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  1. #1

    Default Landlord Falsely Claims I Moved Without Notice, Won't Return Deposit

    My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Ohio

    First my question: I am suing in small claims to recover my sec deposit. Do I need to sue in real court or re-sue in small claims to address these other issues, or will the small claims case handle all of this? (ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS WELCOME)

    Now the situation:
    (I left out a few details to keep it short. I can provide any additional info needed, just ask)
    I moved out of my apartment 2 weeks before my lease was up. I turned in keys/garage opener/etc... the day my lease was up and filled out all of their paperwork for move-out (including a forwarding address) on last day of August. I had also given them notice 2 months ago that I would not be renewing my lease. They told me I wasn't allowed to be present for their walkthrough (illegal). I called the middle of Sept. to follow up on my security deposit. They told me their main office would be calling me about it. October 1st came, no deposit back. They called me that day and asked if I had moved out and if I planned to pay for another month.

    At that point, I looked up the law. (Ohio code 5321.16) After the 30day mark, they cannot make any deductions from the deposit and if they haven't returned it, or returned an itemized deduction list if they don't plan to return any money, they can be sued for double damages (double the amount of the dep) plus court costs and interest on any amount above the deposit. I filled out the paperwork, had it notarized, and filed yesterday.

    On 11/19/2011 I received a letter in the mail today with a BILL for several hundred dollars. They are trying to charge us for September and marked us as going "month to month".
    We put our notice in 2 months before the lease was up (30 days is required per our lease).

    I guess they are going to try to claim that we did not put our notice in. We filled out their official notice paper while in the office in front of them. I'm not exactly sure how they are going to prove that we didn't. Conversely, I'm not exactly sure how we can prove that we did. Although considering we shut off our utilities at the end of august, among other things, I am fairly certain we have pretty solid footing. I also have the phone records and names/times of the people we spoke to. As I mentioned, they called me at the begining of October asking if we were going to pay for September. We said no, we turned in our paperwork months ago and turned over our keys/etc... IN PERSON on August 30th.


    I filled out their change of address form at their office. They also have made several phone calls to me (documented) and never once asked for my forwarding address. I also sent them an email including my forwarding address and my mail has been forwarded since August. Their policy is to fill out their paperwork for the "forwarding address" which we did. That's why I'm thinking we'll have a chance.

    So I received another letter today (10/20/2011). I had the utilities transferred back to them as of the last day of the lease.They sent me a bill for the electric/gas charges incurred for September, the month after my lease ended.

    Timeline:

    June 2011 - Went to office, filled out paperwork for notice not to renew. Gave forwarding address.
    August 15th - I moved out
    August 30th - All utilities transferred to landlord, per landlords request via a phonecall, turned in keys, and gave forwarding address again. I was also denied a walkthrough.
    Sept 15th - called to follow up on security dep. They told me I will get a call about it.
    Oct 1st - no security deposit returned. They called me and asked if we planned to move out and go month to month. I told them we moved out per the notice we gave them. They said they will fix their records.
    Oct 17th - filed in small claims to get sec dep + damages back
    Oct 18th - Got letter with bill for Sept rent minus sec. dep. and a request to renew monthly.
    Oct 19th - Got a letter from apartment with a bill for elect and gas for september.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Landlord Falsely Claims I Moved Without Notice, Won't Return Deposit

    I just read through the lease twice and had my wife read it so I didn' t miss anything. It doesn't even say anything about needing to give 30 days notice at end of lease or it renews. All it says is (exact quote) "In the event tenancy created by this lease becomes month to month tenancy, Tenant must give LANDLORD at least (30) days advance written notice of intentions to terminate this lease"

    Also, section 21(a) -HOLDOVER states:
    If at the expiration of the term of this lease, or any renewal thereof, TENANT continues to occupy the premises , with or without the landlord's consent, such holding over shall not constitute a renewal of this lease, but TENANT shall be a "hold over TENANT, on a month-to-month basis at the rate of TWO HUNDRED PERCENT (200%) of the monthly rent set forth and such occupancy shall not defeat LANDLORD's right to possession of the premises.

