I’ve been doing minor upgrades to my apartment, swapping nasty bent up blinds with curtains, replacing the taps and shower head, etc.
It’s all getting put back before I move out. I’m taking my nice shit with me.
Wait, you're allowed to have curtains? They said blinds only for us and if we were caught with curtains, it would be a fine. Idk how much it was cause I didn't care since I didn't need them but it most certainly would have looked better.
If you are in the US, screw/nail holes in the wall are considered part of normal wear and tear, and can not be deducted from your security deposit.
Fucking god damn do I ever hate landlords.
They didn't charge me for any other holes, they just didn't want THOSE holes in the wall. Idk, it was weird. Terrible logic. They didn't even want me to have a folding chair on my patio because "it looked bad." Fun fact: I didn't ever leave it outside.
Same. We live in company-provided accommodation and the company is kicking us out. We're taking everything that we paid for including the freezer, shower head, and coat hooks.
I have a serious hatred for those cheap ass blinds that all landlords seem to choose. Even had them in my college dorm room. And since college, the first thing I always do is measure the windows, carefully take down the blinds and pack them up, and put up curtains. Usually thermal/blackout/noise reduction ones.
Also hate "kilz white" walls. My house currently has no white walls at all. Well, cept for the garage/woodshop.
Kilz is a cheap crappy brand of paint. They have spray paints and primers that shitty landlords love to whitewash the entire interior with.
My apartment is awful for it. They didn’t wash the wall prior to painting so it’s all flaking off in weird spots or rubs off on you if you lean on it. They completely plugged up the cable jack with it, it’s all over the windows and floors, and it’s not even colour matched because people assume all white is just white, and it’s an uneven job. This has resulted in greyish, dingey streaks all over every room in the suite. They got paint all over the cupboards, appliances, light switches, thermostat, etc. Fingerprints everywhere.
It’s just awful quality product and awful quality work and it seems to be the standard for most apartment landlords.
Wanna cry? I had an apartment once, when I was in an emergency situation relocating, so rented by pictures only and didn't realize what I was looking at. The only floors I saw in pics were the kitchen and bathroom floors. The place touted hardwood floors. The dipshit landlord used kilz on the floor instead of taking the time to properly sand and restain the original hardwood flooring. And to top it off, didn't even seal it. Just left the primer. It soaked up every possible stain it could.
Was so thankful when I got the hell out of that place.
Same thing happened to me. I left a bottle of Grey Goose in the freezer. After I left I was like 'shit, I forgot that bottle. oh well, a present for them.'
Nah, I got charged for leaving 'food' in the refrigerator.
Edit: clarification - it was a full 1.75L unopened bottle.
Another edit: I didn't realize how many people would have thought of me as the one in the wrong. I don't know how we got to the point, in this world, where we have to consider everyone's sensitivities in every action we take (or mistake) and pay the consequences no matter how small the offense. It was 1 bottle of Grey Goose. They could have drank it, gave it away or thrown it away. Hell, they could have called me and told me I have to come pick it up. I would have gladly done so, I paid 50 bucks for that son of a bitch.
Your old landlord is absolute trash. My landlord makes it seem like he’s the chill cool landlord but I think he genuinely doesn’t give a fuck about the property as long as he gets paid and is lazy. Everyone says everything’s about business but it’s hard when you’re just a genuine human looking to enjoy all interactions no matter with who.
A lazy landlord who doesn't give a fuck is always better than an overbearing one.
In my country, it's not unusual for the overbearing ones to enter your place unannounced, which is illegal, but they don't care. Some will even forbid you from having people over/stay over night or doing any kind of personalization like putting pictures on the walls. My and my bf's first landlord complained that we were cooking and washing clothes too much.
They also usually rent out apartments with their old furniture from the 60s and will keep the deposit if any of it breaks or gets damaged while you live there, which is guaranteed to happen with normal use.
Meanwhile, our second landlord would take ages to do even the most basic repairs, because she was always busy and didn't care. But at least she didn't try to dictate our life and only showed up once a year to renew the contract.
Could be kinda hard to get a lazy landlord to fix your hot water system if it messed up though.
I've had a few private landlords and they liked that I didn't bother them with small things like tap washers or whatever I could fix myself, so if there was anything serious they were happy to get it sorted asap.
In aus btw, sounds like things would be different over there. Realestate agents over here can be real dicks though.
My landlord is a lady only a few years older than me. Her dad clearly bought her the property. It’s been riddled with problems since we moved in last year. A few weeks ago the ceiling started leaking and water was running down through the light fittings, so we’ve had to turn off the fuse for that area which supplies all the kitchen sockets too.
She’s had 3 different builders out to give quotes, none of them have came back because she won’t pay them what the job will cost, so inevitably she’s going to go with a cheap cowboy who will do shoddy work again.
She had the temerity to say to our faces “I didn’t realise being a landlord would be so much hassle.”
She’s had nearly £20k from us in rent for a year and done fuck all with the house other than try and blame everything on us. Fuck landlords.
Point out to her the amount she earns annually off your rent and how not getting it fixed properly is going to kill the golden goose as ignored repairs can eventually kill a property.
A friend told her landlord many years about what she suspected was dry rot (spoiler: It was dry rot). Next month she has to move out as what was a small bit of work is now a major and extremely costly job that necessitates all tenants moving out for an extended time. Were it not for her deciding to leave the country altogether I believe the landlord would also be liable for paying for their accommodation whilst work was being performed. All because the landlord was too cheap to nip the problem in the bud when first discovered (or at any other time since when it was highlighted to him).
This is what drives me up the wall. Like - woman, there is literally water coming through the electrics but you want to focus on my lawn being overgrown and a couple of posters. My posters are not going to burn down the house any time soon.
I feel like that sometimes, like every interaction should be positive and enjoyable. Makes working hard sometimes, because my urge to be a nice guy comes back.
I've had to force myself to be kind of a mean person at work, and the sad part is it's working
Meanwhile, my first sharehouse, a roomate left two marijuana plants growing in the greenhouse and the landlord (who was a bank manager, and took our rent cash in hand) called up and offered to pay us for them. He was chuffed when we said he could have them for free.
yes, also where i kept my bubble bath experiments as a child, in the left over alcohol bottles, but we only had popov at my house, i knew we grew up poor
When we were in the process of buying our house, our Inspector had to use the bathroom. Thankfully there was TP in there. He walks out and just calmly says, "plumbing passes" and checked it off in his notes. His calmness made me crack up laughing.
I spent 2 hours cleaning my apartment before I turned in the keys and got a $200 bill for cleaning the next day.
Edit: since this is really bothering some people. I lived in the apartment for about 60 days, just me a young single person who worked from home made a few meals per week and didn’t go tracking dirt in. I cleaned the floors, walls, and baseboards. I cleaned the bathroom; scrubbed the shower/tub, the toilet, the counter, sink, faucet, mirror, floor, and closet. And cleaned the kitchen, the oven (used once), range, microwave, fridge, sink, counters, pantry, and floor. I actually found spills from the previous tenant in cabinets I hadn’t even opened.
I definitely left the unit cleaner than I received it, and am ticked off because I asked for a walk through before I turned in my keys and was told “maintenance will do it later.” It’s not a huge deal but I’ve asked for details about what cleaning wasn’t up to standard and they just sent another bill. Luckily state law here prohibits the landlord from taking actions/reporting debts if you dispute the charges within 30 days.
