All Forum Posts by: Jesse P.

Understood, thanks for the clarification.

Just in case I wasn't clear enough in my original post: I have all original invoices and receipts for all work done, on original company letterhead, with clearly itemized descriptions and costs of the work performed or items replaced.

I assure you that Judge Joel Wohfeil will find that I have all the necessary receipts and invoices that he demands of his defendants as landlords.

Thanks again!

J

Joe,

I do have an HOA invoice on letterhead that clearly states $100 to replace the building key (it's one of those key types that's not able to be copied, it opens lobby doors and manually for the garage if you don't have a remote) and $50 to replace a garage remote. How or why the HOA sets those prices is beyond me, though it is uniform for any tenant in the building that needs those replacements. It has consistently been those prices for a decade. If it's $1 or $1000, I don't see how him disagreeing with the price to replace it absolves him from being responsible for it. It's my property that I loaned him in good faith, and it's noted that i gave him the key and remote on the lease that he signed. He lost it, he's responsible for it.

I'm not sure what I would have to explain? I looked at it and figured $125 would do it because I couldn't get a floor guy to come out yet. When the floor guy came and looked at it, he said $250. If the professional says $250, but my untrained eye first said $125, what's the precedent?

The CA tenant handbook was also a little vague about when I have to include receipts with the refund. It said I didn't have to if the charges were under $126, but I didn't know if that was the sum total of cleaning/repairs/replacements or if the individual item was less than $126. I hope that isn't going to hurt me since I didn't include the copies, though i do have them all in order.

Thanks, everyone! You've all been a great help making me feel like I have everything in order! I have one last question, though...

Since the quoted floor damage estimate was twice as much as I initially made my own initial estimate for ($125 vs. $250), would I be able to counter-sue for that additional money if he decided to sue me? I'm wondering if I could possibly use that as leverage for him to rethink his plan of bullying me with a court appearance.

Thanks again!

Thanks for the insight, Michelle! I do also have the original receipts from when I had the condo and carpets cleaned to prove that I had that specific work done before they moved in. Hopefully that would help a potential defense.

I was wondering if you could give me some advice on this other thing: He sent me that text message last week disputing my claims, but hasn't contacted me since, but he also hasn't cashed the check. Should I just wait for him to formally contact me? I feel like I shouldn't have to chase him since he's the one with the problem, and I cut him his check, so as far as I'm concerned my due diligence is met and the ball is now in his court.

Can he keep that check indefinitely if he doesn't cash it? I'm not sure what my options are if he doesn't communicate with me but he never cashes the check?

This is my first experience as a landlord, and what a headache this one tenant has been.

When the lease with a pair of tenants renting our condo lapsed, they never informed me that they desired an initial inspection, despite my offering of it to them in writing with about 45 days left on the lease.

After they vacated, I had a brief list of things that needed to be addressed:

• The condo was much dirtier than when I initially handed it over to them (I hired a cleaning service to do a 'move-in' cleaning of the empty unit before they moved in).
• There was a nickel-sized hole punched through one of my floorboards with some kind of cheap resin patch job done to address it, this looked like someone jumped on a couch and put the foot through the board
• The carpets in both bedrooms where pretty dirty; not vacuumed and had an off smell to them. (I also had the carpets professionally cleaned before they moved in as well.)
• One tenant claimed his garage remote was stolen from his car and he also broke his building key. The HOA mailed him new keys/devices and billed my account accordingly. This was ~60 days before the lease ended.

Steps I had taken after assessing the condo:

• Hired a cleaning service to clean the condo and return it to the condition I originally handed it to them ($50)
• Made a good faith estimate on my own of ($125) to repair the floorboard, but an actual estimate came out to $250. I'm totally fine with honoring the $125 I originally sent them, though.
• Hired a carpet cleaning service to clean the carpets ($100)
• Got an actual invoice from the HOA regarding the cost to replace the garage remote and building key ($50 & $100, respectively)

I split the cleaning/repairs between them @ $137.50 and added $150 to the tenant who had new keys and garage remotes.

Within 21 days after the lease ended I mailed them both their refunds and itemized list of deductions via certified mail. Tenant A, who only had $137.50 deducted, cashed his check the day he received it. Tenant B, (who has always been the difficult one, very entitled) who had $287.50 deducted, sent me a text message telling me he was entitled to a full refund and he disputes my charges. He feels he isn't responsible for losing my garage remote or breaking my key, and says I should complain to the HOA about how much those things cost, but it isn't his problem(?), and that he's never had a security deposit withheld from any of his previous leases (That's my problem...how?).

I wouldn't put it past B to threaten me with a small claims court suit over the money, and I'm nervous that some loophole or nitpick detail is going to bite me in the behind. I'm not sure how you could take pictures of dirty, un-vacuumed carpets, or record the smell of the rooms, so I don't have pictures of those. I do have pictures of the damaged floorboard, though.

This is my first time as a landlord, and I've gone over the CA tenant handbook a dozen times to make sure I'm doing everything as above board as possible, but I'm looking for some kind of assurance that I'm in the clear if I get taken to small claims.

Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated!