All Forum Posts by: Nichola King

Just a quick update, we went for mediation last Wednesday that lasted for 4 hours, with no agreement. The mediator finished it by saying that there was no point in setting up another mediation as both sides had been heard throughly. He did also say to the landlady and the agent to go away and read the law and think about our offer $600 for the back lawn we let them off the 3 days rent they owe us for moving in early...he also said as it's reading with the civil code we provided as we owe nothing are trying to be more than reasonable. We haven't heard from them yet...and it will be a week tomorrow.
They decided they wanted $3000...no break down for what...and we are still waiting for something itemized in our hands. 9 1/2 weeks later after moving out.
Can't believe they didn't have the brains to give us anything in mediation with a witness there!
May send them another certified letter threatening to sue...or may just get an attorney to do it, as I might need some legal advice at the same time anyway.
I think I will sue for the whole deposit , 3 days rent, court costs and small damages...really just want my money back, a little worried about suing for double in case the only people that get paid are attorneys fees....(which won't be cheap for both sides)...if it ends up in civil court....even though tempting (not because of money) but see how you like it attitude...taking from their pocket like they feel like they can with ours.
Anyway...I will update this if this goes to court or an agreement is made.

okay...sorry for the replicant posts...not sure how to delete them :)
Just to make it clear..the actual lawn damage caused by the dog is only about $600 ..which i offered...but they want to replace the whole back yard (which apart from dog damaged area (150 sq ft) the rest is fine) and front yard...which had drainage/ irrigation issues - they've admitted that!...on my expense... total is for lawn $4800 ...now some what less cos they are halving the front lawn costs...and making me pay the rest...proof of the deposit received today for only $500 odd dollars.

no i haven't received anything in writing itemized (5 weeks since move out) only some of it via email- which was was late! which is not legal and told them this!!...never mind charging me for costs I'm not responsible for. (fraud-bad faith)
I have just received a check for just over $500 today with no letter/itemization included....but i know from an email that this is because they were halving the cost of the front lawn costs..including charging for cleaning windows despite video evidence that they were clean the day of leaving...and landlord made no complaint on day of walk through....infact we even boasted that we had cleaned them inside and out that weekend to him. His excuse was he wasn't paying attention at the time..?
Funny that they only get a estimated quote for window cleaning on the 20 th day of moving out...which is via email and someone does it looking at google earth knowing there are about 40 windows....they forward it on to me via email 7 days later...it's like they are looking for any reason to charge me.
I was willing to pay for the lawn damage despite being after 21 days,.. (sent 2 letters in writing certified mail to the agent and landlord saying this with the cost) as well as talked via phone and email...but those letters are on their way back to me now as they have refused to pick them up from the post office despite me telling them several times via email that they should pick it up.

I'm in the process of setting up mediation...hopefully get my full deposit back now...and yes If I have to go to court I will go for double my deposit...not because I'm greedy but because these people have been trying to steal nearly $4500 extra dollars from me illegally (i should only owe them about $600)..and they know that...and I want to handle this through an attorney...as this is bringing on a lot of stress, tears and anxiety doing this on my own. When I first dealt with this, i thought of just going for small claims...but now seeing how nasty and unfair they are being I can see why the law says the penalty for acting in bad faith entitles the person for double.
Anyway...have to see how mediation goes first...hoping they will co operate and give me back my money.

Thank you Brian for your reply.

Just an update, I have requested mediation via email today to the landlord and the agent...and on Monday will be contacting a mediation company to get the ball rolling, as it states in my contract (except small claims) I have to do this to have attorney fees paid.
If they accept this I feel my case is a lot stronger than theirs (acting in bad faith too many times) , I plan to stick by my guns and will be requesting and explaining why I want my full deposit back... and in return I will not take them to court for double deposit...which is too high to do in small claims in San Diego.
So I need to cover my bases, and offer mediation. If they refuse then I will get a mediation company to request it on my behalf. So at least I have my attorney fees covered if it goes as far as court after refusing.
At this point I could take them to small claims just for the deposit, but any judge can be unpredictable and just want have all my back covered so I think it's wise to sue for double to cover myself incase they counter sue and the judge thinks I should pay the amount I actually owe for the lawn anyway. I've not been unreasonable and offered the price of the lawn that my dog damaged, but they are still asking for damages that are about 5 x more than I should be charged.