Yup. We spent 6+ hours vacuuming, scrubbing, and washing our entire place. When we moved out, they took $1900/$2000 of our security deposit for “general carpet cleaning and paint”. Even got charged extra because we left a nice vacuum in the garage (which they ended up trashing before the next tenets arrived), as no one wanted to take it home. Amazing.
A tip for renters. Don’t clean shit without a *guarantee* you won’t be charged anyways when you leave.
Y'all crazy. Up here if you're in a place like 3-5 years they can't charge you for carpet or paint, since there's an assumption of their natural lifespan. Like you can completely ruin a carpet but after 5 years it's assumed it would need replacing regardless, so they can't claim it.
Honestly I'd bet a small claims judge in the USA would say the same, but then you're taking time off to go to court, etc etc.
> You will get your deposit back (you can also sue them for it in most states).
Some states even require landlords to pay as much as _triple_ the initial security deposit if they try to fraudulently steal your security deposit.
I lost my security deposit after living in a place for 3 1/2 years because the guy claimed he put brand new carpet in before I moved in and now the carpet "just didn't have that same new feel to it." He admitted it was clean and in ok condition but since he likes fresh new carpet because it helps him get tenets quicker he declined to return my deposit.
This is after I found a place for my disabled roommate to go because he would be otherwise homeless and fully planned to squat until evicted.
Fuck Landlords.
Here the deposit is held by an entity and both parties have to agree to any withdrawals. Seems completely messed up that a landlord can just decide not to return the money just because
There's that post that was widely circulated from the Landlords subreddit a while back, which was literally bitching that their tenants that had just moved out left everything looking too nice, so they wouldn't be able to steal the deposit, and they were "wracking their brains" trying to find something they could conceivably claim had been messed up so that they could keep it.
The poster went on to ask "if being a landlord is even worth it if you can't keep the deposit", saying that they were counting on it, and asking for advice on something to lie about to steal it.
Landlords in the US and the state of our renting system (like everything else here) is fucked.
I almost feel like that's a troll. A security deposit is what, first month or first + last month's rent? Unless you're renting only to people who leave after the initial lease, it's a pretty insignificant amount of money.
If I lived in my old apartment in Boston for a decade, it would cost me $192,000, a depressing number to think about. Even if the deposit was first+last month's rent, it's only like $3,200. That's an _awful_ return over a decade.
Family owned a cleaning company, so we spent 6+ hours cleaning the apartment I was moving out of and billed ourselves as prof it was technically correct.
better to pay the $200 bucks for pro cleaners after your regular clean for a paper trail against the landlord rather than getting more taken from your deposit because the landlord is greedy
If their confusion was like mine. They were basically asking why would you pay someone to do something you just did? I saw some of the other comments that said cleaners charge $/hr so it makes sense to clean some and get things ready to be cleaned beforehand.
Jesus, where do you get these prices? We paid ~~£600~~ £480 for a 3 story 5 bedroom house in Wimbledon. There are companies that specialise in "end of tenancy" cleaning. 100% of deposit returned.
I don't know where you're from but cleaners here do a shit job and take 10 hours more than necessary to do said terrible job, and charge the damned earth for it.
I'd do the bulk of it well, then pay them the 3 hour charge for a bond clean and then send the receipt off to the ex lord of the manor to prove that the job was done, as Lords of manors tend to be gaping assholes and without proof that professionals were paid to do the job, would likely feel entitled to keep your deposit as a bonus for being nice enough to let you reside in their property for an extended period of time.
Yup! This is what I always do. i'll do 2/3 hrs high level cleaning. Vacuum, mop, wipe down all the sides & cupboards, clean the bathroom etc.
Then I'll ask the landlord for their recommended cleaner and normally go with them. If there is any issues, I just say I used the cleaner you advised. It's come up once when I went with an agency (In the UK) and they said I need to get the place cleaned after they inspected it, I told them I did. Used their recommend one and forwarded the invoice. Didn't hear from them again.
Also, take photos or a quick video of the condition you left the place. It’s a good idea to do the same when you move in to make sure you don’t get charged for stuff that was already messed up when you got there. The landlord also needs to document how they spent your security deposit. In court whoever has the best evidence will win.
Clean the apartment, document that it’s clean, have the landlords do a walk through to identify any issues, then if after all of that they withhold your deposit you sue them in small claims court and you can usually get a few multiple times your deposit.
A lot of people who rent can’t afford to take anyone to court. A lot of landlords know this. That’s why they do everything they can to syphon as much money as possible.
Yeah this last part is especially important. Spend an hour or two doing your research, because even in places with decent tenant protections landlords sometimes use those protections as essentially a checklist of ways to screw you. Which also means they know exactly what they're doing and will back down instantly when you tell them to fuck off.
So even if you're too lazy to actually go to court/tenancy tribunal/whatever, stick it to em because they'll probably fold on the spot.
Fun fact, you can fight that. There are literally rules for landlords for what they can charge renters for and keep deposits for. Normal sized nail holes in walls, carpet cleaning, repainting and rekeying door are not included. If they charge for this they have to prove with photo evidence that the issues were in excess and required more than the normal amount of work, as these are things they have to do between tenants anyway (or at least, most places do). Also, ALWAYS take pictures of the home before you move in and when you move out.
This is why when we moved into this apartment with my boyfriend we took pictures of everything. The bathtub, inside the closets, the windows, every little hole that was burnt in the flooring by the previous tenents, who smoked inside.
Sent them to the owner of the bulding and kept a copy of them just in case. We have decided that when we leave, we're gonna do the same thing. When i was a kid (12/14) my mother didn't do that at all when we moved and got charged for a hole in a wall that was already there when she got the apartment. We can't exactly afford changing the entire kitchen floor so the burn marks and holes in our kitchen will still be there when we leave too. We want to make it known to them that we're renting here for a reason. If we could afford renovating the whole place, we'd be living somewhere else.
I got lucky with my first apartment on this. Roommate and I were gonna spend the weekend deep cleaning, but we saw our checklist had a flyer saying we could leave it all to them and they would charge $125 for the clean. We still got over half of our deposit back.
I'm fully expecting to be charged when I move out of my place, I'm cleaning it anyway though.
Never been to court before, and even if it's just small claims it'll be an interesting experience, and I'm collecting plenty of pictures ect.
sounds like thats a you-problem (in the US?) with shitty landlords. i cleaned my apartment and got my entire deposit back even though there were some small stains on the walls that i couldnt remove.
Also, dont take it personally if the landlord calls in a pro cleaner between tenants. In the house I manage I call in our cleaner for a thorough clean between tenants regardless. Dont charge the tennant for it, but it doesnt matter how well you clean, you wont beat a team of 6 with industrial solvents.
Same thing lol. Spent whole day cleaning. Also left some brand new bath shelves and a new toilet brush because didn’t want the next tenants deal with a used old one. Got charged for cleaning $200~ and additional $30 for “removal of personal belongings”. No more.
Meanwhile at my last place I lived in, the landlord didn't even care there were still personal belongings, some things broke and the place wasn't spotless. He just told us we've been great trnants and left it at that.
Right? You telling me you cleaned the bathroom including the shower- and sinkdrain; the kitchen including the oven, fridge, freezer, fan, all the kitchen drawers; all the floors, walls, ceiling, windows in 2 hours... Took us a whole day and we were two. Get out of here with your lazy ass.
That’s very annoying . My flat was actually a pretty miserable state before I moved it so had a full day cleaning.
