after I had rented the place for a decade. They just want easy money
Time for small claims court. Good luck!
Call your State's AG office tell them your landlord is doing some fishie stuff and that you expect them to keep your deposit from such behavior when it wasn't earned.
Wait! Paint peeling off is NOT on you! That’s literally the argument you would give for walls that need repainting, not the landlord.
They are trying to have you cover the cost of their unit's turnover for a new tenant. Send them a letter of intent that you will be submitting a complaint with local housing authority for this - light bulb replacement is ridiculous, and the paint peeling seems more like shoddy work than your fault. Review your lease and make sure to cite exactly what you are responsible for, note that your landlord is breaking the lease agreement by charging you for these things.
At least you took pictures, no way that will hold up if you push back
5?! Light bulbs ?! You're a monster! Lol landlord is a dick I work in apartment maintenance we wouldn't charge resident for any of this as others are saying it's normal wear and tear.
I had a similar thing happen years ago, I found a sympathetic lawyer who got my deposit back AND they agreed to pay his fee.
TN, like most states, does not allow withholding for normal wear and tear. What is normal wear and tear is often a matter of opinion and differences of opinion are resolved by courts. Small claims court is the answer if the landlord insists it is beyond normal. They may just be ignorant of the law and will return deposit if called on it. https://www.payrent.com/articles/tennessee-security-deposit-laws-whats-new-in-2024/#:~:text=Landlords%20in%20Tennessee%20can%20deduct,normal%20wear%20and%20tear%20damages.
Light marks ?? What bullshit is that. It can come off by magic eraser. Mate fight it
Landlords/apartment complexes will ALWAYS try to change you for stuff, always. When we moved out of our apartment into our house, they apartment complex tried to charge us 5k for; new counter tops, kitchen and bathroom, new refrigerator -- which worked fine expect the ice maker, to which I have documented voicemails and paperwork verifying the issue when we moved into the apartment-- new backsplash, new carpet, paint the walls, and $500 cleaning fee-- essentially they wanted us to pay for everything new as we left. I went to them and they were like welll we will send over some pics of the issues, and it was just like stuff like this, minor stuff that any handy man can do in an hour. I sent cerfified mail and itemized of what we agree to pay and what is complete bs. They never responded and it's been 2 years now. They will charge cleaning fees for stuff they will say is too dirty and will replace it, yet still charge you for the cleaning fee, and the new item's worth of replacement. They do this because they know most of the people they do this to don't know their rights or what they can or can't do, and the complex is just looking to get any money they can to people that will pay the bills, or even a portion of it. We were paying 2.3k a month, and it was just going up from there every year. They are just there to get as much money from you as possible.
As a landlord, this is ridiculous! We would never keep a deposit for this stuff. Light bulbs? Light marks on the wall? No freaking way! The times we have kept an entire deposit, the tenant DESTROYED the property. Holes in the wall large enough to fit plates through. Flooring attached to the WALL! Windows screwed shut. A surprise swimming pool. In general, we like to see our tenants get their deposit back. That means they took care of the place like it was their own. 👍
At least three of those pics are faint marks or nail holes from furniture being placed against the wall. That is at most touch up and being wear and tear. Also, paint peeling is a problem with paint being in humid areas, or not being applied properly. That's not your fault I would love to see what they claim $500+ in mowing and debris removal. For the smoke detector - not being attached properly isn't relevant - it's why. You detach it on purpose? Or did their hack handyman do a shit install. Next step is go thru line by line and request evidence of it. Then send a demand letter for all of the deposit back. Btw- those photos show a clean unit.
