I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartment

[Trekker4747]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

I hope I get my deposit back.

Don't count on it.

Again, it probably varies from state-to-state/area-to-area but I believe the "standard" is that they have to tell you within a certain time (probably a couple weeks) if you get it back, and if not why; or else they have to give it back to you no matter what.

 

[Peacemaker]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

In NC, it's standard for them to refund the deposit...usually, they deduct any repairs, cleaning, etc. from it...so: Brent read this well: CLEAN YOUR PLACE IMMACULATELY WHEN YOU MOVE!

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

Personally, if I were him, I'd just say sod it and leave the palce. So long as there's no major damage he can just walk away and never hear from them again.

Unless he desperately needs the money he has in the deposit. When I left my first apartment I wanted out of there so bad I just got my stuff out of there, vaccumed the floors and got the hell out. Didn't care a wit about the $150 deposit. They could keep it.

My second place, cooly enough, told me to not even bother cleaning or repainting (so long as I had left the walls their original color) as they bring in professional cleaners and painters for every unit when it is vacated and change the carpet every-other tenant and I moved in with new carpets.

 

[Timby]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

I hope I get my deposit back.

Don't count on it.

Again, it probably varies from state-to-state/area-to-area but I believe the "standard" is that they have to tell you within a certain time (probably a couple weeks) if you get it back, and if not why; or else they have to give it back to you no matter what.

The standard law, in at least 20-some states, is that the landlord has 30 days to make an account of damages / reasons for withholding a portion / all of the security deposit and send it to the former tenant in writing. However, in my experience in Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois, as well as anecdotes from friends across the country -- a landlord will find any excuse humanly possible to withhold the deposit. The landlord of the residence in which my wife and I lived prior to our current home (the one I mentioned taking to court earlier in this thread) claimed that we had failed to shampoo the carpets in the apartment prior to vacating the premises -- despite the fact that I had presented him with receipts of not only having had a service come in to do so, but also renting a Rug Doctor ourselves for an additional cleaning the next day. After he hemmed and hawed, despite the receipts, and claiming $200 in damages for having to vacuum cat hair out of the place (and his inability to produce the "two bags full of hair" that he claimed in his written account), that's when I called a lawyer, got a consultation of Wisconsin landlord / tenant law and took that assbag to court. (I won my deposit, plus lawyer and court fees, after nearly 7 months. That's also when I learned to call a lawyer the instant a dispute with a landlord arises.)

Another prior landlord, my first, withheld the deposit on the grounds that damage had been done to the floor in the living room due to wiring for cable service (some drilling had to be done) -- work that he had agreed to, verbally.

 

[Brent]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

Personally, if I were him, I'd just say sod it and leave the palce. So long as there's no major damage he can just walk away and never hear from them again.

Unless he desperately needs the money he has in the deposit. When I left my first apartment I wanted out of there so bad I just got my stuff out of there, vaccumed the floors and got the hell out. Didn't care a wit about the $150 deposit. They could keep it.

My second place, cooly enough, told me to not even bother cleaning or repainting (so long as I had left the walls their original color) as they bring in professional cleaners and painters for every unit when it is vacated and change the carpet every-other tenant and I moved in with new carpets.

I put down a $650 deposit when I got the place, so I'm really hoping I get some of it back. I'll make sure to clean real well. I'll also ask them about it straight up.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

Whatever response they give you, GET IT IN WRITING.

 

[Timby]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

A landlord, especially one so shady as to lease a place under you without tendering notice, will do anything in its power to withhold a deposit. Mark my words.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

Also--check your lease to see if you have the right to be present for your inspection. If I were in your place, you better believe I would be there hovering over them the WHOLE way.

 

[JustKate]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

^ Definitely. Also, if they say something like "There's a spot here on this carpeting," this give you a chance to say, "That's not a spot - the carpet has just been brushed the wrong way right there."