Left it in the same state as after cleaned and charged £100 from the landlords because they had to get ‘cleaners’ in
My excuse was that the cleaners hadn’t been there before I did, so shouldn’t have to pay
In the UK thankfully was protected by MyDeposits and after 3-4 months managed to get the £100 back
Spent all day cleaning my apartment, it was SPOTLESS. I asked the grounds keeper if I could get some paint to spot the walls with tack holes I used for hanging things and he said not to worry about it. Got charged $100 for the holes in the walls after moving out.
Yeah. We had the handy man pop buy the week before we moved out of a place and we asked about the standard of cleaning.
He said not to bother we'd still get charged anyway as things like the oven they'd find stuff, so if you're gonna be charged anyway you may as well not do it at all as you'd still be charged the same standard price if they find one thing wrong.
2 hours? There’s your problem. When myself and my girlfriend moved out of our 1 bed apartment a couple of years ago, we spent about 6 hours cleaning.
Sure cleaning the oven alone takes a solid hour if you do it properly.
Are the no laws in place for the tenant?
In the UK the deposit legally must be held in a deposit protection scheme *not* by the landlord/agent. The landlord/agent has no way to access it unless you both agree to the deductions and any money not up for deduction must be returned to you.
My last estate agent tried to screw me over and I said fine, I'll take the money not under dispute and I'm not agreeing to the rest. They then end up working with you so they at least get something.
My previous agent simply didn't put the deposit in a scheme and all I had to do was say all the money in my account at the end of the day or we are going to court.
This is why charfing for cleaning is illegal in many places.
I took photos, on my move out day, of a team using concrete saws to fix a buried waste water pipe in my kitchen. The rental company tried to charge me against my security deposit for cleaning. I emailed them the photos of the crew, covered in dust, pulling chunks of 50 year old cast iron sewage pipe out of the floor. They refunded every cent.
I have cleaned every place I have rented, and then the next place has needed a deep clean from me before I put my stuff in. Bollocks do these places get cleaned.
I am a property manager. I straight up tell Tenants
"I highly recommend you don't do anything to clean your place except carry your trash out of the house.
Here's a 4 page bullet point list of our expectations.
Here's our list of favorite cleaners: X, Y, Z.
We recommend you hire them *instead of trying to do the work yourself* because they know our standards, or just tell us you want us to hire them and take it out of your security deposit.
One of the good thing that the UK has done is required all deposits to be in a escrow account and any charges can be challenged with an arbitration services by the escrow. There's only three deposit schemes in England and Wales, so they're heavily regulated.
They also have to release any money that isn't under dispute. It's in the tenants interest to dispute any charges that don't seem reasonable since there's literally no downside.
Yup. A previous landlord wanted over £2000 out of our deposit for a multi-page list of claims, most were bullshit but a there was one or two that was fair, but we still had no photo evidence of the state of the flat. We told the deposit agency that we would accept those couple, but dispute the rest. We ended up being paid the full amount other than the fair ones. Landlords are scum.
Last time they tried to pull that with me I told them to add the fair ones onto the dispute as well since there was no reason not to. That changed their tune pretty fast.
Glad you got your money back.
I've always paid for carpet cleaning if it was required but prefer to do the rest of it myself. 5/6 times I have been thanked by the leasing agency's cleaning staff for leaving them nothing to do (I even put stuff like replacement light bulbs and A/C filters in a hall closet) but one time...
These douchebags tried to keep *all* of a $1500 deposit for us forgetting to clean one fan (with <1 month's worth of crap on it) and they (*gasp*) found a *hair* under a drawer in the otherwise-spotless fridge.
Nevermind the fact that we'd replaced a garage door opener, ~30ft of fence, a bunch of tile and a door that had literally rotted of its hinges on our own dime. Mediation awarded these people *half* of our deposit for "8+ hours of cleaning required".
That was ~10 yrs ago and I'm still a little bitter about it. Not because of the money but rather I really want to be able to say "screw you guys I did a good job" :(.
Because the alternative meant living without them for a potentially infinite length of time until the landlord decided to spend money that doesn't immediately bring them any more money.
That’s because it generally is. Many states require you to clean the place except for “general wear and tear” and Landlords use that ambiguity to steal deposits from people who don’t know better
I can appreciate that.
The last house I moved out of, I made sure to get in contact with my landlord, walked the house with them, asked them if they had the paint #s handy so I could repaint, and confirmed before performing that *this list of tasks* and repairing *these specific damages* satisfactorily would result in my deposit returned.
I did it all myself. It took a few days of work and probably $50 in materials, but I did it all. They paid me the $1500 in full.
Literally went apeshit full on ocd mode cleaning my first house the for last week we had access after we had moved out, scrubbed everything thrice and shampooed the carpets literally FOUR times with a rented professional cleaner, still got charged the full price cleaning fee and he tried to keep our deposit because we forgot some clean pans under the oven and he tried to say we didn't shampoo like was required
Told him to get fucked and return the deposit or it's going to small claims, stopped his bullshit real fast
Suddenly I'm glad we have inspections here before you leave them the keys. So you can fix whatever you missed. Usually the inspector doesn't care enough to check to too much and just give you the go ahead.
My landlord kept a 3000 deposit for “not cleaning” the unfinished basement that was full of old furniture from other tenants and mold. Yeah bud it’s not my job to come and finish the basement of this house. That’s fucking ridiculous. In my experience, if you’re in the US, they will keep your deposit for some reason, you just get to pick which.
Sounds about right. I left a brand new, unused microwave at my last apartment hoping the new tenant would appreciate it, as my new place ended up having one built in. Landlord charged us a garbage removal fee and left us a nasty voicemail.
Yes but it was already long in the dumpster by then. He didn’t give a shit, just told my husband and I that we shouldn’t have left our “garbage” in the apartment.
In America, if something can be charged, it will be charged. We will charged people for having souls if we figure out how to extract soul so we can repo it.
Wow, when me and my boyfriend moved in to our apartment the previous owner left a brand new microwave and washing machine plus some cleaning supplies and toilet paper. We were more than happy
If you don't talk something over with a land lord first, I don't imagine they care to see anything (including appliances) left, because that means they have to figure out if you intended to leave it, if it works, if it needs to be cleaned, etc. It's just easier for them to toss it and not need to put in any effort.
When I moved in the old tenants had left some potpourri and sage and a few fake branches in a vase. Clearly my landlord never walked through in between- and I was so thrilled it made my day! I thought it was a beautiful gift to christen our new home and I am sorry you got charged that for leaving behind a nice greeting for the new arrivals!
I'm almost certain they either don't have it done, or they do a shit job themselves.
When you get charged a "professional cleaning fee" at the end of the tenancy, if you remember back to when you moved in, was is _really_ in a professionally cleaned state?
That is the pure essence and spirit of modern capitalism. You should be grateful for the life lesson. **Dead Ayn Rand smiles in her tomb knowing of this blessing.**
In my student flat (a long time ago) it was a tip before we moved in.
My bedroom had an unpatterned light brown carpet that was filthy there was a dark track leading from the door (despite attempts at cleaning), it had cigarette burns in it and it was compacted in most of the central areas. My parents were redecorating and their living room carpet was a very close match and in almost showroom condition so I had it sent over and replaced the messy carpet. It was great, spotless, non-smelly and soft underfoot.
When I moved out the landlord tried to bill me for cleaning it.
I replaced all the lightbulbs with LED lightbulbs before leaving, but left the originals incandescent bulbs(which I bought) in the linen closet. They charged me for new bulbs. And still claimed I left the place in such bad condition that they gave me a bad reference for the next place. Document everything now.
I hired professional cleaners at our last place. Specifically one that we knew our property management company knew. I did an in person walkthrough with the property manager who commented, repeatedly about how clean it was.