Anyway question:

on my lease it's ticked on the lease that the tenant is responsible for landscaping, lawn, shrubs etc...
but the added addendum states...that we pay the owner $80 a month for landscaping direct to the landlords.
I have emails to prove that all garden maintenance was covered throughout our time leasing (cos I complained and number of times about the grass not being cut/trees looking a mess etc).. Anyway prior to moving in I asked via email to the agent, why the lease says we are responsible when we pay for yard maintenance and don't mind what watering the grass but nothing else.. He sent us an email back , saying sorry for the misunderstanding and a new addendum to sign adding the words"paying $80 a month for landscaping in compliance to 11c (which refers back to the maintenance contract)
Now the agent only quotes the first addendum ...god knows what happened to the second.
We never did receive a copy of the lease just after moving in.
But if the landlords use that in court...and the court dismisses the emails and/or the changes that was made with the addendum (no proff of signing)....am I actually responsible for landscaping, shrubs lawn etc?...as I was paying the owner $80 a month to provide the maintenance.

Anyway, like the owner said via phone to my husband...they have some sort or irrigation problem and had to remove a tree and sort out the irrigation (they aren't charging for that just the sod) ....so surely this wouldn't hold us responsible anyway.
The lawn has looked bad for over a year, the landlords came back last November from China and drove past the house and complained to the agent that the trees didn't look healthy. The agent told us this when he came by again and wanted to increase the water sprinkler times....even though they were already set by law to what was the maximum allowed ...at that time, and like times before and after vocally we told him that the front yard had more trees than any house in the neighborhood....and did say it could be a drainage problem also....on top of that we can't help there being a water shortage in San diego.
From all this info, where do we stand from here?

Fire Dragon

If you had paid rent I feel like they wouldn't of had to of gone through a cheap contractor in the first place, and the bathroom would had been an inconvenience for just a couple of weeks.
Instead of spending more time posting on the topic get your check book out and write them a check. It might not be for the full amount, even though morally it would be rude if you actually have the money to pay it in full...infact alot of people would throw in some extra for their patience...but those kinda people wouldn't be 3 years late.
Just give them the money, minus one months rent...without saying a word. If they mention your friend said it was okay. But I have a feeling they won't mind. Just be aware though...they most likely will be renovating another room with all the spare cash they will now have ... :D

thank you all so much for taking the time to read and then reply with some encouraging advice.

P NW : yeah I did get a notice (email) and wasn't happy see "owe us money call me to discuss it."
Got a smile on my face when I read my contract, and it was now either 22 or 24 days after I moved out depending how you look at it...Now after reading around it was certainly 24 days.

I got a reply back from the agent about the letter....which read "so to who exactly did you leave your forwarding address with?" ...
Told him the owner, but to be honest I'm not 100 % certain I did. He knew our phone number and was texting and emails several times...up to the walk through...so I can't remember if I actually gave him the paper with my address on that day. Oh well, I've checked it out legally ...and it makes no difference cos the agent or owner has to send it to my old address (recorded) and I get my mailed forwarded.
Yeah ..I think they are sweating.
No i got no inventory when I moved in (the owner was so mad when I told him), before the walkthrough my husband made a long detailed video of the house to cover ourselves...but the owner never itemized anything himeself. The first day we met him we told him the agent was useless... and he said he was going to get rid of him and we were only have to deal with him..until the day he moved in (uninvited) and we did the walkthrough, he changed his mind and said David (the agent) would be taking care of handling the deposit. (I sussed something then that, and had a feeling at that point he planned to take the whole deposit and didn't want to be the bearer of bad news).
Well I did warn him the agent was useless!! ... it's now 26 days past move out and still have nothing...serves the owner right for being so greedy and sly. LOL
I would never had looked into my rights if he had been reasonable.
As for the garden, the back has some brown patches cos of dog urine...in my contract it says I'm responsible for the yard, shrubs etc....but also says I have to pay the owners an additional $80 a month for them to provide a gardener to do that maintenance. For the first 20 months it was....yeah you guessed it the agent with an illegal whenever they bothered to show up.. So I have mentioned that we don't feel 100 responsible as we were paying them to provide the garden maintenance,,,,and I have dozens of emails to the agent complaining about it not getting done for months, stuffed palm leaves behind trash cans, in my trash (so I can't add more rubbish and the refuse guys refusing to take it that week!!).....

I sent a certified letter to the owners this morning to their home address and to the agents address. So we will have to see what happens.
Top it all off the owner's son sits right next to mine in Algebra at high school and have become good friends...and regularly walk to school and home together.
So I hope they accept their $600 and really don't force things to court.

