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Soylent Pudding
Jun 22, 2007

We've got people!


TotallyGreen posted:

nevermind. better not to post about it on the internet.

This isn't meant as a swipe against TotallyGreen but I feel this applies to 90% of posts.

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wellwhoopdedooo
Nov 23, 2007

Pound Trooper!
My 7-month old car's paint was hosed up by an auto transport company moving the car from NY to WA.

In the event that it's necessary (i.e. they refuse to cover it), what area of law should I look for a lawyer/firm to specialize in?

As I understand it, the best lawyers won't be on a billboard, so how do I go about finding a good one? I'm looking for a lawyer that will give me realistic advice (up to and including "you've got no case") rather than a "Hammer" or "Bulldog".

ibntumart
Mar 18, 2007

Good, bad. I'm the one with the power of Shu, Heru, Amon, Zehuti, Aton, and Mehen.
College Slice

Ruggan posted:

With the caveat that I understand this is the case, can someone tell me how good of a lawsuit there is here? I'm not directly involved, but I'm super curious. For reference, this is in Wisconsin.

Backstory: One of my co-workers applied for a school's head football coach job as a joke, and at the instructions of the application, noted that he wanted it to be kept confidential. He has an email receipt containing proof of this. Turns out that a top sports website got a hold of these applications, claiming that they're only listing the ones that they were able to get a hold of due to the applicant not requesting confidentiality, but aforementioned co-worker's application was included. The article slammed the applicants listed as hilarious with no chance in hell of being hired. He's somewhat concerned about his reputation, as during the day or so it's been published, our entire company has found out (to hilarious effect), people have tweeted about him, his LinkedIn has exploded, and Fox Sports news has called both him and his mother to request an interview. Is this a clear-cut libel suit / confidentiality breach? What does he potentially have to gain if he wins? He has not spoken to any news sources regarding this and plans to speak with a lawyer, but I'm curious what you guys think.

Wisconsin does have an invasion of privacy tort. If your friend prevailed in court, he could possibly win an injunction against Fox Sports, attorney's fees, and/or compensatory damages, i.e., he'd be compensated for the monetary harm he could demonstrate. That last part would probably be a bit of a sticky wicket, though. Not sure what he could really claim.

Abugadu
Jul 12, 2004

1st Sgt. Matthews and the men have Procured for me a cummerbund from a traveling gypsy, who screeched Victory shall come at a Terrible price. i am Honored.

nern posted:

General question about child support tax intercepts. When a return is flagged and intercepted, is the whole return intercepted or just the amount to cover arrears? For example, if a person has a $3000 tax return coming, but has $900 in arrears, do they intercept the $900 and let the rest of the return process normally? Or do they intercept the whole $3000 and apply the $900 and then later release the remaining funds?

I have found alot of information online about how alot of it works, but nothing specifically related to this question.

MORE INFO: no state taxes at issue, federal only. also, taxes filed as a single individual, not remarried.

My jurisdiction just takes the amount that the state has on its system as the arrears balance at the time of the intercept. They will then send you a letter saying X-amount out of your total refund is being held, please contact this office if you have any questions.

I'd be amazed if there was a state that grabbed the entire return when you only owed a smaller part of it.

The only 'delay' issues I know of arise when the Innocent Spouse Exemption is claimed, but you're not in that boat.

poopship
May 2, 2003
My spouse is a comission based massage therapist who does not receive any hourly. Her company is telling her that they are not going to pay her to attend a mandatory meeting on one of her days off. In addition to this, they have started a promotion that includes a couple of free massages per year for certain clients. She asked if the massage therapists are going to still get the normal commission for this and they haven't gotten back to her yet. Are either of these legal, and where might a normal person be able to get information on this kind of thing? We live in Virginia. TIA

Konstantin
Jun 20, 2005
And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
A lot depends on if she is an employee or independent contractor. Does she get taxes taken out of her paycheck and receive a W-2 at tax time, or does she get a Form 1099? I'm not sure of the situation in VA if she is a 'W-2' employee, but if she is a '1099' independent contractor all this is perfectly legal.

Fuzzy1
Feb 20, 2011

Konstantin posted:

A lot depends on if she is an employee or independent contractor. Does she get taxes taken out of her paycheck and receive a W-2 at tax time, or does she get a Form 1099? I'm not sure of the situation in VA if she is a 'W-2' employee, but if she is a '1099' independent contractor all this is perfectly legal.

