I need help! My fiance and I just ended a 2 year long lease w/ a private renter back in November. Per the lease, she had 60 days to notify us whether we would be receiving any portion of our $1350.00 security deposit back. Or, a statement itemizing all costs the owner incurred to fix or repair the property.

We received a letter basically stating that we wrecked her property and left it in very poor condition. COMPLETE LIE!! In addition she provided receipts showing purchases made for cleaning supplies and misc. items that she claims we are responsible for. She purchased things like Easy Off, Windex, Paper Towels, Rags, etc. Everything in total added up to more than $8,000.00!!

She provided estimated costs of some things she feels we are responsible for, not receipts. In addition, she is charging us for two full months of rent. She said that is b/c it took her 2 1/2 months to get the unit in good enough condition to rent it out. A week before we moved out, the upstairs master bathroom sprung a leak. It ended up leaking thru the ceiling and caused water damage to the hardwood floors in the kitchen below. So, she feels b/c it took her 2 ½ months to get the floors repaired, we owe her for loss of rent for two months. She claims the company wasn’t able to begin working on the floors until mid-December, and couldn’t complete the work for several weeks. The combined costs of the floor repair and two months of rent are the biggest costs.

She is also charging us for regular maintenance that we feel she is responsible for as a landlord. Such as, replaced air filters, gaskets for sinks, maintenance done on the gas fireplace (which was working when we left), labor for cleaning the unit, etc.

The lease states that any or all of the security deposited can be retained if the property was misused or the receipts for repairs provided justifies the total deposit. No where in the lease does it state that she can charge us for anything above and beyond the deposit. My questions is, can we actually be held responsible for all of these charges, especially for the loss of rent, cleaning supplies, cleaning services or anything above the security deposit? She is also charging us to clean the carpets, even though it’s stated that we are responsible to get the carpets professionally cleaned before we moved. Which we did.

Please help!

Toledo

I can understand that this is frustrating. She can certainly try to claim all of this, but it will be up to the court to decide if you do not agree. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.

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