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Suing my landlord: Do we have a case?
Brodo Faggins
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So we've lived in this apartment complex for over 10 years now - me, my sister, and my mom. Kept quiet, never disturbed the neighbors, were never late with the rent, etc. The county we're in doesn't have rent control, so rent was always absurdly high but because we were so close to a good high school, my mom didn't see fit to move us. Two years ago, my aunt moved in to the same complex, into a 2-bedroom place across the hall from us, and recently moved out.
The landlord's sister occupies one of the apartments, and she is the manager of the place. She's loud and rude, yet consistently bangs on everyone's doors to be quiet.
Fast forward to now, we decide to move into another unit downstairs in the same complex, and here's where the troubles begin.
1. They charged us $600 to paint the new 3-bedroom apartment. I found out this is illegal, according to state law.
2. They charged us $150 for two window screens which were damaged by the previous tenants, and claimed that they were in fact, new, and that I had damaged them. The wear and tear on them clearly show their age, yet we've lived here for all of 3 months now. I suppose this is my fault for not taking pictures of everything when we moved in. They also charged us $50 for our two garage remotes, which we returned to the manager. Obviously she won't have any recollection of this, and again, I guess it's my fault for not recording the fucking event (this is what it has come down to, I'm going to have to fucking record every interaction I have with these people).
3. They haven't given us, or my aunt, our copies of the contract. That means they're 3 months late for us, and 2 years late for my aunt. I'm suspecting they've violated it in full and are trying to string us along for as long as possible. Yes, we signed the contract, but didn't receive a copy upon signing, and despite calling them every week and asking politely for them to send a copy to us, have consistently failed to do so. They've only NOW just given us the invoice for the deposit, which is where we found out about the painting, screen window, and garage remote charges. This is after two months of constant calling and asking.
4. The other 3-bedroom apartments in this complex are cheaper. Way cheaper. By a good $500 (we're friends with one of them). We know there's no rent control, but I mean, DAMN.
5. According to the family that lived in our unit before we moved in, they've been screwed hardcore as well, but because the parents (like mine) are immigrants, decided to just go with the flow. I'm guessing the landlord's gotten complacent with this and has assumed that all immigrant families are this easy to fuck over. They're planning on suing the landlord with us.
TL;DR: Landlord charged us illegally, withheld the invoice and still haven't given us a copy of the contract, and are charging much higher rent than the rest of the complex. We don't even care about the money anymore, this has become a bit personal.
Do we have a case?
The landlord's sister occupies one of the apartments, and she is the manager of the place. She's loud and rude, yet consistently bangs on everyone's doors to be quiet.
Fast forward to now, we decide to move into another unit downstairs in the same complex, and here's where the troubles begin.
1. They charged us $600 to paint the new 3-bedroom apartment. I found out this is illegal, according to state law.
2. They charged us $150 for two window screens which were damaged by the previous tenants, and claimed that they were in fact, new, and that I had damaged them. The wear and tear on them clearly show their age, yet we've lived here for all of 3 months now. I suppose this is my fault for not taking pictures of everything when we moved in. They also charged us $50 for our two garage remotes, which we returned to the manager. Obviously she won't have any recollection of this, and again, I guess it's my fault for not recording the fucking event (this is what it has come down to, I'm going to have to fucking record every interaction I have with these people).
3. They haven't given us, or my aunt, our copies of the contract. That means they're 3 months late for us, and 2 years late for my aunt. I'm suspecting they've violated it in full and are trying to string us along for as long as possible. Yes, we signed the contract, but didn't receive a copy upon signing, and despite calling them every week and asking politely for them to send a copy to us, have consistently failed to do so. They've only NOW just given us the invoice for the deposit, which is where we found out about the painting, screen window, and garage remote charges. This is after two months of constant calling and asking.
4. The other 3-bedroom apartments in this complex are cheaper. Way cheaper. By a good $500 (we're friends with one of them). We know there's no rent control, but I mean, DAMN.
5. According to the family that lived in our unit before we moved in, they've been screwed hardcore as well, but because the parents (like mine) are immigrants, decided to just go with the flow. I'm guessing the landlord's gotten complacent with this and has assumed that all immigrant families are this easy to fuck over. They're planning on suing the landlord with us.
TL;DR: Landlord charged us illegally, withheld the invoice and still haven't given us a copy of the contract, and are charging much higher rent than the rest of the complex. We don't even care about the money anymore, this has become a bit personal.
Do we have a case?
Brodo Faggins on
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I'm just hoping someone on here has also unfortunately experienced this and how they resolved it.
Now, this is just my opinion, but it seems from the information I read up there that the bolded part is exactly what your landlord is banking on. Oh, we'll screw them over because they don't speak english and won't know it. So it seems to me that the only thing stopping you from acting on this is yourselves (that's not supposed to be an insult.) It's just kinda like how bad do you want to pursue this? You're probably going to have to take some time off.
As far as I know, lawyers love money, so I'm almost positive they can find someone to translate for your mother if she were to push this further. Also, as far as I know, you are indeed entitled to a copy of your contract and did you not do one of those walkthrough checklists before moving in? One where you make note of every detail that might be considered damaged?
Again, I have no experience with suing anybody, just my two cents.
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Best of luck
I would say you have a case in #1 and #3. 2 and 4 are possibilities - 2 because that's an egregious charge (repairing a screen costs less than $30 at a hardware store but you didn't have proof that they were damaged when you moved in).
The screens I can see, but how would you prove someone lost remotes anyway? You document that you give them to them, but how do you document that they were lost, other than having a sheet that says, "Never returned?"
gee
i wonder where he lives
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