Actually, it depends on the independent contractor agreement that she signed. With the caveat that none of us have read the contract, generally if the company you're working for requires you to show up somewhere they're required to pay you. Also, the likelihood is slim that her contract says she has to provide free massages - whether the company is giving them away to customers or not is irrelevant.

For a W-2 situation, you show up at work because you're required to, you're paid. Doesn't matter if it's a day off or not. If you're fulfilling the terms that get you a commission, you get that commission.

poopship
May 2, 2003
She's a W-2 employee, thanks for the info. Now her being able to approach this situation tactfully while still remaining employed might be the harder part.

poopship fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Jan 27, 2013

NarwhalParty
Jul 23, 2010
I filed an anonymous complaint with HR. My boss has already asked one employee if it was them or if they knew who did it. Is this legal? I know termination would be illegal but what about refusing asked days off/giving me lovely shifts if he found out it was me?

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

NarwhalParty posted:

I filed an anonymous complaint with HR. My boss has already asked one employee if it was them or if they knew who did it. Is this legal? I know termination would be illegal but what about refusing asked days off/giving me lovely shifts if he found out it was me?

Would depend on the type of complaint. Like sexual harassment, definitely illegal. Getting rid of casual friday, less so.

NarwhalParty
Jul 23, 2010
Not as bad as harassment, more similar to hostile work environment.

Folly
May 26, 2010

NarwhalParty posted:

Not as bad as harassment, more similar to hostile work environment.

The keyword we're looking for is "discrimination." Was the complaint that your boss was creating a hostile work environment for everybody? Or just for members of a protected class?

If your complaint was an opposition to discrimination, then you're probably protected. If not, then the waters get progressively muddy.

Leopold N. Loeb
Apr 26, 2010

by XyloJW
e:nm

Leopold N. Loeb fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Oct 28, 2013

Guy Axlerod
Dec 29, 2008
A "living will" is also known as an advance health care directive, e.g. pull the plug/don't pull the plug.

What you are talking about is just called a "will".

She should probably have one of each.

Soylent Pudding
Jun 22, 2007

We've got people!


Leopold N. Loeb posted:

I'll keep this brief: my mom wants to make a living will. She doesn't have much, but she does have a 5.25 acre plot of land at the family homestead. She wants to leave it to me, as my sister and het have not spoken in fifteen years. She wants to know if she wills it to me, how solid is that? Could a legitimate will be easily contested? She is also considering signing the land over to me now, to avvoid the hassle altogether. If she does that, would that be a matter of public record? Would my sister and/or other relatives be notified of the sale of the land? My mother and .I both live in Texas, but the homestead is in Arizona.

What your mother needs is a probate attorney. They'll be able to hear all the facts and either draft a relatively uncontested will or advise you if something like an immediate sale of land would avoid the hassle. In general, a challenge to a will looks at factors of capacity and undue influence. Capacity refers to your mother's mental capacity to make the will. Is she of sound mind or does she suffer from any mental impairments. Undue influence refers to pressures possibly exerted in your mother in light of her mental capacity. In particular a challenge would look at facts and circumstances suggesting you had some power to control and manipulate your mother into willing you the land. The questions of capacity and undue influence are complicated factual questions best evaluated by a probate attorney familiar with the laws of Texas and able to apply them to your family's particular circumstances.

All land sales are a matter of public record, and the chain of title for any piece of property can be viewed in the local courthouse. If the property is entirely in your mother's name she is free to sell it to whomever she wishes. There is no notice requirement for private land sales. The only way anyone else in the family would know about the sale is they chose to search the title records in the courthouse (or check online if the local courthouse has online records).

The safe course of action is to find an attorney, get their advice on what the best option is, and then they'll take care of drafting all the paperwork for you to make sure either the will or the property sale is done correctly.

Leopold N. Loeb
Apr 26, 2010

by XyloJW
Thanks, man.

Omerta
Feb 19, 2007

I thought short arms were good for benching :smith:

xanthig posted:

I recently read an article that describes patent trolls suing small business end users for scanning and e-mailing documents. It got me wondering- is it possible for multiple defendants sued under the same or very similar terms to have their cases consolidated into a single case? Kind of like how a case with numerous plaintiffs can be consolidated as a class action.

I didn't see this answered. The answer is yes and it can be extremely complicated. I'm taking a class right now that deals exclusively with this and it would be considered a survey course. I'll stick with the facts in the article that you quoted.