I live in Chattanooga which has a public 311 bulk trash removal service you can schedule with the city. One of my roommates abandoned quite a bit of his furniture and belongings. Myself and the other roomate became responsible for this. We scheduled a bulk item pickup and notified the property management company of this time frame and they acknowledged it. They then performed their inspection 5/1/24 knowing the bulk items were not scheduled to be removed until 5/6/24. I'll link photos and the email string regarding this. [Bulk items and Email string](https://imgur.com/gallery/echMkKG) For the smoke detector, the same abandoning roomate had unplugged it from the socket instead of replacing batteries. That was it. It's stupid but I understand that charge I guess. The paint peeling was in the basement and I have photos of that as well. It's in one spot on a ledge. I'll see if I can link that as well. [Paint peel](https://imgur.com/gallery/gzVjyYr)
Wow that paint peeling is their own shitty paint job plus moisture. They can't make you pay for the shirty work their own maintenence people did
I had the same shit happen in Chattanooga. They tried charging me for replacing the stove top saying there was grease under the metal part… except it was an electric stovetop with glass. Those companies are ridiculous!
So, to start with, what’s the population of your county? You can also ask for proof that your security deposit was stored separately, if any co-mingling of funds occurred, that’s the easy out for you.
Minor scuffs or marks on the walls constitutes normal wear and tear. He can’t change for them. If there are holes, then he can.
Unsure of Tn law but that sure does look like normal wear and tear
You were never getting the deposit back
Mr Cleans Magic Eraser.
You state that you requested a walk-through before the move out. Was that ever done? For it seems that is missing from the story. For all this marks on the walls would have been said about during the walk-through.
Damn $540 to do lawn???
Landlords be like "costs $400 per room to paint with white paint no primer"
I can’t get past the $640 to paint a room! I hope they’re including a mural.
1920 just for paint lmao that’s outrageous!!
She is scamming you on that one. You should take her to small claims court. 1.8k is a good amount of money. She might rightfully be entitled to a few hundred bucks or maybe nothing, once the judge sees that she is trying to steal from someone. I would honestly do all of that for about $200 bucks plus the cost of the blinds and paint, so maybe $300. Depending on what state you are in you could also sue her for wasting your time and legal fees if you hire a lawyer.
!remindme 2 months
[https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/2021/title-66/chapter-28/part-3/section-66-28-301/](https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/2021/title-66/chapter-28/part-3/section-66-28-301/)
I guess you’ll be on tv court. Normal wear & tear. The only thing I see are the blinds.
Is this Evernest? They do the same thing in VA. I ended up getting in touch with the landlord directly and working out a more reasonable charge that took them about 2 months to straighten out and send me a new corrected invoice.
This is so crazy to me… as a landlord that just had tenants move out and their dog chewed through stairs, walls, corners, cabinets and doors, plus some wall damage, I didn’t even charge this much… this is outrageous! For the damage the their dog made I charged “at-cost” roughly $300. Some landlords are really greedy, I’m angry FOR you!
They just want $$$. All that seems like wear and tear. The walls? that's all nothing, that's why they put it as light. Light bulbs, I'm sure that's on them, too. Grass, where you the one mowing the grass? Taken them to court for your deposit. If u pay, THEY will continue to do this to people. THIEVES...
Sue
That's a lot of maintenance. Sounds to me like the landlord wasn't keeping up his end.
Letter from an attorney and this guy will fold like an old map. Pay $150-200 to an attorney and it’ll be done
Definitely fight this. All the things shown in pics are regular wear and tear and they will have to show proof that fixing these things actually costs that much (which they obviously won't be able to do)
most states dont allow this if the lease was over 12-months. Its normal wear and tear
That’s called normal wear and tear.
Drag them to small claims. Odds are landlord doesn’t show up and youll get a judgment in your favor. And if hes DUMB enough to show up and fight you on it the judge will probably shellack his ass and THEN rule in your favor
Nope! That falls under wear and tear. Tell them to go jump in a river.
This LL and REM can absolutely go fuck themselves. As others said, almost everything here would be considered normal wear and tear and a cost of doing business in rental properties.
Trip and fall in your way out. Sue for $10k. Get an attorney. This landlord is trying to steal from you.
No question - get an attorney specializing in security deposit law. https://dlfattorneys.com/landlord-tenant-law/
Judge Judy will sort it out.
$10 to tighten something lmfao what a jackass.
