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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    1

    Default Landlord Claiming False Damages After Moveout

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

    Georgia

    So I have a now former landlord who has itemized about 5k in damages. He claims the following:
    House Paint - $1200.00
    Replacing Carpet - $3000.00 (Got the carpets professionally cleaned still soiled very badly)
    Cleaning the House - $100.00
    Garage Remote - $100.00
    Living Room Light Fixture - $100.00
    Re Key Fee - $200.00

    Total $4700.00
    Deposit Adjustment $900.00
    Balance $ 3800.00


    I sent him back the following message:
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Almost 5000 dollars? How about not [Landlord]. The garage remote costs next to nothing so I refuse to hand you more than 15 bucks for that, let alone 100. The light fixture in the living room was never there in the first place so I refuse to pay for that as well. The re-key fee is absurd as you only gave us the one key and we made another in case we lost it. You have both the original and the copy. Also there is only one door in the house that uses the house key so 200 dollars for a lock is insane. The carpets were already soiled badly when we moved in and had been professionally cleaned before we moved in according to [original brokerage company he was working with]. Now I suppose that since you've had renters, you are trying to attempt to make them pay for that and save yourself cash even though the carpets are hardly worse off than they were if at all. The walls are the only claim you might could make and not every room in that house needed repainting, let alone every wall. The walls I can think of in question were even in poor condition when we moved in. I refuse to accept such an outrageous Move-out form especially since I never got a comparison to the move-in form. Also I refuse to pay a cent until you can show me both the before and after photos which I have not seen that shows a significantly worse state than the original. If you do not have them, you aren't receiving a penny.

    Attached is the original Move-in inspection form which, contains on the other side
    of the page a Move-out inspection form. Also note that every room is listed as having
    dirty/stained floor and the garage floor as having chipped paint.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



    He has replied:
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    When you buy things yourself and when you have a company come and do stuff it is different and that is the reason I had been repeatedly telling you to get the things back in order.
    Remote call a company and ask them how much would they charge to come replace and configure it, Ask a locksmith to come replace the locks and see what do they charge, Light fixture was always there it is in all the pictures we posted for renting the house, None of the cost I mentioned is a penny more than it would cost me to get it done, This is a reasonable market price, Yes if you do it by yourself it could be done much cheaper.
    Who would rent a place with soiled carpets so that argument is already VOID, yes there were few stains but were very very light which nobody will notice until you really stare at it and you know very well about it, you are making a point for a sake of it. I have all the pictures of the condition of the house. So nobody can question looking at the pictures that the house did not need a paint.
    Make sure nobody in this business wants to make money out of this. I just want my house back in the condition we gave it to you, nothing has been done except painting and cleaning. House should have been given to us in a clean good condition on 04.30.13. We will give you 3 more days if you would like to come and do all the things by yourself, again If we pay the money to somebody it goes out from your pocket and we are giving you time to do the things yourself so that you can save money on it.
    Please let me know when can you do it. If it is not done by Close of Business 05.09.13 we will have to get it done from outside vendors and you will be responsible for actual cost of getting the repairs done to whatever you have spoiled.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    After this letter, I have chosen to discontinue contact with the landlord for the moment. He didn't even get the security deposit amount right which was 950 dollars and is stated in the lease. I contacted the brokerage company, whom he had been working with until halfway through our lease when he decided to terminate his agreement with them, to receive again another copy of the move-in form and lease, as well as a copy of the original move-in photos which pretty clearly show no ceiling fixture. Also the rekey fee is listed as 75 dollars in the original lease, but I need to unpack some boxes to get to the 4 month contract extension to make sure that that didn't change. The brokerage company told us to make the extra key as we had 1 key for 3 people. We rented the place with the soiled carpets and so forth because the rent was cheap, the location was perfect, and we were out of time to find a place as our lease on the apartment we had been in was up. Do these sound like bully tactics or can he make me pay for all the damages? Is there anything I need to be doing in the mean time short of spending money I don't really have on an attorney?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Posts
    18,340

    Default Re: Landlord Claiming False Damages After Moveout

    He can only charge you for damage that you did and not for damage that existed before you moved in. He also can't charge you for ordinary wear and tear.

    That you have the original move-in inspection would provide you with a substantial defense if he sued you, which would likely be in small claims court where neither of you would need a lawyer.

    That he is keeping your deposit with this bogus list of damages gives you a cause of action for a lawsuit under the state's security deposit law (Article 2):

    http://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/...-44/chapter-7/

    You might want to consider a pre-emptive lawsuit for the $950.

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