Project Paperless is a non-practicing entity, also called a patent troll. You pay the fee to get across the bridge, ie, use the patent. What they did was send out demand letters, which are just threats to sue with supporting evidence -- basically a "here's why we think you violated our rights" letter that would mirror whatever lawsuit would be filed.

What Project Paperless banks on is that people will not fight their demand letters and just pay whatever amount they demand.

However, let's assume that Project Paperless sues 500 different defendants, all of whom are accused of violating the same patent, in 30 states. Each state would likely consolidate the disparate actions under a single judge PER STATE using some federal procedure rules that I can cite if you care. After getting all of the claims by Project Paperless in front of the same judge, the state judges would issue two procedural rulings:
(1) A stay: the court says "we're going to not do anything with this case until the other cases are resolved." and;
(2) An anti-suit injunction: the court says "if you proceed with the suits in other judicial circuits, we will hold you in contempt of court and fine you and send you to jail."

In this case, the central issue is whether the patent is valid or invalid. So what would happen is that all the proceedings would be stayed or subject to an injunction until ONE proceeding determined whether the patent was or was not valid. The parties would be free to appeal that judgment.

After there is a valid, final, judgment on the merits of the case finding the patent was (in)valid, then the other proceedings would open up and parties would settle or dismiss the case.

In this type of situation, Project has no incentive to sue all the people they think are violating the patent at once because it would destroy their strategy of collecting small tolls. Patent trolls create a similar issue to the rent questions you see a lot in this thread: the amount you have to pay or suffer as a loss is small relative to the amount of expenses you'd incur to get it back. In the aggregate, it may become efficient to go after the patent, but why should you, the person being sued for maybe $5k, fight the patent's validity and risk over $100k of your own money?

ulmont
Sep 15, 2010

IF I EVER MISS VOTING IN AN ELECTION (EVEN AMERICAN IDOL) ,OR HAVE UNPAID PARKING TICKETS, PLEASE TAKE AWAY MY FRANCHISE

Omerta posted:

However, let's assume that Project Paperless sues 500 different defendants, all of whom are accused of violating the same patent, in 30 states. Each state would likely consolidate the disparate actions under a single judge PER STATE using some federal procedure rules that I can cite if you care. After getting all of the claims by Project Paperless in front of the same judge, the state judges would issue two procedural rulings:

Just one big quibble here. Patent infringement lawsuits are subject to exclusive federal jurisdiction, so they would actually end up consolidated in front of a single federal judge pursuant to the MDL procedures, which wouldn't exactly end up in a stay or an anti-suit injunction.

Cute n Popular
Oct 12, 2012
Hello Lawyering goons, I'm hoping you can answer a few questions on my hypothetical tech start-up for one of my business course since I'm too poor to speak to a lawyer for a project. Also, I'm Canadian.

Supposing our start-up deals with renting out equipment to other businesses and they pay us a monthly subscription fee for service/maintenance of the equipment in addition to access to our software/database.
I assume there needs to be (a) a contract detailing them not being dicks and destroying our stuff and that we are obligated to render the service for the length of the contract and that they need to pay a pre-determined fee. (b)Some sort of user agreement to the software.

What would be the typical cost for a lawyer to draft something like that? Also would there be any other lawyering fees associated with a tech start up I should expect to shell out? If so, how much?

Second, as a Canadian company, what are the legal complications in expanding into the US. How do we pay tax? Are we even allowed to without having to a significant amount?

Thanks.

Retrowave Joe
Jul 20, 2001

Hi lawyer goons. I have a question for a friend. She's currently renting a house that she has a contract to buy. Recently the owners discovered there is a tax lien on the house. Now my friend is getting cold feet on the deal, and even though the owners say it'll all be cleared up by Feb. 15th, my friend is wondering if there's any way to get out of her contract. We're in WV if that helps. Thank you.

PatMarshall
Apr 6, 2009

Cute n Popular posted:

Hello Lawyering goons, I'm hoping you can answer a few questions on my hypothetical tech start-up for one of my business course since I'm too poor to speak to a lawyer for a project. Also, I'm Canadian.

Supposing our start-up deals with renting out equipment to other businesses and they pay us a monthly subscription fee for service/maintenance of the equipment in addition to access to our software/database.
I assume there needs to be (a) a contract detailing them not being dicks and destroying our stuff and that we are obligated to render the service for the length of the contract and that they need to pay a pre-determined fee. (b)Some sort of user agreement to the software.

What would be the typical cost for a lawyer to draft something like that? Also would there be any other lawyering fees associated with a tech start up I should expect to shell out? If so, how much?

Second, as a Canadian company, what are the legal complications in expanding into the US. How do we pay tax? Are we even allowed to without having to a significant amount?

Thanks.
I'm assuming that the Canadian Company will be incorporated in Canada.

To your second question: it kinda depends on whether your activities rise to the level of a trade or business in the US. If you have a way (say, a website) for US people to rent/license from you, and you just sell passively into the US, then you would probably not have a US trade or business, your income (rents and royalties) would likely be FDAP (Fixed or Determinable, Annual or Periodic) and would be subject to 30% withholding in the US. Because you're in Canada, you can take advantage of the US-Canada tax treaty, and withholding will be reduced. In order to take advantage of reduced withholding, you would provide each US person with a W-8BEN form certifying that you're Canadian. You would probably have to apply for a US tax ID number (file form SS-4). You would not (generally) need to file a US tax return.

If you go into the US and actively sell your service (i.e., sales employees, US office), you would probably have a US trade or business which would generate effectively connected income (income from a US business). You would then need to file a US tax return each year and pay tax at graduated corporate rates, up to 35% (form 1120-F). You are required to file even if you don't owe any tax. You don't really want to do it this way, however, set up a US corporation instead if you expand into the US. The IRS has announced they will be scrutinizing 1120-F filers, so they present an enhanced risk of audit. You would also be subject to the branch profits tax and a bunch of filing headaches you don't really want.

This gets kinda complicated though, I've assumed a lot of facts that might not be true in your hypo. Your best bet to research this issue for your project is to google up a "doing business in X" tax guide from one of the big 4's Canadian offices. Also I am not your lawyer, don't rely on this for a minute, etc.

Schitzo
Mar 20, 2006

I can't hear it when you talk about John Druce

Cute n Popular posted:

Hello Lawyering goons, I'm hoping you can answer a few questions on my hypothetical tech start-up for one of my business course since I'm too poor to speak to a lawyer for a project. Also, I'm Canadian.

Thanks.

If you're in Alberta, PM me and I can talk for a few minutes.

Cute n Popular
Oct 12, 2012

Schitzo posted:

If you're in Alberta, PM me and I can talk for a few minutes.

Ah, unfortunately I'm in Ontario, but I was just hoping mostly for an estimate of legal fees I would expect to incur, although knowing more about the subject would've been great as well.

@PatMarshall, thanks, that gives a great starting point with estimating costs associated with entering the US market.

cf1140
Jun 28, 2008
I was recently rejected from an apartment company, and while they returned the deposit I paid them, they did not return the application and administration fee.

Now I understand them not returning the application fee, but I paid them for administrative services that they declined to provide. Aren't they bound to return that money to me? I paid them money to do something, they chose not to do it, and then wouldn't return the money? Isn't this breach of contract?

I almost want to take this to small claims court just on principle.

BonerGhost
Mar 9, 2007

It doesn't sound as if they have any contract with you to breach as you were (I assume) denied a lease. Unless by "rejected from a rental company" you mean something like you were denied employment but that doesn't sound like it's the case.

The administrative and application fees cover the time and supplies needed to pull a credit report and do other paperwork. You applied, they rejected your application. Does your contract state you're entitled to a refund if your application is declined? That's how rental agencies operate. The alternative is a private owner.

cf1140
Jun 28, 2008

NancyPants posted:


The administrative and application fees cover the time and supplies needed to pull a credit report and do other paperwork.

The application fee covers that. The administration fee covers the lease and move-in paperwork, tasks that they did not perform.

matthew j
Nov 29, 2009

do work son.
I think I'm in a predicament, and need some advice! When I was in college about 10 years ago I was charged with distributing alcohol to a minor. The court told me to take AA classes, pay a bunch of fines, and do community service. I did all these things and moved back to my home state soon after. I've worked various jobs in these last 10 years with no problem, been pulled over a few times for minor traffic violations, with no issues. I recently applied for a state job and they said that there was a warrant for my arrest in Oregon, where I went to school. I kind of freaked out at that point because I guess this warrant has been following me around for 10 years? So I'm not sure what to do now. Going to Oregon to figure it out probably entails sitting in jail for a few days and doing all that stuff over again and I would no doubt lose the job I currently have and that would be very bad. But I definitely don't want this warrant after me all my life, so I've gotta do something about it.

