I picked up the prescription anti-itch cream.
I also made a surprise visit to my landlord's house. Even though he's got a new tenant not all is finished. He's supposed to let me know how much of my deposit I get back. Said I'd have it no later than December 2. But they've been ignoring my emails so I just showed up.
He acted like he had no idea why I would be ringing his doorbell. When I asked about my deposit he said they sent a certified letter. When I said I hadn't gotten anything and it's now past the 2nd, he said it was because they didn't know my address so they put the rental house address on it and that it had come back to them and they had to sent it back out. (So what made them think it would work a second time if it didn't the first??) I could tell he was lying. When I asked what I was getting back he acted like he didn't know anything about my deposit because his wife handles all that stuff. Really? I'm supposed to believe that they never talk about anything?
Then, despite his supposedly not knowing anything about it, as an afterthought and no very nicely he said that I forfeited my deposit by breaking my lease and that I wasn't getting anything back. Whoa, I wasn't expecting that kind of reaction. For one thing, I asked permission to get out of my lease and he agreed to it. Plus, I have it in email where they said they would deduct necessary yard work and house cleaning costs from my deposit and then get the rest back to me as soon as they could "no later than December 2". (Backpay for the water bill was to be deducted from it as well, which pretty much wipes out my entire deposit. But that's ok, I was expecting that).
What's not ok is for him to tell me that instead of deducting it, they're going to just bill me for the work and the water bill! He kept saying, "It's in your contract. Read it. Read my letter, and if you have any questions after that, call me." Wait a sec, I thought he said he didn't know anything about any of this? (He did. I'm being facetious). This is exactly why I just showed up at his door without calling. I knew something was up.
As far as I'm concerned, that contract is now expired because of the changes we agreed to and because he's got a new tenant. And besides, I pointed out to him that all this time, from September when I asked if he would let me out of my lease (and he said yes) until now, they said nothing about keeping the deposit but instead led me to believe we were all on the same page.
I asked him why they would purposely mislead me, literally lie to me, and he actually said, "The reason we didn't say anything was because we didn't want a confrontation." Wow. I'm assuming they meant that they were the ones who would be confrontational because I'm not, nor should they have reason to expect me to be. All I did was ask a question, "Will you let me out of my lease?" Later followed by, "Can those costs be deducted from my deposit?" As far as I'm concerned, their emails agreeing to these things overrides the rental agreement. Being in agreement to break the lease is on both our parts. It's what got the ball rolling. They can't lie to me, then have me go through the move, even helping them advertise, interview tenants, and show the house, then after the fact say they didn't really agree to anything. That's ridiculous.
And if they really want to stick to the rental agreement, then they would see that they were supposed to tally the water bill overcharges at the end of each lease each year and have me pay it then. They didn't. They also were supposed to get the receipts of work done along with the refund on my deposit, if any, within 45 days of my giving them the keys. They didn't.
He also lied about having sent a letter out to me already, saying they had no idea what my new address was so they put the rental house address on it, and that it had been returned to them, and they had to mail it out again. Why would you knowingly put the wrong address on something instead of calling, texting, or emailing for the correct address? That makes no sense at all. Besides, it would have gotten forwarded like all my other mail. I even called the post office and they said mail is forwarded for up to 12 months.
We've had a very friendly relationship the entire 6 years I've rented from them, so why on earth wouldn't they just call, text, or email me for my new address? There's no excuse for that, other than they didn't have all their ducks in a row and didn't get everything prepared on time, and felt like they had to lie about it. That, and they're mad they had to come up with money to pay for the work. I have a feeling my deposit was not just sitting in the bank the past 6 years. They probably didn't actually have my money to deduct anything from!
When it comes I'll check the sender's slip to see when it was sent. And it'll be interesting to see what his letter actually says. I have a feeling he was just upset and wanted to blow up at me. Hopefully he didn't actually keep the money and is billing me too.
I haven't done anything wrong. A conversation is a just that, a conversation. He agreed to let me out of my lease. I didn't hold a gun to his head. That means we made changes to the original rental contract. So why lie to avoid confrontation? If we have a mutual agreement then there is nothing for anyone to get confrontational about. At least not on my end. But then again, I'm not the one who lied. You can't pretend to go along with something and then turn around and say you didn't really mean it because you were just too afraid to say anything. Unbelievable.
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