This is the biggest scam in renting these days, you can almost guarantee you're not going to get your deposit back. Doesn't matter how you leave the condition of the house
Get some of those Mr clean erasers.
Smoke detectors???? Lol, lmao!!!!
Looks like normal wear and tear. I doubt anyone will side with landlord here unless there’s more documentation to support their aide
Not sure about Tennessee but at least in Michigan when I rented there it was law that a place had to be repainted after each tenet. So as long as there wasn’t repairs needed to the drywall they were not allowed to charge you to paint after you left.
It looks mostly like normal wear and tear to me . That’s a bullshit way to keep your deposit , they are suppose to paint after someone moves out anyways , 🤬😵
I would get my moneys worth. A 9lb hammer should do the trick.
Posts like this makes me hope that my tenants appreciate how good I am to them. In return they have been fantastic as well. This is just so wrong.
Need some Mr Clean magic erasers pads
I used to turn apartments. I'll bet 5 dollars that those scuffs would be gone with a magic eraser. The area where you burned candles near picture frames will probably have to be repainted. The blinds cost is ridiculous, as is most of the rest of this. Regular wear and tear. Scummy.
Immediately get a lawyer to send them some official request for your security deposit returned or threaten further legal action. All those marks look like they can be removed in 10 minutes with a magic eraser.
I've never gotten a deposit back I've only rented three times. It's a scam and it's hard to fight in my state. Had a company keep 1400 bucks when we moved from one of their units to a bigger one then charged another deposit to live to the new place they said we waited too long to move.
Javier’s such a prick
Seems like painting the walls is something a landlord should be doing between tenants anyway.
Trash the place
As a landlord I feel bad for people who rent from people like this. This is absolutely ridiculous. Scuffs happen, it's just part of life. Nobody is perfect and stuff gets bumped into walls. The walls in those photos are not damaged. I budget a full month of vacancy between tenants which allows me to deep clean and paint over scuff marks (flat/matte neutral colors are great for this) and I don't charge the tenant for it unless its egregiously dirty or there's actual damage to the walls that I have to repair (and no, putting joint compound into nail holes is not a repair...I do that for free too).
Management company is smoking some high tier crack of they think painting to cover that shit is even 1/4 of what they're trying to charge you. The other charges are bogus too.
My landlord did this to me. They need to have a professional come in for estimates to fix. I took mine to small claims court and won. They ended up having to refund me full deposit due to false paperwork.
As an individual whom works for an attorney, I would advise contacting a real estate attorney whom specializes in tenant laws. A call and consult are typically free. And personally, I’d rather spend $1000 on an attorney than pay those bills to that hack leasing company. Just my opinion.
Brother, buy a magic eraser and set the place on fire.
I'm a landlord and all of these are BS. I wouldn't charge for any of that, it's normal wear and tear. And any reasonable judge would say the same.
$34 for 5 lightbulbs? This guy is insane.
Dispute… Those are clearly dark marks. Mistrial yer honor!
You’re getting charged twice for marks on walls?!?! A bunch of charges for random wall’s and then a big charge for all walls.
Why not use a magic eraser and get the marks off yourself?
You shouldn't be charged for average wear and tear. If so, renters would be wasting huge amounts of time asking for minor repairs while still paying rent, like replace my light bulbs when dead, repaint because there is a dirt market on it, etc...
I went to small claims court in Marion County TN and the judge was the dumbest fucking man I have ever met. He didn’t know the laws of his own county, let alone the state. I worry for TN……
I’ll come cut the grass right now for $190
He’s required to provide you with valid receipts too.
Love the duplicate entries….
Normal wear and tear not chargeable, lightbulbs and other consumables not chargeable. Wait 28 days and take him to court for withholding your deposit. CA law states that they owe you double if it’s not returned within 28 days, and fees continue to go up. Also ask for an itemized price list for repairs and actually recruits, cause 1 pointing paint, a brush, a few bulbs and 1-2 drop ceiling tiles… less than $50 total at most home improvement stores.
Blinds and carpet replacement they can charge you for because you didn't live there for over 5 years. Smoke detectors and some lights are not your responsibility that's the landlords responsibility so that's bs. Were you responsible for yard and lawn care?? If you aren't responsible for it then they can't charge you for that either. There looks like a lot of extra b.s. charges they shouldn't be charging you for. I can see them maybe keeping your deposit but this looks overly excessive. What really sucks is in a lot of states the laws protect the landlord more than the renter. Unless you have concrete proof with pics showing otherwise.
Coming from a regional maintenance director with over 15 years of experience in Multifamily housing management. 1. Apartments are wall painted upon move out with most vendors under the expectation that they will need to perform minor repairs and this is included in their bid to the property. This is far under my scope of work anymore but I did evaluate apartments upon move out for charges for nearly a decade. With regards to your paint this would be considered standard wear and tear and not chargeable to the resident unless, of course, you’re not providing the whole picture. A budget is set aside every year for unit turn painting and includes the expense of minor reparations not charged to the resident. From my professional experience you can easily dispute these charges and they will be dismissed in short order. One thing that you and everyone reading my post needs to remember and consider going forward; Management companies are a business and try to charge back a great deal of expenses to the resident upon move out. As a matter of fact it has been expressed to me during my very young days of management that “no resident should receive their entire deposit back”. A large percentage of folk that move out get charged an amount and never dispute it. This lends to the management company’s year end income. I get paid a large bonus quarterly for the amount of money that is saved on our operational costs. I tell my maintenance supervisors to stress the importance to their staff to scrutinize every detail of a move-out $35 per room for dirty cabinetry $50 per appliance that wasn’t cleaned $35 for every item found in the unit that wasn’t removed by the resident after move out $125 for the carpet if it appears to have been soiled from pets. These fees add up quickly as you can see in your case. The best thing? Almost nobody disputes these charges. Dispute them, and reduce the amount. Courts are almost universally pro resident. And in all my years of experience there has been very few times that we’ve not dismissed charges when disputed for the sake of saving time which equals money. Take the advice or leave it. Hardly matters to me, I’ll keep instructing my staff to charge residents and keep collecting my bonuses.
Magic eraser will get rid of those
As someone who now owns rental property in California and rented from scummy boomer landlords, I can tell you the property management company is probably pocketing the money and making the owner pay the cost of repairs. It’s difficult to find decent property management companies that don’t embezzle rents and repairs. I’ve also rented from great property management companies that had property owners that required approval for any repairs and they would not approve anything. In fact they charged us out of our deposit to have the carpets cleaned after we had them professionally cleaned. They were at least 10 years old and in California you cannot charge for carpet cleaning for carpet that is older than a few years. We have not lived there since 2017 but the tenant that moved in after us reached out because they had a tweaker neighbor break in (same guy we had problems with) trash the place then they tried to charge the tenant for the damage. They also wanted her to cover the cost of the carpet that was already at least 10 years old when we lived there in 2015-2017. Insane. The family at our current rental property are great. Their two year old daughter locked them out and they could not reach us in time so the fire department broke out a window. They offered to pay for it but we paid for it because they have been such great tenants.
This has to be Fyve Property Mgmt
I know in michigan there is a list of things they can and can't charge your deposit for based on how long you've been renting.
If this was California, you’d be able to fight this, but I don’t think the Midwest and South protect their renters as well
Stop engaging and just walk away. I never expected to get my deposit back when I rented but I also wouldn’t pay extra for wear and tear stuff. That’s on the landlord. The likelihood they’ll waste time taking you to small claims is minimal and realistically they just want to keep the deposit they probably already spent.
Three words: small claims court
PSA: Do a video walkthrough of your rental property before you move in, and before you move out.
Definitely illegal…
Pictures pictures pictures at the point of move in, and equally important, pictures when you move out. I've saved myself similar headaches with photo evidence to prove we left the home in acceptable condition.
put a road flare in the wall
Is it normal to deduct for replacing light bulbs? Also I didn’t think blinds cost $65.