Call them, ask them what's up? Will they send someone to pick me up a state away? I'm scared of that happening. Any prosecutors around here that can tell me the best course of action? Or anyone else that has some advice?

euphronius
Feb 18, 2009

Call a criminal lawyer in the town in Oregon where you lived.

Omerta
Feb 19, 2007

I thought short arms were good for benching :smith:

ulmont posted:

Just one big quibble here. Patent infringement lawsuits are subject to exclusive federal jurisdiction, so they would actually end up consolidated in front of a single federal judge pursuant to the MDL procedures, which wouldn't exactly end up in a stay or an anti-suit injunction.

Poor word choice on my part. I assumed all claims were brought in 30 federal courts in different states. From there, some claims could be consolidated; however, you wouldn't be able to consolidate all of the claims unless there was a proper venue for all claims, so some claims would end up stayed if they couldn't be consolidated.

ulmont
Sep 15, 2010

IF I EVER MISS VOTING IN AN ELECTION (EVEN AMERICAN IDOL) ,OR HAVE UNPAID PARKING TICKETS, PLEASE TAKE AWAY MY FRANCHISE

Omerta posted:

Poor word choice on my part. I assumed all claims were brought in 30 federal courts in different states. From there, some claims could be consolidated; however, you wouldn't be able to consolidate all of the claims unless there was a proper venue for all claims, so some claims would end up stayed if they couldn't be consolidated.

An MDL isn't a consolidation, though. You transfer all the cases to a single court, do all the pre-trial stuff there, and then transfer back to the original courts for trial to avoid venue and personal jurisdiction issues.

...if you just wanted to consolidate, you could almost always guarantee venue in Delaware.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

ulmont posted:

An MDL isn't a consolidation, though. You transfer all the cases to a single court, do all the pre-trial stuff there, and then transfer back to the original courts for trial to avoid venue and personal jurisdiction issues.

...if you just wanted to consolidate, you could almost always guarantee venue in Delaware.

Of course, since its patent law and Markman is pre-trial, MDL is effectively consolidation of the important phase of the trial.

dos4gw
Nov 12, 2005

BelgianSandwich posted:

I was recently rejected from an apartment company, and while they returned the deposit I paid them, they did not return the application and administration fee.

Now I understand them not returning the application fee, but I paid them for administrative services that they declined to provide. Aren't they bound to return that money to me? I paid them money to do something, they chose not to do it, and then wouldn't return the money? Isn't this breach of contract?

I almost want to take this to small claims court just on principle.

You have a few options:

(1) Who did you deal with? Presumably an employee of the company? Normally they will be classed in law as an agent and their actions will bind their principal (i.e. the company). You may have thought you were dealing with an employee but are you sure?

If you remember back really hard you might just remember that in fact they never mentioned any company. What you had was an agreement with an agent acting for an undisclosed principal. This has an important legal consequence: both the company and the agent are potentially liable to you! What this means in practical terms is that the agent is less likely to have as much money to afford expensive lawyers and so you can prey on that vulnerability. Some of the legal arguments that you could try to put forward against a large company with huge sums of money and a top legal team behind it would get brushed aside pretty quickly, but when you sue an individual you can be a bit more creative!

The easiest way to do this, however, wouldn't be to rely on complex legal arguments but assert that they definitely told you, quite clearly, that if you were not accepted then you would get your money back. Since you're at it, you can 'remember' that they distinctly mentioned you would get the application fee back too, as well as the administrative charge. Bish bash bosh it'll all be over in no time and you'll get your money back. I am based in the UK where punitive damages are rare but if you're in the US then make sure to include a claim for those as well! In no time you could be looking at a claim for a cool $2 mil.

(2) Did the company owe you a duty of loyalty? Yes. Did they either breach, or put themselves in danger of breaching that duty, by acting in a way that potentially put them in a conflict of interest? If so then you have a classic case of breach of fiduciary duty.

The best thing about this is that your right isn't just personal, it's proprietary. This means that you can trace into other assets. For instance, say that money they stole from you got used on buying more printer ink for the office or whatever. Well you can claim that back in its place. Alternatively, it was pay day recently and some of the money was used on an employee's pay-check (hard to prove but the burden of proof is always on the defendant and don't let anyone intimidate you by telling you otherwise) then you can get that back too. Someone probably celebrated ripping you off by buying a new car, well you can get that. The money they took might only be a small proportion but if you have the balls then you can enforce judgment by getting a charging order slapped on that car.

