Moving out expense

[HLS]

Nic…
What was the end result ?
Epilogue please!

[NicMM]

Thanks everyone for the advices. Now I have got my deposit back. Here are the details:

When the first day I went to check the work of the painting and floor, I pointed out the paint showed differently than the old one. The contractors said it’s because of difference of new and old paint. Maybe even the contractors themselves were not happy with that result, or maybe they found it took them much less time than they originally estimated, so they decided to do a better job. Anyways, since I just bought a house, I could be their returning customer for bigger projects. The next day when I came back, they surprised me with a very nice job. They painted the walls where they looked ugly from top to bottom. They also refinished the floor where it was scratched. The whole house looked even newer than the time I moved in! I was very happy.

I called the landlord in for the final walk. She was very happy to see the house was in such a good move-in-ready condition. But she still pointed out the door from the garage to the kitchen was dirty, which was overlooked by both my contractors and me. She said she would try to scrub, but if the dirt stays, she would charge me the price of a tin of paint. She also asked me to remove any garbage/boxes left at the house (out of the garbage cans), otherwise she would charge me disposal fee. Other than that she would return the rest of my deposit in 21 days.

In 3 weeks, I received my full deposit back. Not sure if my landlord managed to clean the dirty door, or she just let it go.

Over all, I spent $600 on contractors, $180 for cleaning, and $220 for days of rent when the house was empty, which add up to $1000. Still expensive, but much less than the total of the first round of quotes. I think the contractors for painting and flooring overcharged a little, as these two people charged me for two days work, while in fact it seems they could finish in one day. But they did do a good job in the end of the day. I did hire them back to help on my newly purchased home. I heard many anecdotes in Bay Area about some contractors disappeared in the middle of a project. In comparison to that, these two guys are not bad.

I know many people can manage to minimize the move out expense better than me. I am ok with that. I am satisfied that I could leave the headaches of past behind and focus on what I care and would like to spend my time and energy on: organizing for my future home, while work full time and take care of my two children.

[barnaby33]

Congrats NicMM. You finished this chapter happy and really that is all that counts. Having taken a landlord to court and won handily, let me just say it’s not that simple. Getting paid by the landlord is a whole other bucket of worms.
Josh

[NicMM]

Thanks everyone here for the advice and support.

I am not 100% sure my non confrontational personality is good or not. Take the school as an example. We were pretty unlucky on this. We purchased the house based on the assumption that my older one can go to a good public elementary school close by. But right before the school started, we were notified that he was assigned to the school 2nd closest to home, which is the weakest school in the district. During the first two days of school, from talking to my son, I found that classroom was noisy because of kids talk all the time during instruction time. He had no chance to ask questions as the teacher ignored his raising of hands. Those certainly made me even unhappier. I went to the school of my 1st choice and tried to ask about enrollment and future enrollment issues, the staff there said “The school is full. Maybe he (my son) will love the other school. It is a good school. It is ALL ABOUT ATTITUDE”; when I mentioned that students raising hands didn’t get chance to ask question, the comment was “It happens everywhere”. I felt very mad about this comment. Later I found a private school and transferred my son out. Even when I was asked why withdrew my son from the school, I didn’t say “classroom were not in good order” or “teacher seems to ignore students” but just simply “I want to put him in a private school”. This school does not have a good rating. But it seems the principle and staff are trying to improve it from what they were saying. Am I doing a disservice to the school or students there by not letting my true comments out? Given that I still believe in public school system.

[CA renter]

NicMM,

You have to do what feels right for your family, but the first two days of school are often not indicative of what the rest of the school year will be like. It’s also a good idea to volunteer in the classroom, just so you can see for yourself how things work.

Some teachers like a more “chaotic” environment, and some students truly thrive in such an environment. Some teachers want everything to be in perfect order, and have a process for pretty much everything that happens; some students do best in this type of environment, too. Most teachers are probably somewhere in between.

If you have a preference for a particular style of teaching (and make sure it’s what’s best for your child(ren), as opposed to what you grew up with or prefer), you can talk the principal to see if he/she would be willing to let your child change teachers. It’s not often that they’ll allow this, but it’s always worth a try.

FWIW, yes, I think you should politely express your feelings to the teacher and principal. They might be able to better explain things to you (there might have been perfectly valid reasons for the noise or the teacher’s inability to call on your child at that particular moment), or change things in the classroom if there are weaknesses there that they hadn’t known about.

Best of luck to you!

[Author]

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