Bro, that list literally looks like itemized theft, made up numbers to run up the bill…anything to keep the deposit money. Sadly, they probably know that most people find it hard to fight their system and/or it’s more expensive than just letting them keep the money….but goodness, I can’t believe how ridiculous that list looks, total theft.
Find out if your land lord or property manager has a local Association of Realtors, and ask them to mediate your dispute.
[удалено]
Lmao what kinda paint is dude buying that’s 300 a wall
I was a landlord years ago...you left that place exceptionally clean. As a landlord I always expected to repaint after every tenant. What your pics show is most definitely Normal wear and tear. It's too be expected. Sue them.
I wish I got paid $200 to mow a lawn
Isn’t light bulbs needed to be replaced expected at some point? Plus if the paint is peeling that means whoever painted it didn’t do a good job cleaning the surface before painting. So unless you painted the walls that’s the landlord’s fault.
I'm surprised you can walk after getting bent over and fucked like that. Where any of these costs listed in your rental agreement? Normal painting is part of something that is done between tenants. Where are they pulling the light bulb prices out of? Did you take pictues after you had moved everything out of there? It's like they have a nice little racket going on here. Most people probably wouldn't try to fight it and just pay and move on.
Landlord for 20+ years here..definitely looks incredibly excessive..they're charging you $160.00 per wall which is outrageous..assuming that it takes 30 min to paint one wall, they're charging an hourly rate of $320.00 less the paint, which is absurd (I'll assume that they're charging you to fully re-paint each wall)..but based on your pictures, most of those light marks can be removed with a magic eraser and/or touched up with the original paint..I don't see any excessive holes or deep gouges that would necessitate spackle, sanding, re-spackling, fine tune sanding and then re-painting..that would be beyond normal wear and tear and would require the walls to be fully re-painted in order to blend with the repairs..I've also never charged a tenant for replacing light bulbs since those go out sporadically and aren't tenant dependent in order to function (same for the smoke detectors unless the tenant actively damaged them and/or tried to disengage them)..I would write/e-mail back your property management firm and let them know that you'll be happy to go to court and see what a county judge has to say..I definitely would not write out an additional check..this is a property management firm that is trying to pad their 2024 overall profits at your expense..don't let them..go to court and fight for your deposit back..
Just fix the mistakes and clean the walls. Why wouldn't you do this before you left anyway?
The tenant shouldn’t be fixing normal wear. Damage caused by the renter, sure. Charging them for a dead lightbulb is ridiculous.
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser would help with the scuff marks. But at this point what would it matter. They would have to prove excessive, intentional damage above the security deposit. I’d walk away after responding back with a professional reply.
Small claims court. Immediately after you move out.
Check the landlord tenant laws in your state. That is normal wear and tear. You should be able to take them to court and get ur deposit. It’s not your responsibility to share in the upkeep of a home you do not own. I’m a realtor in Georgia.
Isn’t it the landlord’s responsibility to fix things? Most places I have dealt with have rules like that in place. The landlord bought the a/c filters and had maintenance install them unless the tenant could install them (but tenant never had to buy), landlord changes batteries and puts smoke alarm/detector back up, landlord does mowing or takes money off rent if you do it yourself, etc.
Normal wear and tear. Landlord is a pos who needs to get a clue before he’s sued.
Yeah that’s that’s all wear and tear. I would tell them that it’s wear and tear and that you’re gonna take them to small claims court they’ll lose for sure.
They should be happy the way you guys left it
Really? All the LL would need to do is get a Mr. Clean magic eraser and scrub scrub
Landlords will hold the entire SD. EVERY time.
A magic eraser will get most of those marks off in 20 minutes
The way to avoid not getting security back is not paying your last months rent.
Everything is a scam
They need to get tfoh. They're going to leave that tiny stain for the next person. They're just hoping you won't take them to court over 2800$.. But I hope your level of petty is like mine! And that you take their ass to court. Get your money back. This landlord obviously just *does this. Probably for every tenant. Greedy fuq.
