Tenant cause of action

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

tenantnewbie

New Member
Good morning. I am sending an email to kindly ask for some help regarding tenant rights or cause of action. Here is my scenario. I am a Dallas, TX resident.

I have lived in a house for 4 years. I paid all my rent on time never once I was late, no complains from neighbors and keep the rental house in good condition with doing yard work. I have been unemployed since January and I continue to honor the lease and pay on time. I have been getting odd jobs here and there to pay rent. However recently I decided to leave because the landlord in trying to increase the rent. September is the last month of the lease. I sent an email and politely asked the landlord if she can apply my deposit towards final month's rent and I will send a check for the remaining balance to cover the rest. I told her my situation and asked her if she will consider since I don't have the money to pay deposit to the new place and at the same time come up with the rent. She is threatening to put the entire last month's rent on collection. She is very mean and unwilling to compromise. I don't know what to do, I have been a good tenant. I don't have the money to cover the entire months rent without using the deposit.

Please help with any advice on what I should do. I feel like I am being made to be the bad guy. I am paying the last month's rent but just asking the landlord to apply the deposit to the rent. I will appreciate any help on this matter. Thank you in advance.
 
In Texas, a tenant cannot use the security deposit for the last month of rent without the written permission of the landlord.

What your landlord is likely concerned about is that if this deposit is used for the rent, this will leave them nothing to fall back on should there be damage above normal wear and tear after you vacate the premises. The security deposit would be used to repair such damages.

If you have kept the rental unit in good shape you might ask the landlord to do a walk through with you to show her that there will be no damages that they have to address after you move out.

Gail
 
Gail,

Thank you for the reply. I have a follow up question based on the question I asked above. I also followed your recommendation and talked to landlord. I also went above and beyond in making sure I cleaned the entire house, cleaned the carpet, cleaned the garage, trimmed the trees and brushes. I asked the landlord to do a walk through and she did and asked me to re-clean a few spots in the house which I did do before returning the key.

After 30 days I received a letter in the mail asking for $1000 in charges for things that never came up in the walk through. For example late rent going back to 2005 and 2006. This is not true because I was never late. The lease requires that my rent check miled thru US mail is post marked by the 3rd of the month. I always mail on the 1st of the month. This landlord is a fraud and I want to know how I can fight this. She is threatening to put it into collection and ruin my credit. I want to know how I can protect my integrity and protect my credit history. Thank you in advance. Happy Thanksgiving.
 
For a "small time" landlord (i.e., not a large apartment complex that may keep a collection agency on"retainer"), collection agencies typically require proof of a court judgement before they will take on a case.

In other words, your landlord would have to sue you...and win in court...before being able to turn this over to a collection agency. I REALLY cannot imagine a court granting a judgement based on late fees from three and four years ago. Your landlord would have to show proof that 1. you were consistently late on your rent and 2. that they notified you of such, thus giving you a chance to remedy this situation.

Notify your former landlord that you disagree with these charges and that you have retained all of your rent checks with the dates they were written and sent, thus having the proof to show a court that you were never late on your rent.

Gail
 
Gail,

Thank you and I am truly grateful for your reply. I would like to restate my case that I initially did not have the last month rent so I asked the landlord to use my deposit of $1500 towards the last month rent and I would pay the difference to the current rent which was $300. She did not negotiate. I am willing to pay the $300 to close out but not willing to pay the additional charges she has.

I recently got a letter with
$ 1800 rent
$ 200 carpet cleaning
$ 100 misc cleaning
$ 370 late charges
$ 30 weeds in the backyard

less $1500 deposit Amount owed $1000. I am just going to wait for her to sue me then. She did not send me a certified letter which means can I ignore her letter? Can she report me to the credit agency without sueing me first? Thanks again for your replies.
 
Excuse me for finding the lunacy of your landlord funny. I know it is a serious situation to you, but did she REALLY hit you up for $30 for WEEDS IN THE BACK YARD!!!! OMG. Ok, I'll come back to normal.

I would not wait for her to sue you, I would sue her. I find her tactics particularly objectionable and I'm pretty certain a judge would also. As Gail said, she has NO WAY of collecting late fees from years ago unless she can prove the same. If you have checks to prove she is lying the Judge will be very angry with her. Carpet cleaning is "normal" wear and tear and is rarely if ever allowed to be deducted from the deposit. Misc cleaning is also not a deduction if you left the house in good clean order.

Your landlord does have a point about using the deposit for the last month's rent and she can and should charge you a late fee for not paying it. She also can report that you were late with your last payment to your next landlord. The rest of what she is trying to do boarders on the criminal.

Good luck, your landlady is a nitwit. Good riddens to her.
 
One way or another you will have to pay for the rent for the time you were there, and any late fees.
Your landlord will be SOL for the weeds and carpet cleaning, assuming the carpet is normal wear and not a giant ink spot.
She will have to list what the miscellaneous charges are too.

Play your cards right... don't fall for her tricks.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Share this page

Get a free case review from a lawyer
Back
Top