Current Events > My old Apartment is trying to charge me for breaking the lease

(+) Yeah! (+)

But we didn't, we moved out when the lease was up....

Fair, next.

did you give them the letter saying you aren't renewing bc a lot of places have it where if you don't they assume you are renewing

I broke my lease at my old apartments, but they tried to charge me for way more than they should have. The ended up renting the apartment out to someone else about 45 days later and I had to go over the math with them like 5 times until they understood they were making a mistake.

Scintillant posted...

did you give them the letter saying you aren't renewing bc a lot of places have it where if you don't they assume you are renewing

We gave them 30 day notice and there was zero room for doubt we were leaving

NM cross-posted with TC.

CableZL posted...

I broke my lease at my old apartments, but they tried to charge me for way more than they should have. The ended up renting the apartment out to someone else about 45 days later and I had to go over the math with them like 5 times until they understood they were making a mistake.

This same company tried to screw us over regularly, including telling our new apartment we owed "over and above" a month's rent....the only thing we owed was rent which had been posted hours before they sent that notice

I've already threatened them with a lawyer over previous stuff, and apparently my messages were angry enough that I actually scared the receptionist, but I guess I have to do more :/

RuneterranSnap posted...

I've already threatened them with a lawyer over previous stuff, and apparently my messages were angry enough that I actually scared the receptionist, but I guess I have to do more :/

As a person who spent a lot of time as a front desk leasing agent, you're just getting people against you and more prepared by getting angry with them.

I know there was a lot of grief directed at me for things that all parties knew were not my fault at all, so now when anyone gets that way with our front desk guy who's pretty sensitive, they are immediately going to get the shit end of the stick.

Also, it undermines any threat your lawyer would be. You dont want to ever seem like you don't have complete confidence in your lawyer to get you way more than youre asking, because at that point they might as well not be real at all. The quieter confident ones are the threatening cases.

Just tips and suggestions on how to get what you want, not saying you are in the wrong or did anything wrong.

An apartment I lived in a long time ago tried to charge me for water damage caused by a leaking toilet, like months after I'd moved out. If it was leaking it was under the floor or something, cause I never saw anything. Also I am pretty sure the one perk of renting is the owner is responsible for all that, not the tenant, and that's what security deposits are for.

I ignored them and it never mattered.

wasn't that the name of that song, this old apartment?

ragnarokius posted...

An apartment I lived in a long time ago tried to charge me for water damage caused by a leaking toilet, like months after I'd moved out. If it was leaking it was under the floor or something, cause I never saw anything. Also I am pretty sure the one perk of renting is the owner is responsible for all that, not the tenant, and that's what security deposits are for.

I ignored them and it never mattered.

Honestly if they'd said the damage was enough to demand a payment, that'd be a different thing because one of our old roommates kinda went to town and destroyed his closet door. But they said we should have a ~300 refund if not for charging us for breaking the lease.

ragnarokius posted...

An apartment I lived in a long time ago tried to charge me for water damage caused by a leaking toilet, like months after I'd moved out. If it was leaking it was under the floor or something, cause I never saw anything. Also I am pretty sure the one perk of renting is the owner is responsible for all that, not the tenant, and that's what security deposits are for.

I ignored them and it never mattered.

I had a similar issue where they tried to withhold my deposit, which wasn't even paid to them but the previous property management, even though any water damage was caused by their maintenance man incorrectly installing the wrong size unit air conditioner, and not allowing me to do anything with it.

In the end I got them to agree to like half the deposit without any legal threats because it had been so long ago, and to be fair... I just wanted to be done dealing with these people.

ragnarokius posted...

I ignored them and it never mattered.

Don't do this. Like, ever.

I have so many people do this and come back a year later getting turned down for rentals because of a balance in collections. If it was something that shouldn't have been charged, youre just that much further up shit creek with less recourse at that point.

Sent them notice of their error, told them to fix it and send us the refund of we're due from our deposit.

Apparently it's because of a miscommunication. They took away any way to view our lease, and we were looking to move out, they said it'd be over in September which I took to mean Aug 30th would be the last day, it's apparently September 30th. They never even sent me a copy of the lease so I had no hard date to look at.

Welp, their mistake, their problem. I'm not paying the last month and they're going to see consequences if they force the issue especially after the scummy shit they did.

Did you not sign the lease agreement?

MarcoRubio posted...

Did you not sign the lease agreement?

I did, and I reached out for a copy of it to get the date, they wouldn't send out a copy and I had no place to access it.

Jerry_Hellyeah posted...

As a person who spent a lot of time as a front desk leasing agent, you're just getting people against you and more prepared by getting angry with them.

I know there was a lot of grief directed at me for things that all parties knew were not my fault at all, so now when anyone gets that way with our front desk guy who's pretty sensitive, they are immediately going to get the shit end of the stick.

Also, it undermines any threat your lawyer would be. You dont want to ever seem like you don't have complete confidence in your lawyer to get you way more than youre asking, because at that point they might as well not be real at all. The quieter confident ones are the threatening cases.

Just tips and suggestions on how to get what you want, not saying you are in the wrong or did anything wrong.

Ooh you might be able to help/have a thought - how assertive should you be in bargaining rent increases when renewing a lease?

Scintillant posted...

did you give them the letter saying you aren't renewing bc a lot of places have it where if you don't they assume you are renewing

Thats a scumbag and predatory move by the LL. Amd plainly, incorrect.

Jerry_Hellyeah posted...

Don't do this. Like, ever.

I have so many people do this and come back a year later getting turned down for rentals because of a balance in collections. If it was something that shouldn't have been charged, youre just that much further up shit creek with less recourse at that point.

Oh, right.. yeah... - I don't suggest that course of action, lol. But as a 18-19 year old floating between places and jobs without any real safety net it sorta worked out. I couldn't pay it, I couldn't fight it. So I ignored it.

So now they're going between saying we broke lease by moving out a month early and that we abandoned because they were expecting a later move out date despite accepting a move out date a month early without issue

Landlords are such fucking scum.

Lonestar2000 posted...

Landlords are such fucking scum.

Yuuuup

Thankfully this is Oregon so laws are strict as fuck against them and I have email evidence of everything

Jerry_Hellyeah posted...

As a person who spent a lot of time as a front desk leasing agent, you're just getting people against you and more prepared by getting angry with them.

I know there was a lot of grief directed at me for things that all parties knew were not my fault at all, so now when anyone gets that way with our front desk guy who's pretty sensitive, they are immediately going to get the shit end of the stick.

Also, it undermines any threat your lawyer would be. You dont want to ever seem like you don't have complete confidence in your lawyer to get you way more than youre asking, because at that point they might as well not be real at all. The quieter confident ones are the threatening cases.

Just tips and suggestions on how to get what you want, not saying you are in the wrong or did anything wrong.

There is a massive spectrum between being a walkover and being a dickhead. Depending on the firm in question being a pushover doesnt get you anywhere either. What you say makes a lot of sense but sometimes you can be too nice.

RuneterranSnap posted...

Apparently it's because of a miscommunication. They took away any way to view our lease, and we were looking to move out, they said it'd be over in September which I took to mean Aug 30th would be the last day, it's apparently September 30th. They never even sent me a copy of the lease so I had no hard date to look at.

Welp, their mistake, their problem. I'm not paying the last month and they're going to see consequences if they force the issue especially after the scummy shit they did.

Lol no its your mistake.