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

Personally, if I were him, I'd just say sod it and leave the palce. So long as there's no major damage he can just walk away and never hear from them again.

Unless he desperately needs the money he has in the deposit. When I left my first apartment I wanted out of there so bad I just got my stuff out of there, vaccumed the floors and got the hell out. Didn't care a wit about the $150 deposit. They could keep it.

My second place, cooly enough, told me to not even bother cleaning or repainting (so long as I had left the walls their original color) as they bring in professional cleaners and painters for every unit when it is vacated and change the carpet every-other tenant and I moved in with new carpets.

I put down a $650 deposit when I got the place, so I'm really hoping I get some of it back. I'll make sure to clean real well. I'll also ask them about it straight up.

I'd suggest calling/getting a profesional cleaning service to do the place for you and keep the receipts. So that way you know the place is done well and professionaly and you've a paper-trail that you cleaned the place. Eve you've any holes in the walls from haging pictures wouldn't be a bad idea, either, to spackle them closed and repaint the wall. May not also be a bad idea to, when all is said in done, to walk the place with your landlord/property manager, and have him point out any problems he has. If he okays everything ask for it in writing to get your deposit back.

 

[Timby]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

^ Definitely. Also, if they say something like "There's a spot here on this carpeting," this give you a chance to say, "That's not a spot - the carpet has just been brushed the wrong way right there."

Since I've been burned in the past, whenever I move into an apartment, I make it a point to bring a camera -- with the datestamp active -- with me on the initial walk-in, and I take pictures of every considerable angle of each room, as well as any blemishes seen on furnished appliances, walls, ceilings or carpets.

The landlord that I took to court (the one I mentioned a few times earlier) tried to claim an 11x8" stain in the corner of the living room carpet as a damage. When we went to court, I showed the picture I took -- of him, the day of our walk-through, standing above the stain, dated the day before we moved in, with an empty apartment -- as proof that it was pre-existing in the property.

 

[kimc]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

This month after replacing the washer and hot water heater plus having the AC serviced I was missing renting. I've over that now after reading this thread!

 

[Tim]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

A landlord, especially one so shady as to lease a place under you without tendering notice, will do anything in its power to withhold a deposit. Mark my words.

Yep. Widespread, pseudo-sanctioned fraud. My current apartment had no room condition form when I moved in. Given the fact that the walls and carpet were not fresh, I made a point of documenting everything as I don't like people trying to fuck me over.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

So happy this turned out well, but I did want to add just one thing, just because it's kind of interesting, at least to me.

From what I understand from people I've known who own rental property, it's really not very easy to evict someone, even if that person hasn't paid rent regularly (which I realize you have). At least it isn't around here, and Indiana isn't usually the most liberal state when it comes to consumer law. So you probably could have fought it, but heck, since you don't like the apartment anyway and managed to find something, yay that you don't have to bother!

It's not easy to evict someone if you have a contract. If it's just month-to-month, either side can end it at the end of the month.

 

[Holdfast]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

Just to add a landlord's perspective to the discussion on deposits, some tenants leave properties in appalling conditions and do everything to hide damage. I let out a property and have the property management company do a full independent professional inventory between tenancies. This usually reveals a multitude of sins and gives me lots of room to deduct from deposits without the tenants having recourse to bitch about it (since there's also an arrival inventory to compare with).

Landlords try to claim as much as they can because tenants try to get away with as much as they can.

 

[Tim]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

Landlords try to claim as much as they can because tenants try to get away with as much as they can.

So as a tenant, I should try to get away with more stuff instead of being honest! Silly me!

 

[Holdfast]

Re: I have a question about staying after a lease expires on an apartm

Landlords try to claim as much as they can because tenants try to get away with as much as they can.

So as a tenant, I should try to get away with more stuff instead of being honest! Silly me!

Absolutely; it's all part of The Great Game!

You're a bad capitalist if you're not playing along, and should hand in your passport and accept voluntary exile to some communist shell of a country.