The joys of renting from the ‘Mom and Pop’ outfits

[TheBreeze]

Since 25% of housing in San Diego is underwater, I wonder how many more stories we’re going to see where the landlord stops paying the mortgage but keeps collecting rent (like Navydoc’s landlord did) or where the landlord doesn’t give back the deposit (like this guy is worried about):

We have been renting for over a year and just today got a 30 day notice from the property owners because they are in escrow to sell the house (no surprise, we have beenvery cooperative showing the home, letting agent, inspectors in, etc).

I am very concerned about the security deposit – for three main reasons:

1. We received a collections notice at door intended for them and it is clear they are in financial trouble — they are trying to do a short sale and the termite inspector last week told me there was a live termite infestation in the house — I can see how they would be motivated to try to keep some of the $2,800

2. They had their agent conduct a walk-through for condition of the property and many of the things he listed as damaged were actually from the owner’s handyman (patched a hole but never painted over it, a closet door he removed) — we marked on the form the correct info and emailed the owner tomake sure all was clear but we can see how things are going to get confused dealing with 3rd parties (we have also had issues of the husband promising to fix something, only to get an email a week later from the wife saying no, they are not going to do it).

3. During a real estate showing somebody broke a light switch, we informed the owners immediately but can imagine the mess that is going to be made from more escrow-related people walking through the house, inspections, etc and we do not want any of this to come out of our deposit since they have 20 days to return it.

Can anyone with experience in this please help me with what we can do to recover the security deposit at move-out. Can we ask for the final walk-through to be on the day we move out and refuse to surrender the property otherwise? We understand they could then proceed with evistion but doubt they would want to spend the money / time on this. And frankly we want to protect ourtselves against having to take them to court over portions of the security deposit they will try to keep.

Can we ask them to agree to return the deposit on move-out date and if they do not agree we threaten to submit a letter to their escrow office and the buyer’s agent with many disclosures that they are surely not making and could end up costing them for expensive repairs once brought to the buyer’s attention (is an escrow officer or RE agent required to share with a buyer info submitted by a renter?)

ARGH – we just want to move out and not have to think or deal with all of this once we are gone.

Thanks so much in advance for advice and input — our ultimate goal is to buy a house this year or next so we are also worried that anything negative here will affect us in trying to purchase a home (an eviction in our history?? we have perfect credit / records otherwise, and don’t think they could file anything that would affect us in a home purchase… we would not discuss anything with the buyers until we have signed a lease on a new rental so we would be ok there too, right? they could not call our new landlord and do anything to reverse a lease?)

Note that we own a rental property ourselves in Texas and we have never kept a penny of anyone’s security deposit so while we are very respectful of the law protecting landlords we pretty much see the writing on the wall as tenants with these particular landlords and just want to protect ourselves.

THANKS!!

http://www.sdlookup.com/Forums/General/tabid/57/forumid/624/tpage/1/view/topic/postid/56470/Default.aspx#56470

I imagine as these types of stories become more prevalent, we’ll either see (1) rents on underwater houses going down because people will be afraid to rent from an underwater landlord and/or (2) prospective renters refusing to pay security deposits to under water landlord due to fear of not getting it back.

We might actually see a two-tier rental market in San Diego — a higher tier for landlords who are well above water and a lower tier for landlords who are underwater or close to it. I know that I would definitely push for a harder bargain from an underwater landlord knowing that I could get kicked out in the middle of the lease. I would also be very reluctant to pay them any kind of meaningful security deposit.

Thank God our government subsidized so many mini-Donald Trumps (through the GSEs and other programs). Where would we all be without them?

[NotCranky]

I like your two tier rental theory. Of course there are lots of variables. I actually mentioned the possibility on the Mira Mesa rent thread.

Tenants should have better rights in the case of deposits. It should be in a joint account. That way if the tenant had to take the landlord to small claims the award could be sitting in a bank and the judge could order the release to the tenant or the owner, whoever prevailed.Maybe some new laws would have to be written? I could see where leveraging the hassles of court against the deposit could come into play,probably in favor of the tenant, but as it is, the landlord has too much leverage on the money.

[NotCranky]

I like your two tier rental theory. Of course there are lots of variables. I actually mentioned the possibility on the Mira Mesa rent thread.

Tenants should have better rights in the case of deposits. It should be in a joint account. That way if the tenant had to take the landlord to small claims the award could be sitting in a bank and the judge could order the release to the tenant or the owner, whoever prevailed.Maybe some new laws would have to be written? I could see where leveraging the hassles of court against the deposit could come into play,probably in favor of the tenant, but as it is, the landlord has too much leverage on the money.

[NotCranky]

I like your two tier rental theory. Of course there are lots of variables. I actually mentioned the possibility on the Mira Mesa rent thread.

Tenants should have better rights in the case of deposits. It should be in a joint account. That way if the tenant had to take the landlord to small claims the award could be sitting in a bank and the judge could order the release to the tenant or the owner, whoever prevailed.Maybe some new laws would have to be written? I could see where leveraging the hassles of court against the deposit could come into play,probably in favor of the tenant, but as it is, the landlord has too much leverage on the money.

[NotCranky]

I like your two tier rental theory. Of course there are lots of variables. I actually mentioned the possibility on the Mira Mesa rent thread.