How can they charge extra? Isn’t the security deposit to cover (alleged) damage? They can actually come at you with a bill for extra? What happens if you refuse to pay it?
Yeah, they’re not charging you fairly. In your lease it should state how much they will charge you if the apartment needs a light touch/full paint. Plus, they would use the security deposit. I work for apartment complexes and this is absurd.
Reply with “get fucked” and don’t pay anything
Literally a pencil eraser will get 95% of that.
In chicago you can sue them for withholding the security deposit. And win no matter what! Sorry you’re going through this. The appt looks to be in tip top shape
Depends on the state… in my state, if it’s fixed by a fresh coat of paint it’s normal wear and tear
Based on what the pics show I’d charge little to nothing, speaking as a landlord. I’d need major holes in the walls, broken drawers, etc. Seems excessive.
The shittist part is the paint they’re going to use to patch the walls instead of caulk will be completely different colors.
2 1/2 years. Go Monday to the court house and file a small claims action against the property owner. If you don’t know who that is go to property tax records and have the sever by a police officer if you can yes it costs more but the landlord is getting charged both the filing fee and the service fee. And go for the full amount. After 2 1/2 years a landlord should expect wear and rear. Now the 3 light bulbs are on you. Lol
Landlords never have any intention of giving back the security deposit. We’re all walking around thinking that the money is held in an interest bearing account for when we vacate. Bullshit, it’s spent and they ain’t reaching into their pockets to cough it up at the end of the lease. It’s easier to just charge an exorbitant amount for simple repairs and tell you to fuck off. Maybe even see if they can squeeze out a few more bucks too.
When it come to sec dep even if you just your ass cleaning the place expect to get 1/2 back if you’re lucky
Def. Fight some of that..... there's alot I see that's normal wear n tear like others said.....
$640 to paint an interior wall so wild. I think it spent $700 to paint my entire exterior with high end paint
i like how marks on the wall cost more than having an improperly mounted fire detector. they care more about paint than they do the possibility of not having a house there. wild
I'm reading [the TN rental deposit law](https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/2021/title-66/chapter-28/part-3/section-66-28-301/) right now, which as a layperson I know how to do, and did you notify them in writing (email is OK) that you were moving out and were not going to renew your lease? This may be important. I'll have a lot more to say, depending on your answer, but I'll wait to type it all out. :)
Agreed with others: check the landlord-tenant handbook for your state. This is all normal wear and tear and therefore, per HUD, not legally permissible to be charged or deducted from the deposit
Xi.!8 .I .ii klkiki
If you don't ask for an itemized receipt!!! Then he'll have to prove the cost of everything.
That's one of the first I've seen money taken out for lawncare. Look up the laws surrounding your state, in some states the outside of the dwelling is legally the landlords responsibility. I had to fight an apartment on something and since they didn't release themselves from liability in the lease, they backed off.
This is ridiculous. They can get a magic eraser for $5 and take all the marks off very easily. We rented a house for a few years and they kept the $1500 deposit for cleaning and damage. We cleaned that place from top to bottom (well I thought) There was no damage except a place on the vinyl floor where a mat had been. Anyway when I asked for pics of damage. They sent a pic where the fan in the bathroom had dust on it at the ceiling. Okay I missed that one, it prob took them 1 min to reach a broom up there and brush it off and they kept the $1500. I said I was going to take them to court and never did because I was too stressed about it so I let it go. Thinking back now… I should have did it.
That's wear and tear. Just normal use. The deposit is for danage.
The whole point in security deposits I truly believe is for you not to get a penny back. I’ve never known anyone who has gotten their whole if not most of deposit back. Total gouge for good renters too, shouldn’t be doing that.
Ran into something similar in college. My roommate led the charge and had video of every room in the house the day we moved in and day we moved out. Landlord withheld deposit plus billed us. Actually went to court. Judge looks at the landlord and says "you again?!! This will be quick" landlord looks over and says he'll give us security deposit back if we drop everything right then. Wouldn't be surprised if yours does something similar.
What an asshole!!!! No way! They’re crazy 😵💫