All Forum Posts by: Tiffany Evors

Mr. Christopher Shawn Eady, Yes, my husband has been in construction for over 20 years and could’ve easily made any of these minor tiny repairs quickly and cheaply. That is why when we did the walk-through with the landlord‘s wife we asked her if there was anything at all that she saw needed attention so that we could handle it right away, and she said no, everything was just fine for turning the house over and getting our deposit back. We then tried to call her husband because he had been out of town at the time of the walk-through, to double-check on this, I emailed both of them a couple of times, text them both and left phone voicemail messages for both of them, with no response whatsoever. Finally, my husband called from a different phone number the landlord did not recognize and Bob answered. My husband asked him if there was anything at all in the house that he saw needed attention or was overlooked during the initial walk-through the day after move out with his wife, so that we could fix it immediately rather than have it removed from our deposit, but he refused us the opportunity. He was very abrupt verging on rude and said he would send us an itemize list and that was that.

Mr. Levi T. Sir I believe you misunderstood regarding the smoke detector… We did not remove it from the ceiling completely. We only unscrewed the top part, and forget forgot to screw that back on. Would’ve taken us 30 seconds maximum. I believe you were thinking we had actually removed the entire mechanism from the wall. Also, I believe very much in the importance of smoke detectors for fire protection and the only way I was OK with us removing it is because less than 2 feet away there was another working smoke detector already installed.

Me. Sam Shueh, Sir, I don’t think you’re understanding correctly the situation with the trash. We did communicate with the landlord, we told his wife we would be coming back to finish a few details which she said was absolutely fine. We told her there was trash we would be taking out, as well as a few items still left in the garage and we made an appointment with her for the walk-through. She said all of that was fine. When we showed up for the walk-through, she had already taken the trash from the backyard. We were unable to put it at the curb because it is against HOA rules to leave it at the curb before a certain time the night before trash day. We moved out two days before trash day. So, for some strange reason they decided to handle this themselves and charge us $20 when we had a verbal agreement to come back and take the trash to the curb when we came for the walk-through, it is truly not our fault that they decided to do this on their own.

Mr. Steve Rosenberg, This was a very nice home we were renting in a nice HOA neighborhood, the landlord has a few properties but he does not have any procedures and policies manual. We were extremely good tenants and have always received a 100 percent back on our lease deposits in the over a dozen homes we have rented over the years. Perhaps you were thinking we lived in an apartment?

Yes, the landlord and his wife manage their own properties, they own a few properties here and in another state or two. No they do not have any property managers or vendors helping them, he always does any needed repairs himself which is unfortunate, because he is a retired college professor who does not know how to do most repairs properly or quickly. My husband has been an expert in construction for over two decades and cannot believe how ineffective the landlord does repairs on his homes, and how long it takes him, it’s ridiculous. And no to answer the gentleman’s question about a vendor giving him an itemized bill, There was no billing because the landlord did all of the work himself.

Yes, we did fill out an initial walk-through report, I believe we had one week or 10 days to tell them anything we found wrong with the home. The walk-through report lists all of the dirtiness found in the home, we rented a dirty home unfortunately because the landlord and his wife had a friend clean it before hand because they were out of town, and it took me almost an entire day to clean the home before we could even really move in. This is in writing and the landlord‘s wife even admitted and apologized for the home being dirty and us havingTo clean it. As someone owning a cleaning company that does make readies, I can tell you we would’ve charged between $150 and $200 to do the needed cleaning on the home to have it ready for occupants.

@fred heller what do you think sir?

My husband and I moved out of our leased home a few weeks ago. We always kept the place extremely neat & clean the entire 13 months we lived there. We actually own and operate a high-end luxury home cleaning business. We hired professional cleaners upon move-out & also had the carpets professionally cleaned at 6 months living there and again upon move-out and used proper chemicals and a professional power washer to clean any oil stains from the driveway we may have caused with our old work vehicle. Our landlord charged us the following odd, ridiculous charges: $3.33 To empty out the ice from the freezer ice maker $1.08 To screw a lightbulb in the bathroom vanity $30.00 To remove a nice black metal paper towel holder we had put in the kitchen cabinet $6.67 To fill and paint a tiny minuscule hole barely visible to the naked eye in the kitchen pantry door $3.00 For a smoke detector battery $3.33 To remove a small piece of duct tape from a wall switch in the kitchen we had placed there because every time someone flipped the switch accidentally it would turn the dishwasher off. Most people thought it was a light switch or even the garbage disposal switch. $13.33 To unscrew a small bottle opener and supposedly repairing the two little holes. $20.00 To repair a cracked microwave exhaust cover, which was actually already cracked when we moved in, but we didn’t catch it early enough to get it on our move-in walk-through report unfortunately. $6.67 To remove the piece of duct tape and residue over the crack of the microwave exhaust cover we had placed. $3.33 To put a smoke detector back on the ceiling (We had finally removed it because no matter how many times we replaced the battery, we finally realized it was broken, we could never get it to stop the constant annoying chirping, And we forgot to put it back up before leaving) And the most ridiculous one of all… $20.00 To take our 2 trash cans to the curb along with the some extra bags of trash and old empty cardboard boxes. We came back to do it the day after moving out, the night before trash day, and they had already done it which she said was no problem they didn’t mind, and then we got this charge! We didn’t take them to the curb the day we moved because it is against HOA rules and we didn’t want our landlord to receive a fine. Unbelievable!!! There are numerous other small nickel and dime type dumb charges, totaling to $265.46, which the landlord took out of our deposit. We have never in all of our years of leasing nice homes, seen something like this. We are dream tenets every landlord wishes they could have… We treat the home with excellent care, keep it very clean, don’t damage the property and return it in awesome condition, which is why we have impeccable references both personal and professional and an absolutely excellent rental history. We pay our rent every month, don’t cause any problems with the neighbors or for our landlord and we have always received our full deposit back upon moving out. We are dumbfounded and wondering if we should just accept this or what we should do, if anything. Professionals, please advise! Thank you, The Evors Austin, TX