    Now... That being said, I turned the keys in on the final day of my lease. I have the persons name and time recorded. I understand that isn't proof, but how on earth can I prove I turned the keys/garage door opener/mailkey/workout room key/pool keys in? It's not a maybe. I left work early to make sure they were turned in on time. I have time record at work recording me leaving early that day. I don't know how else to prove it.

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Landlord Falsely Claims I Moved Without Notice, Won't Return Deposit

    Did you get a receipt for the key? (I'm guessing not. Want to guess what would be a good idea when you turn in the key from your current leasehold?) Especially given you had several types of keys and a garage door opener, you really should have gotten a receipt for each of them.

    do you have any written communications (email or anything else) regarding the termination of the lease?

    Did the lease actually require notice of non-renewal? (yes, I admit I kind of quit reading at some point and did not see it by that time)

    So I received another letter today (10/20/2011). I had the utilities transferred back to them as of the last day of the lease.They sent me a bill for the electric/gas charges incurred for September, the month after my lease ended.
    do you have any proof you terminated the utilities from your name?

  4. #4

    Default Re: Landlord Falsely Claims I Moved Without Notice, Won't Return Deposit

    Quote Quoting jk
    View Post
    Did you get a receipt for the key? (I'm guessing not. Want to guess what would be a good idea when you turn in the key from your current leasehold?) Especially given you had several types of keys and a garage door opener, you really should have gotten a receipt for each of them.

    do you have any written communications (email or anything else) regarding the termination of the lease?

    Did the lease actually require notice of non-renewal? (yes, I admit I kind of quit reading at some point and did not see it by that time)

    do you have any proof you terminated the utilities from your name?
    I understand that now But I definitely turned them in. I filled out their "notice" form 2 months before I moved out, but have no copy of it. I read the lease twice, just now, and it has no requirement to inform them I don't want to renew. It says if I convert it to a month-to-month lease, THEN I need to give them 30days if I want to leave the month-to-month lease. So it looks like there isn't even a requirement to give them notice, even though I did, in writing.

    I have an email I sent from work on the day after my lease expired. When they took in the keys, they asked me to email them some info about some repairs that were not performed (roof leak) from the previous management company. I also sent my forwarding address (again) in the email. Heck, I'll include the entire email below. (FYI it would be easy for me to get proof this left our mailservers, as I work in Information Technology.)
    Here it is:
    Melinda, as per our phone conversation, I am sending you a list of the issues that were not taken care of. I talked to Felicia (I apologize if my spelling is off) awhile ago and she told us to write down all of the items that were not taken care of after we requested them be resolved. I planned to give the list during the walkthrough, but since that is no longer possible, I am sending it here. I'm not sure exactly when the landlord/ownership changed but most of these are from quiet awhile ago.

    -There were several stains and marks (imprints) on the carpet when we moved in and I have photo(dated) documentation of that. We let them know and they told us there wasn't much they could do.

    -Twice in the same week about a month after I moved in, my garage door got stuck and would not open, making me several hours late for work while I waited for maintenance. After the second time, they told me they would just unhook it so I could open it manually until they found time to properly fix it. I did not object as having a manual garage door is not a big deal to me. I only really used it in the winter anyway. It was never repaired as far as I know.

    -Near our fireplace, there was a big water leak on the ceiling and down the wall (inside and out) causing staining. This happened about a year ago, maybe a bit more. It also occurred in the bedroom closet on the opposite side of the fireplace and there are a few other spots that look like they were painted over at some point in the bedrooms that look like water too. They told us they would not be able to fix it the ceiling until the outside main leak near the chimney was fixed. We had a decorative shelf mounted above the fireplace. It looks like, when it got damp from the water, the paint stuck to it and it pulled off a bit when we removed it. The maintenance people told us that would be taken care of too, but I got tired of looking at it so I patched it up myself. For several months after that we made inquiries and they told us the repair outside was not made yet and they would let us know. I think that all happened when the old management company was in charge, but I'm not sure. It was over a year ago. About 2 months ago, I spoke to the maintenance person and he said it would be taken care of. After that never happened, we just gave up.

    -The attic door was unsealed/caulked when the workers initially went into the ceiling to look at the water leak. They never resealed the attic door.

