Billing after rental agreement termination

[Saraxxanne]

heres a brief summary of my problem with my landlord.

We had a year lease that expired Aug 1st 2008, which means that under washington state law RCW 59.18.280 our landlord must mail our final billing statement (for damages, cleaning, etc) or refund of our deposits before or on Aug. 14th 2008. We gave notice, provided our new address, contact numbers etc. and proceeded to wait for our expected bill. Aug. 14th came and went without any such document. Then about a week and a half ago we recieved a phone call from a collection agency claiming that we failed to pay 624.00 to our apartment complex, and we now owed them the moneys before Dec. 24th (thats when they notify the credit companies). We told them we never recieved such a bill, and we would like a copy of the statement, as well as a copy of the envelope that the orginial bill was mailed in. They told us they would send the statement but would not/could not release a copy of the envelope.

Now for my question...
Does the company have to provide the envelope in order to prove that the bill was infact mailed in the legal amount of time. And if they do not provide us with that information, do we have to pay them?

-see RCW 59.18.280 & RCW 59.18.360

THANKS any addition info would help GREATLY!!!

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

The landlord/management doesn't have to provide the former tenant with a copy of such an envelope.

They would, however, have to show the court should the tenant sue them for not receiving this information before the 14 day deadline.

I'm hinting that you might consider filing a lawsuit and making your landlord present this information in court. If they cannot present this the judge can rule that not only are you not responsible for any damages but your landlord could owe you double your security deposit.

If you lose in court (i.e., they can provide this information) then you would owe the cost of the damages.

Gail

 

[Saraxxanne]

That makes sense...thank you...

Would we owe for there legal fees?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

There will be a fee for filing in Small Claims (how much this is depends on your particular district). If you win, court fees are added to the landlords judgement.

Small Claims Court (which is where most of these cases end up) does not require an attorney (and in some states an attorney is not allowed to be present) so the cost of lawsuits is a relatively minor expense for the Plantiff. This court typically handles claims under a certain amount (in your state the limitation in this court is $4000).

On the other hand, if you argue (to the landlord/management) that you do not owe this money because you did not receive documentation via the envelope, they are likely to just go ahead and turn your account over to a collection agency (or even file against you in Small Claims) and once given to a collection agency it's a real pain in a low spot to get this off your credit record.

Gail

 

[Saraxxanne]

At this point they have not notified the credit agency yet. So we have until the 24th of Dec. to figure all of this stuff out. And we dont disagree with most of the charges, we just want to make sure that the apartment complex stayed within the confines of the law and mailed the bill within the 14 days.