Hi all,
I apologize for the long post, but I'd like to put a lot of the background here:
I am in the process of moving out of a home in California that we have been renting on-time for 2 years. Our landlord contacted us three weeks before the end of our lease term to ask if we would be interested in buying the house on short-sale. She was quite pushy and insisted that we get a pre-approval letter to her within a few days regardless of whether or not we decided to buy the house. This made us nervous so we gave our notice that we were not going to pursue a new lease and would be moving out.
She notified us that our lease ends on 9/15/08 and that we were required to give her two weeks of pro-rated rent and that she would give us back our deposit within 30 days of the end of the lease.
After doing thorough research I learned that she was required to inform us in writing of our right to have her do a walkthrough two weeks prior to the lease termination in order to provide us with a list of items we can remedy to avoid deposit deductions. Which she failed to do -- I had to find that law myself and exercise my right. I also discovered that the law states that a deposit is supposed to be returned within 21 days of our leaving the property, not 30 days of the lease end date.
On 8/23, we notified her that we were going to leave the property on 9/1 and were going to have all utilities turned off the following week. We also requested an immediate walkthrough in the same correspondance.
She finally replied on 9/2 that she could do a walk-through on 9/3. When we moved out the home was in very good condition, showing only signs of light wear and tear. We took pictures of every nook and cranny.
She finally replied on 9/2 that she could do a walk-through on 9/3, after utilities had been shut off. We met and I brought along a friend as a witness. While she was able to do a complete inspection of the home without utilities, she declined to write anything we could remedy on a list citing that she needed the power and water to be turned back on before she could check the function of all the appliances, faucets, toilets and garage door (which do all work, but regardless, I assume that these items proper functionality are under the responsibility of the landlord, not the tenant).
Furthermore, she seemed to be sidetracked with the demand that we pay for 14 days of pro-rated rent on the spot. I informed her that due to her financial situation, I would be mitigating my risk by witholding that rent and that I expected her to deduct that, plus any applicable late fees per the lease agreement from the security deposit before refunding it. At this she became irate and started acting irrational and demanding the check.
After she accepted that I was not going to give her the rent on the spot, we left the property. She locked all the doors and took all the keys and garage door openers..
Now...
After I got home, I reviewed the original 1-year lease which stated the end date to be 9/7, not 9/15. Furthermore, she took all access to the property away from me by locking it up and taking all the keys.
My questions are these:
1. Since I no longer have access to the property, do I owe her pro-rated rent until the 7th (lease end date) or 3rd, since that is the day she locked us out?
2. Since she failed to notify me of my right to a pre-lease-end inspection, failed to do that inspection within 48 hours of my request, refused to write down any items that I could remedy during the walkthrough and locked us out, effectively preventing us from being able to fix anything, can she legally deduct any repairs from our deposit?
Also, she never did a pre-lease walkthrough with us and left the "Condition of Premesis" clause blank in the lease. We didn't write any defects down because the home was relatively new and didn't have any that we could find. She's claiming that the house needs to be cleaned, even though we had professional cleaners come throuh a week earlier. She's also claiming that there are "large permanent stains" on the carpet. In reality, there are several small discolorations smaller than the size of a tennis ball that we know can be removed with carpet cleaning.
I'm concerned that we're not going to see a penny back from her and that she might do something rash to try and collect the pro-rated rent. Please help.
Again, sorry for the long post.
I apologize for the long post, but I'd like to put a lot of the background here:
I am in the process of moving out of a home in California that we have been renting on-time for 2 years. Our landlord contacted us three weeks before the end of our lease term to ask if we would be interested in buying the house on short-sale. She was quite pushy and insisted that we get a pre-approval letter to her within a few days regardless of whether or not we decided to buy the house. This made us nervous so we gave our notice that we were not going to pursue a new lease and would be moving out.
She notified us that our lease ends on 9/15/08 and that we were required to give her two weeks of pro-rated rent and that she would give us back our deposit within 30 days of the end of the lease.
After doing thorough research I learned that she was required to inform us in writing of our right to have her do a walkthrough two weeks prior to the lease termination in order to provide us with a list of items we can remedy to avoid deposit deductions. Which she failed to do -- I had to find that law myself and exercise my right. I also discovered that the law states that a deposit is supposed to be returned within 21 days of our leaving the property, not 30 days of the lease end date.
On 8/23, we notified her that we were going to leave the property on 9/1 and were going to have all utilities turned off the following week. We also requested an immediate walkthrough in the same correspondance.
She finally replied on 9/2 that she could do a walk-through on 9/3. When we moved out the home was in very good condition, showing only signs of light wear and tear. We took pictures of every nook and cranny.
She finally replied on 9/2 that she could do a walk-through on 9/3, after utilities had been shut off. We met and I brought along a friend as a witness. While she was able to do a complete inspection of the home without utilities, she declined to write anything we could remedy on a list citing that she needed the power and water to be turned back on before she could check the function of all the appliances, faucets, toilets and garage door (which do all work, but regardless, I assume that these items proper functionality are under the responsibility of the landlord, not the tenant).
Furthermore, she seemed to be sidetracked with the demand that we pay for 14 days of pro-rated rent on the spot. I informed her that due to her financial situation, I would be mitigating my risk by witholding that rent and that I expected her to deduct that, plus any applicable late fees per the lease agreement from the security deposit before refunding it. At this she became irate and started acting irrational and demanding the check.
After she accepted that I was not going to give her the rent on the spot, we left the property. She locked all the doors and took all the keys and garage door openers..
Now...
After I got home, I reviewed the original 1-year lease which stated the end date to be 9/7, not 9/15. Furthermore, she took all access to the property away from me by locking it up and taking all the keys.
My questions are these:
1. Since I no longer have access to the property, do I owe her pro-rated rent until the 7th (lease end date) or 3rd, since that is the day she locked us out?
2. Since she failed to notify me of my right to a pre-lease-end inspection, failed to do that inspection within 48 hours of my request, refused to write down any items that I could remedy during the walkthrough and locked us out, effectively preventing us from being able to fix anything, can she legally deduct any repairs from our deposit?
Also, she never did a pre-lease walkthrough with us and left the "Condition of Premesis" clause blank in the lease. We didn't write any defects down because the home was relatively new and didn't have any that we could find. She's claiming that the house needs to be cleaned, even though we had professional cleaners come throuh a week earlier. She's also claiming that there are "large permanent stains" on the carpet. In reality, there are several small discolorations smaller than the size of a tennis ball that we know can be removed with carpet cleaning.
I'm concerned that we're not going to see a penny back from her and that she might do something rash to try and collect the pro-rated rent. Please help.
Again, sorry for the long post.
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