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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    2

    Default Landlady Refuses to Base Deductions Upon Reasonable Wear and Tear

    My question involves a security deposit in the State of: Virginia

    I've spent hours upon hours online looking things up and printing up the VA Landlord-Tenant handbook and at this point I feel as if I'm banging my head against a brick wall.

    We moved out at the beginning of January and have been working to fix up the apartment to reach "rentable" level, as per the landlady's request. What we've found though, is that she is completely unaccepting that there are laws that govern what a landlord can and cannot charge for. She's citing a laundry list of damages that make the apartment un-rentable like:

    <ul>

    <li>small black marks on walls</li>
    <li>fingerprints around light switches on the walls</li>
    <li>carpet has marks on it (carpet has been professionally cleaned twice, both services have stated that the carpet is a very poor grade and that the discoloration is everyday wear and tear, made worse by vents that were not secured correctly, allowing all of the dust and dirt from the top floors to fall down onto the carpets. Addtionally, it is a basement apartment with entry through a sliding glass door and patio, both of which are surrounded by mud.)</li>
    <li>spider webs left at the tops of walls </li>
    <li>dirty vertical blinds (that have been cleaned twice professionally)</li>
    <li>a spot of carpet that was repaired from a pet that she approved to live there </li>
    <li>cracks in the shower from water damage from a pipe that's burst behind the shower stall </li>
    <li>water damage along the bottom of the walls as a result of the burst pipe (which she maintains is not infact water damage but pet urine, though it continues into rooms that the pets never entered and when the shower is run, water leaks out of the wall in the adjacent room)</li>
    <li>a wet box on the patio</li>
    <li>bits of twine on the patio</li>
    <ul>

    When I am at the apartment trying to get her to list off all of the issues that she has with the apartment, she will only list the most blatant things, like the carpet and the water damage, but when my boyfriend who lived there as well goes alone, she gives him this laundry list of issues and refuses to accept any responsiblity for the structural damages in the apartment and will not accept guidelines of reasonable wear and tear on walls/blinds/carpets etc.

    I'm at my wits end. I have no idea what to do with this woman. I've tried everything short of shaking her in hopes that common sense will take the place of these childish and unreasonable expectations.

    I've contacted the Consumer Affairs board and spoken with an investigator who has told me that we will have to wait until she sends us the remaining deposit and the itemized list of repairs etc before we can file a complaint, but I'm afraid that she'll try to hide the evidence of her negligence as a landlady with things like the wall with water damage. We've already seen that she tried to scrub the mold off of the walls in the room where the damage is the worst, so we took pictures that are dated, but I don't know what to do about the other deductions that she's trying to take from our deposit. We really can't afford to lose our deposit of $1500, which seems to be the number that she feels will satisfy all of the damages and allow her to rent the apartment again.

    Any kind of help is greatly appreciated.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Landlady Refuses to Base Deductions Upon Reasonable Wear and Tear

    If you don't get a reasonable refund of your security deposit, you can sue your landlady in small claims court.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    2

    Default Re: Landlady Refuses to Base Deductions Upon Reasonable Wear and Tear

    I know that I can sue her in small claims, but we were hoping to avoid that. We're also afraid that she'll attempt to cover up evidence of the water damage by painting over it so that when a professional does come in to check it out, it's harder for them to give a determination.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Toledo, OH
    Posts
    16,307

    Default Re: Landlady Refuses to Base Deductions Upon Reasonable Wear and Tear

    I know that I can sue her in small claims, but we were hoping to avoid that.
    Since she's being so deliberately uncooperative, how do you propose to avoid it?

    She has made it abundantly clear that she has no intentions of following the rules. When you have someone like that on your hands, there really is nothing left to do but sue.

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