    -There were a few cracks in the tile by the fireplace (They are in the pictures I originally took at move-in). When I brought it to their attention, I was told that many units have that problem and they would replace them when they fixed our ceiling, which did not happen.

    -There is a large stain in the hallway. When our hotwater tank gave out, the majority of our carpet was soaked with water and stains (perhaps from previous owners? Or just from the water?) came through. The maintenance worker lifted the carpet up and put a large fan under it to air it out for a few days after the hotwater heater was replaced (also note, there is a big scrape in the outside hallway where they rested the old hotwater heater for a few days). He told us that, short of replacing the carpeting, there wasn't much they could do about the big stain. Also, after the flooding, linoleum closest to the bathtub in the bathroom across from the water heater started to come up a little.

    - Over a year ago we mentioned the lower kitchen cabinet corners (and the piece of wood under the sink) were in bad shape. They never made a work order or anything , just told us it was common and to use "superglue" to but it back on. We didn't mess with it after that.

    -Just as I was doing one last walkthrough, I noticed a few nail holes in the laundry room and found it odd because we never had anything hanging on the walls in there. I checked my pictures from when we originally moved in and they were there so I guess the previous tenants never filled them in.

    Please don't take the above items as "complaining". We enjoyed living at the <APARTMENT NAME> and would consider coming back if our situation allowed. (We had a new daughter and needed something larger)

    Thanks!
    <MY FULL NAME, NEW ADDRESS, EMAIL ADDRESS, AND PHONE NUMBER>

    EDIT: Yes, I have proof that all utilities were transferred back to them the last day of our lease, Aug 30. They are trying to charge us for them because they claimed we lived there in September. I also have utility bills from our new place various other moving bills dating back to the middle of August.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Landlord Falsely Claims I Moved Without Notice, Won't Return Deposit

    It says if I convert it to a month-to-month lease, THEN I need to give them 30days if I want to leave the month-to-month lease. So it looks like there isn't even a requirement to give them notice, even though I did, in writing.
    Ok.

    since the lease was self terminating, they have to prove you were a holdover tenant. Since you have proof with the utilities (not actual proof of leaving but general support of your intent), the information concerning moving to the new apartment (again, not actual proof you left but general support of your intent and lack of need to remain at the old apartment), and the email, I suspect a judge would tend to lean your way, unless they have some solid proof to the contrary of your claims.

    I would make a detailed list of your actions involved with this. Dates as accurate as possible to pin down (do not make an absolute if you are not sure. state it as "about" or "I believe") as well as the people you dealt with for each interaction. Take that to court with you. Judges like to see a concise and accurate accounting of the details and it will help you from stumbling when asked for a date or contact person.


    August 30th - All utilities transferred to landlord, per landlords request via a phonecall,
    if you can document that phone call, it would be great. The LL would either have to accept your claims or come up with some other reason they spoke with you where you transferred the utilities shortly after and yet claim you were not in the midst of moving out.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Landlord Falsely Claims I Moved Without Notice, Won't Return Deposit

    Sounds good. They would be hard-pressed to find any proof I was there after August 30th. I didn't have keys or access to anything and I was completely occupied with unpacking at my new place.

    So do you think the judge will deal with their claims of me not even moving out in this lawsuit? Or will it solely be based on the security deposit? Because I filed before I knew they wanted to charge me for September. In other words, is it possible I am rewarded my security deposit back, then the landlord sues me for the rent from the month they claim I was there? Or will this all be combined?

    I hate all of this stuff. If they would have just not tried to lie and squeeze extra money out of me, I would have even considered moving back there. I liked the place.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Landlord Falsely Claims I Moved Without Notice, Won't Return Deposit

    well, their defense to your demand for the deposit is based on you becoming a holdover tenant so he has to address both issues.

    the court can address the security deposit issue entirely in this case as it stands. The LL would simply show why he believes he has a right to retain the deposit and if the judge agrees, you don't get your deposit returned.

    Any money the landlord wants to seek above and beyond the deposit would have to be in a counterclaim (countersuit). If the LL does not file one, the LL should not be able to win a judgment for anything above the deposit but the LL can file either a counterclaim and it be heard at the same time or he could file a separate suit after this is heard and decided.

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