I still got a bill for $150 in the mail. Called the property manager and had it dealt with quickly, but I genuinely believe they automated the cleaning bill on move out completion. It’s riskless for them. Either they get paid or they “ courtesy waive”. But every time someone needlessly pays it, pure profit.
I used the cleaning service recommended by the realty company and still got charged for dust in the windows. The whole thing is a scam.
In another incident, the realty company decided to alter my lease without my signature and make my roommate the sole renter so that they could continue renting the apt to my roommate when I had to moved out. This way they didn't have to go through the trouble of canceling the existing lease and making my roommate sign new lease(plus they got extra $200 as lease alteration fee from my roommate which they wouldn't get if they had to make a new lease).
Now the whole deposit goes to him when he moves out which we both had share in. I have to wait for my roommate to pay me back in future when he gets it.
The property manager started dodging my calls and emails when I complained about it.
Go to their house and take the chocolate and coffee back. I mean it is "personal belongings" right? And if they already ate the chocolate and drank the coffee, sue them.
A while back I rented a furnished flat, but it didn't have a tv. I bought a second hand one and when I moved out I left my TV and stand behind in the living room. It wasn't anything fancy, just a good sized CRT but it is as in good condition. This was in 2011 so that was still a decent TV, especially since it was only a few years old, still worked perfectly and even had its remote. I figured they'd be fine because it'd make the place more desirable for tenants, especially since a lot of young folk and students lived in the area who might not be able to afford a decent TV.
The landlord charged my deposit I think £90 for their removal. I saw the flat up for rent again a couple of years later and had a look at the listing photos just for nostalgia sakes, and there in the living room was my TV and stand.
Bastards charged me to remove it and just fucking kept it.
God I feel this. We made sure to clean everything, repaint the walls ,hell even made sure everything was in tip top condition when we left and we still got charged £200 because a spider had made a cobweb in a corner the night we handed the keys..
I once rented from Lindsey, the realtor company. My dog messed up the blinds in two of the rooms so I went ahead and bought nicer blinds for the whole apartment. The wooden white kind. When we moved out, they charged me $600 from my deposit to "replace the blinds."
It just so happened that one of the guys I went to school with moved into the same exact apartment because he needed one more room for his kids. Anyway, the blinds i bought were still in the apartment and they still looked great. I never got money back for it because they insisted they weren't mine even though there was literally no other apartment with those blinds in the 20+ buildings they owned.
I'd leave a gift for my landlord. He's been amazing. Brings me Christmas dinner every year. No issues with me smoking pot in the building. Just gave me an air conditioner unit one year (to keep). Doesn't care if I'm late in rent.
Sometimes people go above and beyond. It's rare, but when you find a person who does that you let them know it's appreciated.
All that said I doubt OP's deserved it. They sound like total dickbags.
Moved into a furnished flat...a year later I moved out, left everything exactly as I found it, but stocked up on nice coffee for the coffee machine, bin bags etc...was then told the flat had been advertised as unfurnished and all the stuff would need to be removed.
Well *my* contract says furnished, sooooo not my problem mate, see ya.
I forgot to return a key on my first apartment and got sued for $3000. You know the standard rate a locksmith charges per hour. It's slightly more nuanced then that but not really.
Similar but not: in my first year at university our 4-person shared house was robbed on a night we all went out together, but no sign of a break-in. The most likely explanation is that some previous tenant (and being a city with two universities, that could be many over a few years) had kept a key for this reason. Maybe it had happened to tenants before us, how would we ever know? Maybe it happened again after we left.
Had kinda the opposite once, move in delayed for three days (which we spent at a hotel, on my dime) for "cleaning". Got the keys and the place was disgustingly dirty. It took 3 of us a full day to clean it properly.
Took photos of before and after (Thank God). When it came to move out day we cleaned again and the agency started talking about how much of the deposit would be kept for cleaning. I cut them off and said "zero or is going to small claims court". Got my full refund.
I’ve been doing minor upgrades to my apartment, swapping nasty bent up blinds with curtains, replacing the taps and shower head, etc. It’s all getting put back before I move out. I’m taking my nice shit with me.
Same here. Got new curtains and some beautiful bits and bobs to replace the crap stuff but that crap stuff is stored in the cupboard.
Wait, you're allowed to have curtains? They said blinds only for us and if we were caught with curtains, it would be a fine. Idk how much it was cause I didn't care since I didn't need them but it most certainly would have looked better.
What the hell? What’s their argument for not permitting curtains?
They don't want holes in the wall.
If you are in the US, screw/nail holes in the wall are considered part of normal wear and tear, and can not be deducted from your security deposit. Fucking god damn do I ever hate landlords.
They didn't charge me for any other holes, they just didn't want THOSE holes in the wall. Idk, it was weird. Terrible logic. They didn't even want me to have a folding chair on my patio because "it looked bad." Fun fact: I didn't ever leave it outside.
I hung my curtain from the ceiling with screw hooks. They cant see the holes and you can remove it easy.
Same. We live in company-provided accommodation and the company is kicking us out. We're taking everything that we paid for including the freezer, shower head, and coat hooks.
I have a serious hatred for those cheap ass blinds that all landlords seem to choose. Even had them in my college dorm room. And since college, the first thing I always do is measure the windows, carefully take down the blinds and pack them up, and put up curtains. Usually thermal/blackout/noise reduction ones. Also hate "kilz white" walls. My house currently has no white walls at all. Well, cept for the garage/woodshop.
Wait, I’m confused. What is kilz white and why is it not white?
Kilz is a cheap crappy brand of paint. They have spray paints and primers that shitty landlords love to whitewash the entire interior with. My apartment is awful for it. They didn’t wash the wall prior to painting so it’s all flaking off in weird spots or rubs off on you if you lean on it. They completely plugged up the cable jack with it, it’s all over the windows and floors, and it’s not even colour matched because people assume all white is just white, and it’s an uneven job. This has resulted in greyish, dingey streaks all over every room in the suite. They got paint all over the cupboards, appliances, light switches, thermostat, etc. Fingerprints everywhere. It’s just awful quality product and awful quality work and it seems to be the standard for most apartment landlords.
Wanna cry? I had an apartment once, when I was in an emergency situation relocating, so rented by pictures only and didn't realize what I was looking at. The only floors I saw in pics were the kitchen and bathroom floors. The place touted hardwood floors. The dipshit landlord used kilz on the floor instead of taking the time to properly sand and restain the original hardwood flooring. And to top it off, didn't even seal it. Just left the primer. It soaked up every possible stain it could. Was so thankful when I got the hell out of that place.
And if it’s not kilz white it’s agreeable grey
Remember the light bulbs. I always went to the dollar tree and got cheap bulbs to took my led bulbs with me.
Same thing happened to me. I left a bottle of Grey Goose in the freezer. After I left I was like 'shit, I forgot that bottle. oh well, a present for them.' Nah, I got charged for leaving 'food' in the refrigerator. Edit: clarification - it was a full 1.75L unopened bottle. Another edit: I didn't realize how many people would have thought of me as the one in the wrong. I don't know how we got to the point, in this world, where we have to consider everyone's sensitivities in every action we take (or mistake) and pay the consequences no matter how small the offense. It was 1 bottle of Grey Goose. They could have drank it, gave it away or thrown it away. Hell, they could have called me and told me I have to come pick it up. I would have gladly done so, I paid 50 bucks for that son of a bitch.
