My Fiance' and I rented out a condo about a year and half ago. The rent when moving in was $1050.00 a month. I paid every month on time for 12 months, never missed a payment and it was always in the form of a check, for documentation purposes.
Around the 11th month mark, the landlord approached me and asked if I would consider purchasing it. His asking price was 125K. I own a mortgage company and I did consider buying the property to use it as another rental. After working on the deal (which I was approved by the way) I came into a problem with the value. The condo's in the area were comping out around 80-95K. It was worth more but the market wouldnt hold it.
Our home was running behind schedule in regads to the new construction so I decided to extend the lease into a Month to Month and in result, he raised the rent to 1,500K a month (which I also paid that ontime for 3 months). The first month we signed a contact for that month but after that, we had NO contract.
Ok, to make a long story short.
We moved out and into our new home. After about a week he called me several times claiming the home was damaged, smelled like urine from our dog (which is only 3lbs and is potty trained) and he stated that he was keeping my security deposit of 685.00 as well as he wanted my months rent of 1500 (which I was moved out that month and paid for the month I lived there) as well as another 1500 to replace the carpet in the whole house.
It seems like everything changed when he found out that I didnt want to buy his home. The realtor cussed me out in email, their attitudes all changed towards us and now this is happening..
So this is what I have.
I recently recieved a Small Claims suit in the mail for the reasons and amount of:
3,000 in damages
Not willing to work with him on pay
and price of New carpet
I would consider myself a successful person with nice things. The whole condo was furnished with everything from Crate and Barrel, higher end things and we live very clean. We even had a cleaning lady come in every 2 weeks for a good over haul.
Run down:
He never Refunded my security deposit
We DO NOT have a contract for the month he is claiming
I have almost $1,000 invested in 2 appraisals on the property
I hired a company to come in and clean the carpets professionally with receipt
I took pictures which it looked cleaner than when we moved in
I have family and friends that were there to see us out
Emails and text messages of him claiming he did the walk through and wasnt concerned with anything
Per Michigan Law- I was never given an itemized accounting of my deductions from my security deposit within 30 days
I have never been to court so I am really unaware of how this all works. Does it sound like he has a shot of getting this 3 that he claims is owed? Do I bring family into the courtroom to speak on our behalf? My Fiance' is battling Cancer and we just dont need this in our lives. At this point I would even consider paying it just so the stress is off her mind.
I am sorry that this is so long but any consideration given to this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all in advance!!!
Matt
Around the 11th month mark, the landlord approached me and asked if I would consider purchasing it. His asking price was 125K. I own a mortgage company and I did consider buying the property to use it as another rental. After working on the deal (which I was approved by the way) I came into a problem with the value. The condo's in the area were comping out around 80-95K. It was worth more but the market wouldnt hold it.
Our home was running behind schedule in regads to the new construction so I decided to extend the lease into a Month to Month and in result, he raised the rent to 1,500K a month (which I also paid that ontime for 3 months). The first month we signed a contact for that month but after that, we had NO contract.
Ok, to make a long story short.
We moved out and into our new home. After about a week he called me several times claiming the home was damaged, smelled like urine from our dog (which is only 3lbs and is potty trained) and he stated that he was keeping my security deposit of 685.00 as well as he wanted my months rent of 1500 (which I was moved out that month and paid for the month I lived there) as well as another 1500 to replace the carpet in the whole house.
It seems like everything changed when he found out that I didnt want to buy his home. The realtor cussed me out in email, their attitudes all changed towards us and now this is happening..
So this is what I have.
I recently recieved a Small Claims suit in the mail for the reasons and amount of:
3,000 in damages
Not willing to work with him on pay
and price of New carpet
I would consider myself a successful person with nice things. The whole condo was furnished with everything from Crate and Barrel, higher end things and we live very clean. We even had a cleaning lady come in every 2 weeks for a good over haul.
Run down:
He never Refunded my security deposit
We DO NOT have a contract for the month he is claiming
I have almost $1,000 invested in 2 appraisals on the property
I hired a company to come in and clean the carpets professionally with receipt
I took pictures which it looked cleaner than when we moved in
I have family and friends that were there to see us out
Emails and text messages of him claiming he did the walk through and wasnt concerned with anything
Per Michigan Law- I was never given an itemized accounting of my deductions from my security deposit within 30 days
I have never been to court so I am really unaware of how this all works. Does it sound like he has a shot of getting this 3 that he claims is owed? Do I bring family into the courtroom to speak on our behalf? My Fiance' is battling Cancer and we just dont need this in our lives. At this point I would even consider paying it just so the stress is off her mind.
I am sorry that this is so long but any consideration given to this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all in advance!!!
Matt