Tenants should have better rights in the case of deposits. It should be in a joint account. That way if the tenant had to take the landlord to small claims the award could be sitting in a bank and the judge could order the release to the tenant or the owner, whoever prevailed.Maybe some new laws would have to be written? I could see where leveraging the hassles of court against the deposit could come into play,probably in favor of the tenant, but as it is, the landlord has too much leverage on the money.

[NotCranky]

I like your two tier rental theory. Of course there are lots of variables. I actually mentioned the possibility on the Mira Mesa rent thread.

Tenants should have better rights in the case of deposits. It should be in a joint account. That way if the tenant had to take the landlord to small claims the award could be sitting in a bank and the judge could order the release to the tenant or the owner, whoever prevailed.Maybe some new laws would have to be written? I could see where leveraging the hassles of court against the deposit could come into play,probably in favor of the tenant, but as it is, the landlord has too much leverage on the money.

[EconProf]

As your situation evolves, documentation is everything. Rely only on what is in writing, communicate from now on by mail or (saved) emails, and develop a paper trail.
You cannot unilaterally alter existing contracts and laws, such as trying to get your security deposit back before the 3-week maximum called for by CA law.
You can put every complaint or proposal in writing and ask that they reply in kind. The very fact that they know you are savvy and documenting everything will help keep them honest.
You should immediately reread carefully your existing contract and any related papers so you are fully informed of your current rights and obligations.

[EconProf]

As your situation evolves, documentation is everything. Rely only on what is in writing, communicate from now on by mail or (saved) emails, and develop a paper trail.
You cannot unilaterally alter existing contracts and laws, such as trying to get your security deposit back before the 3-week maximum called for by CA law.
You can put every complaint or proposal in writing and ask that they reply in kind. The very fact that they know you are savvy and documenting everything will help keep them honest.
You should immediately reread carefully your existing contract and any related papers so you are fully informed of your current rights and obligations.

[EconProf]

As your situation evolves, documentation is everything. Rely only on what is in writing, communicate from now on by mail or (saved) emails, and develop a paper trail.
You cannot unilaterally alter existing contracts and laws, such as trying to get your security deposit back before the 3-week maximum called for by CA law.
You can put every complaint or proposal in writing and ask that they reply in kind. The very fact that they know you are savvy and documenting everything will help keep them honest.
You should immediately reread carefully your existing contract and any related papers so you are fully informed of your current rights and obligations.

[EconProf]

As your situation evolves, documentation is everything. Rely only on what is in writing, communicate from now on by mail or (saved) emails, and develop a paper trail.
You cannot unilaterally alter existing contracts and laws, such as trying to get your security deposit back before the 3-week maximum called for by CA law.
You can put every complaint or proposal in writing and ask that they reply in kind. The very fact that they know you are savvy and documenting everything will help keep them honest.
You should immediately reread carefully your existing contract and any related papers so you are fully informed of your current rights and obligations.

[EconProf]

As your situation evolves, documentation is everything. Rely only on what is in writing, communicate from now on by mail or (saved) emails, and develop a paper trail.
You cannot unilaterally alter existing contracts and laws, such as trying to get your security deposit back before the 3-week maximum called for by CA law.
You can put every complaint or proposal in writing and ask that they reply in kind. The very fact that they know you are savvy and documenting everything will help keep them honest.
You should immediately reread carefully your existing contract and any related papers so you are fully informed of your current rights and obligations.

[svelte]

Landlords trying to keep the deposit – even when you leave the property in better shape that when you moved in – is nothing new.

It happened to us several times in the 1980s.

I came up with a solution though, and used it several times successfully. When the last month’s rent was due, I wrote the landlord a letter and told them to use the security deposit as the last month’s rent. They weren’t thrilled and they could still take us to court if we had damaged the property, but the places were always spic-n-span when we left so we never had a problem.

It basically turned the tables: they would have to take me to court and defend their deductions of the deposit, as opposed to me having to take them to court to get my deposit back.

[svelte]

Landlords trying to keep the deposit – even when you leave the property in better shape that when you moved in – is nothing new.

It happened to us several times in the 1980s.

I came up with a solution though, and used it several times successfully. When the last month’s rent was due, I wrote the landlord a letter and told them to use the security deposit as the last month’s rent. They weren’t thrilled and they could still take us to court if we had damaged the property, but the places were always spic-n-span when we left so we never had a problem.

It basically turned the tables: they would have to take me to court and defend their deductions of the deposit, as opposed to me having to take them to court to get my deposit back.

[svelte]

Landlords trying to keep the deposit – even when you leave the property in better shape that when you moved in – is nothing new.

It happened to us several times in the 1980s.

I came up with a solution though, and used it several times successfully. When the last month’s rent was due, I wrote the landlord a letter and told them to use the security deposit as the last month’s rent. They weren’t thrilled and they could still take us to court if we had damaged the property, but the places were always spic-n-span when we left so we never had a problem.

It basically turned the tables: they would have to take me to court and defend their deductions of the deposit, as opposed to me having to take them to court to get my deposit back.

[svelte]

Landlords trying to keep the deposit – even when you leave the property in better shape that when you moved in – is nothing new.

It happened to us several times in the 1980s.

I came up with a solution though, and used it several times successfully. When the last month’s rent was due, I wrote the landlord a letter and told them to use the security deposit as the last month’s rent. They weren’t thrilled and they could still take us to court if we had damaged the property, but the places were always spic-n-span when we left so we never had a problem.

It basically turned the tables: they would have to take me to court and defend their deductions of the deposit, as opposed to me having to take them to court to get my deposit back.

[Author]

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