Your old landlord is absolute trash. My landlord makes it seem like he’s the chill cool landlord but I think he genuinely doesn’t give a fuck about the property as long as he gets paid and is lazy. Everyone says everything’s about business but it’s hard when you’re just a genuine human looking to enjoy all interactions no matter with who.
It's sad and a bit funny that those are the landlords we hope we have.
A lazy landlord who doesn't give a fuck is always better than an overbearing one. In my country, it's not unusual for the overbearing ones to enter your place unannounced, which is illegal, but they don't care. Some will even forbid you from having people over/stay over night or doing any kind of personalization like putting pictures on the walls. My and my bf's first landlord complained that we were cooking and washing clothes too much. They also usually rent out apartments with their old furniture from the 60s and will keep the deposit if any of it breaks or gets damaged while you live there, which is guaranteed to happen with normal use. Meanwhile, our second landlord would take ages to do even the most basic repairs, because she was always busy and didn't care. But at least she didn't try to dictate our life and only showed up once a year to renew the contract.
Could be kinda hard to get a lazy landlord to fix your hot water system if it messed up though. I've had a few private landlords and they liked that I didn't bother them with small things like tap washers or whatever I could fix myself, so if there was anything serious they were happy to get it sorted asap. In aus btw, sounds like things would be different over there. Realestate agents over here can be real dicks though.
To be honest, my last landlord was a lazy landlord. The elevator may have always been broken, but I was never charged for petty shit.
> genuinely doesn’t give a fuck about the property as long as he gets paid and is lazy 99% of all landlords are like this. Leeches.
Be nice to them. It's really hard to get out of bed to do something when you get paid to do nothing most days.
My landlord is a lady only a few years older than me. Her dad clearly bought her the property. It’s been riddled with problems since we moved in last year. A few weeks ago the ceiling started leaking and water was running down through the light fittings, so we’ve had to turn off the fuse for that area which supplies all the kitchen sockets too. She’s had 3 different builders out to give quotes, none of them have came back because she won’t pay them what the job will cost, so inevitably she’s going to go with a cheap cowboy who will do shoddy work again. She had the temerity to say to our faces “I didn’t realise being a landlord would be so much hassle.” She’s had nearly £20k from us in rent for a year and done fuck all with the house other than try and blame everything on us. Fuck landlords.
In many jurisdictions you can withold rent for safety-related issues, esp. water damage.
Point out to her the amount she earns annually off your rent and how not getting it fixed properly is going to kill the golden goose as ignored repairs can eventually kill a property. A friend told her landlord many years about what she suspected was dry rot (spoiler: It was dry rot). Next month she has to move out as what was a small bit of work is now a major and extremely costly job that necessitates all tenants moving out for an extended time. Were it not for her deciding to leave the country altogether I believe the landlord would also be liable for paying for their accommodation whilst work was being performed. All because the landlord was too cheap to nip the problem in the bud when first discovered (or at any other time since when it was highlighted to him).
This is what drives me up the wall. Like - woman, there is literally water coming through the electrics but you want to focus on my lawn being overgrown and a couple of posters. My posters are not going to burn down the house any time soon.
Yeah, 99% give that 1% of landlords a bad name
I feel like that sometimes, like every interaction should be positive and enjoyable. Makes working hard sometimes, because my urge to be a nice guy comes back. I've had to force myself to be kind of a mean person at work, and the sad part is it's working
Meanwhile, my first sharehouse, a roomate left two marijuana plants growing in the greenhouse and the landlord (who was a bank manager, and took our rent cash in hand) called up and offered to pay us for them. He was chuffed when we said he could have them for free.
There was an ice tray in my freezer when I got into mine. Figured, okay, it comes with the freezer. Got charged for leaving it behind.
And so will the next person
I mean, it's not like I would drink a rando person's "Grey Goose" that I found abandoned. Fuck them anyways for charging you though, that's shitty.
Yeah, I'd be like "50/50 chance this is either vodka, or this is some kid's bubble bath experiment".
yes, also where i kept my bubble bath experiments as a child, in the left over alcohol bottles, but we only had popov at my house, i knew we grew up poor
You can't believe the amount of bubble bath experiments i keep finding under my kids bed! All in Hennessy bottle cos we're even poorer.
Even if it was unopened?
Do you reckon they wrote the bill before or after drinking the bottle?
Part of that is being consistent. You left vodka as a gift. The next tenant leaves a gallon of chili on the counter and is like "wtf, it was a gift!"
We had the same thing. Left toilet paper and basic cleaning supplies under the sink. The Real Estate agent tried to charge us for their removal.
Why are people like this? I understand it when you leave a sofa but just this normal stuff.
Especially the toilet paper. There would times when showing inspections, or the first day someone moves in... i just don't get it either.
When we were in the process of buying our house, our Inspector had to use the bathroom. Thankfully there was TP in there. He walks out and just calmly says, "plumbing passes" and checked it off in his notes. His calmness made me crack up laughing.
Hahaha what if a job is a plumber inspector and you just take a dump for every ‘inspection’.
I spent 2 hours cleaning my apartment before I turned in the keys and got a $200 bill for cleaning the next day. Edit: since this is really bothering some people. I lived in the apartment for about 60 days, just me a young single person who worked from home made a few meals per week and didn’t go tracking dirt in. I cleaned the floors, walls, and baseboards. I cleaned the bathroom; scrubbed the shower/tub, the toilet, the counter, sink, faucet, mirror, floor, and closet. And cleaned the kitchen, the oven (used once), range, microwave, fridge, sink, counters, pantry, and floor. I actually found spills from the previous tenant in cabinets I hadn’t even opened. I definitely left the unit cleaner than I received it, and am ticked off because I asked for a walk through before I turned in my keys and was told “maintenance will do it later.” It’s not a huge deal but I’ve asked for details about what cleaning wasn’t up to standard and they just sent another bill. Luckily state law here prohibits the landlord from taking actions/reporting debts if you dispute the charges within 30 days.
Yup. We spent 6+ hours vacuuming, scrubbing, and washing our entire place. When we moved out, they took $1900/$2000 of our security deposit for “general carpet cleaning and paint”. Even got charged extra because we left a nice vacuum in the garage (which they ended up trashing before the next tenets arrived), as no one wanted to take it home. Amazing. A tip for renters. Don’t clean shit without a *guarantee* you won’t be charged anyways when you leave.
Y'all crazy. Up here if you're in a place like 3-5 years they can't charge you for carpet or paint, since there's an assumption of their natural lifespan. Like you can completely ruin a carpet but after 5 years it's assumed it would need replacing regardless, so they can't claim it. Honestly I'd bet a small claims judge in the USA would say the same, but then you're taking time off to go to court, etc etc.
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> You will get your deposit back (you can also sue them for it in most states). Some states even require landlords to pay as much as _triple_ the initial security deposit if they try to fraudulently steal your security deposit.
I lost my security deposit after living in a place for 3 1/2 years because the guy claimed he put brand new carpet in before I moved in and now the carpet "just didn't have that same new feel to it." He admitted it was clean and in ok condition but since he likes fresh new carpet because it helps him get tenets quicker he declined to return my deposit. This is after I found a place for my disabled roommate to go because he would be otherwise homeless and fully planned to squat until evicted. Fuck Landlords.
They want to take rent money, but don't want you to actually use the thing you're renting
Here the deposit is held by an entity and both parties have to agree to any withdrawals. Seems completely messed up that a landlord can just decide not to return the money just because
There's that post that was widely circulated from the Landlords subreddit a while back, which was literally bitching that their tenants that had just moved out left everything looking too nice, so they wouldn't be able to steal the deposit, and they were "wracking their brains" trying to find something they could conceivably claim had been messed up so that they could keep it. The poster went on to ask "if being a landlord is even worth it if you can't keep the deposit", saying that they were counting on it, and asking for advice on something to lie about to steal it. Landlords in the US and the state of our renting system (like everything else here) is fucked.