I was given a 60 day notice to move out of my rental home (be out by by Aug 31), as the owners were soming back from China and moving back in . I started moving my things over in to my new home 10 days before that date, 7 days before the lease was up the owner turned up out of the blue and asked to look around, I let him in and he asked for a spare key so he could organize measurements for new carpets etc.
5 days before moving out, he shows up at the house and told me that he had moved a new mattress into one of the bedrooms, I said nothing other than I haven't been upstairs. He then asked if I could be at the house in the at 8.30 in the morning (3 days before end of lease) so i could let the delivery guys in to deliver more mattresses. I said no, but he asked my husband the night before and my husband did.
Later that evening we had the walk through with him, sure enough the as soon as he turned up he had his kids and a car full of suitcases etc......and carried them into the house. My husband said "are you moving in" his reply was yes...the walk through was fine except some dead grass at the back which we had already offered to replace. As he had already told us he wasn't moving in until Sep 5 (not the Aug 29th )...we had agreed for him to get some quotes as the work would be best off done whilst he was there as to water it, but to not go ahead with anything until we agreed on the price. Like I said, he turned up with his things and moved in early without asking....but hey we went with the flow, cos we wanted our deposit back.
Now this is where I'm angry, Yesterday (sept 22) 22 days after the lease expired (or 24 days after he basically moved in and we gave him the keys and confirmed in a text) his agent tells us via email that they have an estimate and we owe more than the deposit to do the grass (deposit is $4600) ...there was no supporting itemized estimate or even a figure..just a a quick message. My husband spoke to the agent, and was told that was for the whole yard around the house (1000 sq ft) we have evidence of photos from moving in that the grass was dead at the front ..we only have to sod about 400 sq ft - but $4800 ?? We told the owner that we didn't damage the grass at the front...even google earth shows it dead in 2005..lol
Anyway sent an email, I offered $600 for damages and that I want the rest back by California law within 7 days or I will take them to court for the full amount. As they have taken over 21 days without any correspondence or a reason for the delay. I will be sending a letter saying the same thing in the morning of course.
Do you think I have every right here asking for most of it back? I feel like I could just say give me back the whole amount, but I want to come across as being reasonable if it ends up at small claims. I feel like they are robbing me.
2 years, Over 80k paid in rent..left the house spotless and was accommodating with the owner..even left him my ladders to borrow. What a cheek. Any advice would be great.

Thanks guys for the great advice, I had a CPA call me today, but when I asked him for an appointment he said maybe he could just answer my question over the phone...so I gave him my details and he basically ended up confusing me with out telling me what I should do, but more or less said how I could figure out it out on my own how much it would cost me if I rented..which is where I got confused..got the feeling he wasn't interested in sitting down and looking through my paper work and doing it all for me. Nice guy, but I really need a CPA that will work this stuff out for me, and just give me options with the numbers ...so I can decide...so once I see a CPA ..I will come back and let you know what happened....might be interesting for others who are in a similar position as me.
Btw...i got the figure $2600 rent, cos the condos in my complex rent for about that amount....and a real estate agent that I'm working with suggested that price...
nickie

Hey guys, I'm new here, but been scanning this forum for the last 2 days and some of you seem to give great advice so I thought I would join and pick your brains. I'm planning to see a CPA next week....but would love some feed back here in the meantime cos I'm stressing out...lol

My family and I relocated down to San Diego from LA 5/6 months ago...the company so far have been paying our rent here ($3600) , but we still own and pay for our home back in LA. Now we need to make a decision to either rent or sell our home, as they won't pay our rent here forever. The company has agreed to pay for all closing costs if we sell.
Details:
We bought the house/condo in Dec 2004 at $450k
and have just over 400k left on the mortgage, I think that the house might be worth now anywhere between $420 -$460...hard to tell in the complex cos of so many foreclosures...
We pay about $5,400 in property tax, and pay 2 HOA's.. $400 a month ($100 for the area, and $300 for the gated community).
Now I was going to rent for $2600 to cover the mortgage (which is about $2500...the principle is about $250 the rest is interest)), and cover the HOA's and property tax myself...the thing is my husband earns over $150k so we don't get the tax benefits as far as I know.
We do have extra money aside ..about $80-90k in the UK...was hoping to use that to help upgrade to a new home someday...don't mind spending some of it to keep the current...but just scared of throwing our money away in the meantime even if the house does go back up again in few years...and make no money at all but a loss...most of all our savings gone..house now has capital gains if we leave it too long (even if we can recoup some of that loss as passive loss when we sell...seems like injecting so much money each month over x amount of years won't really pay back), and the company not paying closing costs then etc...
Is it worth it, should we just sell?...what about tax benefits of keeping it as a holiday home...seem as though we won't qualify for tax deductions if it's rented but do on a second home.

Any advice would be appreciated.. :wink:
we've lived in the house for 5 yrs btw