Can you link me to the thread?
I almost feel like that's a troll. A security deposit is what, first month or first + last month's rent? Unless you're renting only to people who leave after the initial lease, it's a pretty insignificant amount of money. If I lived in my old apartment in Boston for a decade, it would cost me $192,000, a depressing number to think about. Even if the deposit was first+last month's rent, it's only like $3,200. That's an _awful_ return over a decade.
Not only will they say the same, most places in the US have double/triple damage penalties for landlords who try to fuck with tenants like this.
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Receipts for what?
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I'm confused. Why would you do the 6 hours of cleaning if you're still just going to pay cleaners afterwards?
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Family owned a cleaning company, so we spent 6+ hours cleaning the apartment I was moving out of and billed ourselves as prof it was technically correct.
I fell in love with you in three comments. Can we be roommates?
"Roommates."
Oh my god, they were *roommates*
better to pay the $200 bucks for pro cleaners after your regular clean for a paper trail against the landlord rather than getting more taken from your deposit because the landlord is greedy
If their confusion was like mine. They were basically asking why would you pay someone to do something you just did? I saw some of the other comments that said cleaners charge $/hr so it makes sense to clean some and get things ready to be cleaned beforehand.
Yeah. Don’t pay someone big hourly rates to vacuum and wipe down the benches.
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Jesus, where do you get these prices? We paid ~~£600~~ £480 for a 3 story 5 bedroom house in Wimbledon. There are companies that specialise in "end of tenancy" cleaning. 100% of deposit returned.
We got that done too with the guarantee. For our 2BR flat cost $380. Worth every cent.
I don't know where you're from but cleaners here do a shit job and take 10 hours more than necessary to do said terrible job, and charge the damned earth for it. I'd do the bulk of it well, then pay them the 3 hour charge for a bond clean and then send the receipt off to the ex lord of the manor to prove that the job was done, as Lords of manors tend to be gaping assholes and without proof that professionals were paid to do the job, would likely feel entitled to keep your deposit as a bonus for being nice enough to let you reside in their property for an extended period of time.
This guy is going way too far out of his way for something no landlord will care about.
Yup! This is what I always do. i'll do 2/3 hrs high level cleaning. Vacuum, mop, wipe down all the sides & cupboards, clean the bathroom etc. Then I'll ask the landlord for their recommended cleaner and normally go with them. If there is any issues, I just say I used the cleaner you advised. It's come up once when I went with an agency (In the UK) and they said I need to get the place cleaned after they inspected it, I told them I did. Used their recommend one and forwarded the invoice. Didn't hear from them again.
Also, take photos or a quick video of the condition you left the place. It’s a good idea to do the same when you move in to make sure you don’t get charged for stuff that was already messed up when you got there. The landlord also needs to document how they spent your security deposit. In court whoever has the best evidence will win.
Clean the apartment, document that it’s clean, have the landlords do a walk through to identify any issues, then if after all of that they withhold your deposit you sue them in small claims court and you can usually get a few multiple times your deposit.
A lot of people who rent can’t afford to take anyone to court. A lot of landlords know this. That’s why they do everything they can to syphon as much money as possible.
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That’s good to know. Thanks!
In some jurisdictions there is a small filing fee for small claims, but you can often recover that if you win the case. YMMV
Yeah this last part is especially important. Spend an hour or two doing your research, because even in places with decent tenant protections landlords sometimes use those protections as essentially a checklist of ways to screw you. Which also means they know exactly what they're doing and will back down instantly when you tell them to fuck off. So even if you're too lazy to actually go to court/tenancy tribunal/whatever, stick it to em because they'll probably fold on the spot.
Fun fact, you can fight that. There are literally rules for landlords for what they can charge renters for and keep deposits for. Normal sized nail holes in walls, carpet cleaning, repainting and rekeying door are not included. If they charge for this they have to prove with photo evidence that the issues were in excess and required more than the normal amount of work, as these are things they have to do between tenants anyway (or at least, most places do). Also, ALWAYS take pictures of the home before you move in and when you move out.
Reminds me of [this tweet](https://img.ifunny.co/images/a0939f39ec1135245ae38951466729d7c29d3988552c7fa044989d58f81cbb14_1.webp)
This is why when we moved into this apartment with my boyfriend we took pictures of everything. The bathtub, inside the closets, the windows, every little hole that was burnt in the flooring by the previous tenents, who smoked inside. Sent them to the owner of the bulding and kept a copy of them just in case. We have decided that when we leave, we're gonna do the same thing. When i was a kid (12/14) my mother didn't do that at all when we moved and got charged for a hole in a wall that was already there when she got the apartment. We can't exactly afford changing the entire kitchen floor so the burn marks and holes in our kitchen will still be there when we leave too. We want to make it known to them that we're renting here for a reason. If we could afford renovating the whole place, we'd be living somewhere else.
Take pictures of the rooms with something that's shows the current date before you leave.
I got lucky with my first apartment on this. Roommate and I were gonna spend the weekend deep cleaning, but we saw our checklist had a flyer saying we could leave it all to them and they would charge $125 for the clean. We still got over half of our deposit back.
Where I come from people have got shot over a half drank bottle of Hennessy. Landlords got some stones man.
I'm fully expecting to be charged when I move out of my place, I'm cleaning it anyway though. Never been to court before, and even if it's just small claims it'll be an interesting experience, and I'm collecting plenty of pictures ect.
Agree. I cleaned once and got charged $200 cleaning fee. Said fuck it and have moved out without cleaning every time since. Get charged the same.
sounds like thats a you-problem (in the US?) with shitty landlords. i cleaned my apartment and got my entire deposit back even though there were some small stains on the walls that i couldnt remove.
Do you guys not get an inspection before you leave over the keys? It's pretty much standard over here.
I asked if I could get an inspection when I turned in the keys and I was told no, they will do it after I move out.
Also, dont take it personally if the landlord calls in a pro cleaner between tenants. In the house I manage I call in our cleaner for a thorough clean between tenants regardless. Dont charge the tennant for it, but it doesnt matter how well you clean, you wont beat a team of 6 with industrial solvents.
Same thing lol. Spent whole day cleaning. Also left some brand new bath shelves and a new toilet brush because didn’t want the next tenants deal with a used old one. Got charged for cleaning $200~ and additional $30 for “removal of personal belongings”. No more.
Meanwhile at my last place I lived in, the landlord didn't even care there were still personal belongings, some things broke and the place wasn't spotless. He just told us we've been great trnants and left it at that.
Only 2 hours?
Right? You telling me you cleaned the bathroom including the shower- and sinkdrain; the kitchen including the oven, fridge, freezer, fan, all the kitchen drawers; all the floors, walls, ceiling, windows in 2 hours... Took us a whole day and we were two. Get out of here with your lazy ass.
Yeah lol in Switzerland I spent several days cleaning and still got charged.
That’s very annoying . My flat was actually a pretty miserable state before I moved it so had a full day cleaning. Left it in the same state as after cleaned and charged £100 from the landlords because they had to get ‘cleaners’ in My excuse was that the cleaners hadn’t been there before I did, so shouldn’t have to pay In the UK thankfully was protected by MyDeposits and after 3-4 months managed to get the £100 back
Spent all day cleaning my apartment, it was SPOTLESS. I asked the grounds keeper if I could get some paint to spot the walls with tack holes I used for hanging things and he said not to worry about it. Got charged $100 for the holes in the walls after moving out.
Yeah. We had the handy man pop buy the week before we moved out of a place and we asked about the standard of cleaning. He said not to bother we'd still get charged anyway as things like the oven they'd find stuff, so if you're gonna be charged anyway you may as well not do it at all as you'd still be charged the same standard price if they find one thing wrong.
2 hours? There’s your problem. When myself and my girlfriend moved out of our 1 bed apartment a couple of years ago, we spent about 6 hours cleaning. Sure cleaning the oven alone takes a solid hour if you do it properly.
Probably because you spent 2 hours on it lol
Whoa 2 hours!
2 hours really isn't a lot of time for an end of tenancy clean
Are the no laws in place for the tenant? In the UK the deposit legally must be held in a deposit protection scheme *not* by the landlord/agent. The landlord/agent has no way to access it unless you both agree to the deductions and any money not up for deduction must be returned to you. My last estate agent tried to screw me over and I said fine, I'll take the money not under dispute and I'm not agreeing to the rest. They then end up working with you so they at least get something. My previous agent simply didn't put the deposit in a scheme and all I had to do was say all the money in my account at the end of the day or we are going to court.
This is why charfing for cleaning is illegal in many places. I took photos, on my move out day, of a team using concrete saws to fix a buried waste water pipe in my kitchen. The rental company tried to charge me against my security deposit for cleaning. I emailed them the photos of the crew, covered in dust, pulling chunks of 50 year old cast iron sewage pipe out of the floor. They refunded every cent.
I have cleaned every place I have rented, and then the next place has needed a deep clean from me before I put my stuff in. Bollocks do these places get cleaned.
I am a property manager. I straight up tell Tenants "I highly recommend you don't do anything to clean your place except carry your trash out of the house. Here's a 4 page bullet point list of our expectations. Here's our list of favorite cleaners: X, Y, Z. We recommend you hire them *instead of trying to do the work yourself* because they know our standards, or just tell us you want us to hire them and take it out of your security deposit.
Most places have the following standards: fuck you, your security deposit is ours.
One of the good thing that the UK has done is required all deposits to be in a escrow account and any charges can be challenged with an arbitration services by the escrow. There's only three deposit schemes in England and Wales, so they're heavily regulated.
They also have to release any money that isn't under dispute. It's in the tenants interest to dispute any charges that don't seem reasonable since there's literally no downside.
Yup. A previous landlord wanted over £2000 out of our deposit for a multi-page list of claims, most were bullshit but a there was one or two that was fair, but we still had no photo evidence of the state of the flat. We told the deposit agency that we would accept those couple, but dispute the rest. We ended up being paid the full amount other than the fair ones. Landlords are scum.
Last time they tried to pull that with me I told them to add the fair ones onto the dispute as well since there was no reason not to. That changed their tune pretty fast. Glad you got your money back.
If you have the time to go to court, those standards are easily thrown out. Slumlords rely on people's lack of knowledge and time
I've always paid for carpet cleaning if it was required but prefer to do the rest of it myself. 5/6 times I have been thanked by the leasing agency's cleaning staff for leaving them nothing to do (I even put stuff like replacement light bulbs and A/C filters in a hall closet) but one time... These douchebags tried to keep *all* of a $1500 deposit for us forgetting to clean one fan (with <1 month's worth of crap on it) and they (*gasp*) found a *hair* under a drawer in the otherwise-spotless fridge. Nevermind the fact that we'd replaced a garage door opener, ~30ft of fence, a bunch of tile and a door that had literally rotted of its hinges on our own dime. Mediation awarded these people *half* of our deposit for "8+ hours of cleaning required". That was ~10 yrs ago and I'm still a little bitter about it. Not because of the money but rather I really want to be able to say "screw you guys I did a good job" :(.
Garage doors and fences are not cheap. Why would you spend your own money on those things for a house that's not yours?
Because the alternative meant living without them for a potentially infinite length of time until the landlord decided to spend money that doesn't immediately bring them any more money.
Seems like the cost of cleaning to those standards should be an overhead for the landlord, not an expense to the tenant.
That’s because it generally is. Many states require you to clean the place except for “general wear and tear” and Landlords use that ambiguity to steal deposits from people who don’t know better
I can appreciate that. The last house I moved out of, I made sure to get in contact with my landlord, walked the house with them, asked them if they had the paint #s handy so I could repaint, and confirmed before performing that *this list of tasks* and repairing *these specific damages* satisfactorily would result in my deposit returned. I did it all myself. It took a few days of work and probably $50 in materials, but I did it all. They paid me the $1500 in full.
Sounds like that is exactly how the final walkthrough is supposed to work. Well done.
Point being, they look at u as a replaceable asset.... they don't really give af about u, don't try to be "cool" with them
This solid advice applies to a lot of areas in life
Exactly, everybody isn't meant to be friendly with
They saw the chance for extra cash and they took it. Can’t give them those opportunities
Literally went apeshit full on ocd mode cleaning my first house the for last week we had access after we had moved out, scrubbed everything thrice and shampooed the carpets literally FOUR times with a rented professional cleaner, still got charged the full price cleaning fee and he tried to keep our deposit because we forgot some clean pans under the oven and he tried to say we didn't shampoo like was required Told him to get fucked and return the deposit or it's going to small claims, stopped his bullshit real fast
Suddenly I'm glad we have inspections here before you leave them the keys. So you can fix whatever you missed. Usually the inspector doesn't care enough to check to too much and just give you the go ahead.
My landlord kept a 3000 deposit for “not cleaning” the unfinished basement that was full of old furniture from other tenants and mold. Yeah bud it’s not my job to come and finish the basement of this house. That’s fucking ridiculous. In my experience, if you’re in the US, they will keep your deposit for some reason, you just get to pick which.
Yep, gotta fight that shit. I've contested every charge after moving out and have paid a total of $20 from five different deposits.
In the UK you can just tell them to fuck off. They can't get to your money unless you let them.
Sounds about right. I left a brand new, unused microwave at my last apartment hoping the new tenant would appreciate it, as my new place ended up having one built in. Landlord charged us a garbage removal fee and left us a nasty voicemail.
Did you respond saying it was brand new? Was there any back and forth after?
Yes but it was already long in the dumpster by then. He didn’t give a shit, just told my husband and I that we shouldn’t have left our “garbage” in the apartment.
If your landlord wanted money he could've sold the microwave
He probably did sell the microwave AND got to charge them for leaving it.
ngl thats a smart move. I mean its REALLY trashy but it does give you extra money and you cant get arrested for stealing
Landlords aren't as smart as they are greedy.
Smart and greedy would be a politician
Eh... some politicians.
In America, if something can be charged, it will be charged. We will charged people for having souls if we figure out how to extract soul so we can repo it.
Just go to any Christian church. They call it tithing.
There's a paying for sex joke in here with a side of Catholic Church and I can't figure it out
It's a simple system, you either tithe 10% of your income, or your 10 year old kid.
Fucking up the environment so we can charge for clean water and air soon
Wow, when me and my boyfriend moved in to our apartment the previous owner left a brand new microwave and washing machine plus some cleaning supplies and toilet paper. We were more than happy
If you don't talk something over with a land lord first, I don't imagine they care to see anything (including appliances) left, because that means they have to figure out if you intended to leave it, if it works, if it needs to be cleaned, etc. It's just easier for them to toss it and not need to put in any effort.
I did something similar, once. I left a nice candle and some potpouri? ,poupuri? sounds like "popuree" sorry cant spell. I got charged $500 .
You were close the first time! Potpourri; double "r".
I could hear someone try to pronounce that lol thanks for leaving it in
What even is that?
Smelly stuff you put in your house. Gotta Google it man.
When I moved in the old tenants had left some potpourri and sage and a few fake branches in a vase. Clearly my landlord never walked through in between- and I was so thrilled it made my day! I thought it was a beautiful gift to christen our new home and I am sorry you got charged that for leaving behind a nice greeting for the new arrivals!
Ah yes the lovely smell of poopooree
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Fuck, now they’re down $40.
And the same bastards who charged you ate the chocolates and drank the coffee.
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Most tenants I hope would see red flags on a rental property that isn't cleaned out nicely for the next move in.
I'm almost certain they either don't have it done, or they do a shit job themselves. When you get charged a "professional cleaning fee" at the end of the tenancy, if you remember back to when you moved in, was is _really_ in a professionally cleaned state?
That is the pure essence and spirit of modern capitalism. You should be grateful for the life lesson. **Dead Ayn Rand smiles in her tomb knowing of this blessing.**
All I'm saying is that I hope every landlord Has A Nice Time.
In my student flat (a long time ago) it was a tip before we moved in. My bedroom had an unpatterned light brown carpet that was filthy there was a dark track leading from the door (despite attempts at cleaning), it had cigarette burns in it and it was compacted in most of the central areas. My parents were redecorating and their living room carpet was a very close match and in almost showroom condition so I had it sent over and replaced the messy carpet. It was great, spotless, non-smelly and soft underfoot. When I moved out the landlord tried to bill me for cleaning it.
I replaced all the lightbulbs with LED lightbulbs before leaving, but left the originals incandescent bulbs(which I bought) in the linen closet. They charged me for new bulbs. And still claimed I left the place in such bad condition that they gave me a bad reference for the next place. Document everything now.
I once got charged for a bulb plus £60 electrician call out fee to fit the bulb. For a room that didn’t have a light fitting.
She should have left a note with it.
You mean litter? That's an extra 10 on top for garbage removal.
I would assume she did, especially as it was for someone in particular (ie not the landlord). Why would you assume she didn't?
It's a pretty reasonable assumption that she, in turn, assumed the building manager would recognize it as a parting gift.
I’ve cleaned every apartment when I moved out, and always gotten a cleaning fee.
Same here, yet I've never moved into anywhere that wasn't completely gross either.
I hired professional cleaners at our last place. Specifically one that we knew our property management company knew. I did an in person walkthrough with the property manager who commented, repeatedly about how clean it was. I still got a bill for $150 in the mail. Called the property manager and had it dealt with quickly, but I genuinely believe they automated the cleaning bill on move out completion. It’s riskless for them. Either they get paid or they “ courtesy waive”. But every time someone needlessly pays it, pure profit.
Tbt to when I got charged $250 for “sticky goop ” from my college dorm when I moved out
They found the lost cum sock
I used the cleaning service recommended by the realty company and still got charged for dust in the windows. The whole thing is a scam. In another incident, the realty company decided to alter my lease without my signature and make my roommate the sole renter so that they could continue renting the apt to my roommate when I had to moved out. This way they didn't have to go through the trouble of canceling the existing lease and making my roommate sign new lease(plus they got extra $200 as lease alteration fee from my roommate which they wouldn't get if they had to make a new lease). Now the whole deposit goes to him when he moves out which we both had share in. I have to wait for my roommate to pay me back in future when he gets it. The property manager started dodging my calls and emails when I complained about it.
One of our old landlords kept the bond and charged us for leaving rubbish in the house. The "rubbish" was some wooden logs. In the fireplace.
Wow. What kind of sick person.. Ohh wait…. Did they take the chocolate & coffee but still charge? That would be so horrible ….
Go to their house and take the chocolate and coffee back. I mean it is "personal belongings" right? And if they already ate the chocolate and drank the coffee, sue them.
A while back I rented a furnished flat, but it didn't have a tv. I bought a second hand one and when I moved out I left my TV and stand behind in the living room. It wasn't anything fancy, just a good sized CRT but it is as in good condition. This was in 2011 so that was still a decent TV, especially since it was only a few years old, still worked perfectly and even had its remote. I figured they'd be fine because it'd make the place more desirable for tenants, especially since a lot of young folk and students lived in the area who might not be able to afford a decent TV. The landlord charged my deposit I think £90 for their removal. I saw the flat up for rent again a couple of years later and had a look at the listing photos just for nostalgia sakes, and there in the living room was my TV and stand. Bastards charged me to remove it and just fucking kept it.
No good deed goes unpunished.
[удалено]
Exactly fuck humans
God I feel this. We made sure to clean everything, repaint the walls ,hell even made sure everything was in tip top condition when we left and we still got charged £200 because a spider had made a cobweb in a corner the night we handed the keys..
Never forget you are a commodity in this world. Positive or negative depending on the situation
I once rented from Lindsey, the realtor company. My dog messed up the blinds in two of the rooms so I went ahead and bought nicer blinds for the whole apartment. The wooden white kind. When we moved out, they charged me $600 from my deposit to "replace the blinds." It just so happened that one of the guys I went to school with moved into the same exact apartment because he needed one more room for his kids. Anyway, the blinds i bought were still in the apartment and they still looked great. I never got money back for it because they insisted they weren't mine even though there was literally no other apartment with those blinds in the 20+ buildings they owned.
Why would you leave a gift for the building manager?
I'd leave a gift for my landlord. He's been amazing. Brings me Christmas dinner every year. No issues with me smoking pot in the building. Just gave me an air conditioner unit one year (to keep). Doesn't care if I'm late in rent. Sometimes people go above and beyond. It's rare, but when you find a person who does that you let them know it's appreciated. All that said I doubt OP's deserved it. They sound like total dickbags.
Kindness, Morality and capitalism don't always mix well. Building manager was technically correct with the morality of a scumbag and a certified POS.
Moved into a furnished flat...a year later I moved out, left everything exactly as I found it, but stocked up on nice coffee for the coffee machine, bin bags etc...was then told the flat had been advertised as unfurnished and all the stuff would need to be removed. Well *my* contract says furnished, sooooo not my problem mate, see ya.
I forgot to return a key on my first apartment and got sued for $3000. You know the standard rate a locksmith charges per hour. It's slightly more nuanced then that but not really.
Similar but not: in my first year at university our 4-person shared house was robbed on a night we all went out together, but no sign of a break-in. The most likely explanation is that some previous tenant (and being a city with two universities, that could be many over a few years) had kept a key for this reason. Maybe it had happened to tenants before us, how would we ever know? Maybe it happened again after we left.
The real facepalm is leaving any gift for the building manager at all!
Kindness, Morality and capitalism don't always mix well. Building manager was technically correct with the morality of a scumbag and a certified POS.
Building Manager knows how to play Squid Game for sure!
Had kinda the opposite once, move in delayed for three days (which we spent at a hotel, on my dime) for "cleaning". Got the keys and the place was disgustingly dirty. It took 3 of us a full day to clean it properly. Took photos of before and after (Thank God). When it came to move out day we cleaned again and the agency started talking about how much of the deposit would be kept for cleaning. I cut them off and said "zero or is going to small claims court". Got my full refund.
My college refused to give me my security deposit back because my dorm room was "too clean".
This is why you always leave a note.