If you smell fear and think they might try to run then you can also get a freezing injunction put on it so they won't be able to do anything with it. Make sure that throughout this process you are claiming your costs on a hugely inflated basis for each and every application you have to make. This will stop them from trying to buy time with spurious 'defences' further down the line.

(3) A straightforward allegation of theft.


Take this with a pinch of salt because I am not a lawyer, at least not a practising one (got caught out on some bullshit technicality) but hope this helps!!!

cf1140
Jun 28, 2008

dos4gw posted:

You have a few options:

*snipped*

Take this with a pinch of salt because I am not a lawyer, at least not a practising one (got caught out on some bullshit technicality) but hope this helps!!!

Thanks for your post and yes this is the US


Well I called the unit's parent company, JRK Holdings, about this, and they were openly hostile about this. Apparently others have called about this because the receptionist stated within the first minute I called the admin fee is not refundable or you have to go to court, then she transferred me to someone else (I think in accounting) and stated the administration and application fees are grouped together and that they will not pay it because their policy is that the fee is non-refundable, and then she basically threatened me to take it to court?

Are they acting this way because the corporation is out of state and they can just ignore any small claims case from a different state (the one where the apartment is located)?

Has anyone ever heard of a company behaving like this before? Daring people to take it to court?

cf1140 fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Jan 30, 2013

EAT THE EGGS RICOLA
May 29, 2008

BelgianSandwich posted:

Thanks for your post and yes this is the US


Well I called the unit's parent company, JRK Holdings, about this, and they were openly hostile about this. Apparently others have called about this because the receptionist stated within the first minute I called the admin fee is not refundable or you have to go to court, then she transferred me to someone else (I think in accounting) and stated the administration and application fee are grouped together and that they will not pay it because their policy is that the fee is non-refundable, and then she basically threatened me to take it to court?

Are they acting this way because the corporation is out of state and they can just ignore any small claims case from a different state (the one where the apartment is located)?

Has anyone ever heard of a company behaving like this before? Daring people to take it to court?

They're stonewalling you because most people give up at this point. You can do a few things if you really want:

You can send them a letter threatening to file in small claims court. If they call you on it, then either give up because they called your bluff or go to small claims court over an administrative fee that is probably smaller than the cost of filing in small claims court (which you may not recoup depending on where you live).

You can go with the nuclear option and email/mail all of their C-levels demanding an explanation and threatening to go yell about it on the internet, although this will usually get you shut down too. You're also not in the most sympathetic position in terms of getting internet pity because you just lost a bit of money after being denied an apartment, it's not like they killed your cat or something.

What kind of amount are we talking about here? It's probably not worth your time and effort to do much else.

EAT THE EGGS RICOLA fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Jan 30, 2013

BonerGhost
Mar 9, 2007

They're daring you to take it to court because what you're asking for and getting pissed about is ridiculous. The post you quoted went quite a ways over your head. I'm guessing your app fee was $25 and admin fee somewhere around $50? Surely no more without an agreement from them that it's refundable if you're denied, otherwise why pay such a high fee you can't afford if you're denied? Care to take a wild guess why it wouldn't be worth your while to take it to court?

To put this in perspective, how successful do you think you'd be suing your cell carrier for passing taxes and fees on to you above and beyond your service rates? If they didn't tell you it'd be refunded, that's what you get when you assume, and if they did, get out in writing or it didn't happen.

BonerGhost fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Jan 30, 2013

cf1140
Jun 28, 2008

NancyPants posted:

They're daring you to take it to court because what you're asking for and getting pissed about is ridiculous. The post you quoted went quite a ways over your head. I'm guessing your app fee was $25 and admin fee somewhere around $50? Surely no more without an agreement from them that it's refundable if you're denied, otherwise why pay such a high fee you can't afford if you're denied? Care to take a wild guess why it wouldn't be worth your while to take it to court?


Ok I knew he was bsing my thank you wasn't sincere. the amount is $25 app and $175 admin which is less than my current apartment charged me (but then first month free). There's a four year limitations here. Maybe if I still care about this when I have too much vacation time on my hand (which is at least nine months time), I'll go through with it just for the hell of it and I'll report back either way.

But I really did want to know if a company's been known to act that way.

Me: "I'm calling about my refund check for x apartment"
Her: "Deposit checks take thirty days, other fees not refundable or you gotta go to court".

I was like drat that was quick.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Check with your local tenant's association. In a lot of places, this kind of behavior isn't actually legal (for example, Montgomery County in Maryland requires a refund of anything in excess of the actual cost of a credit check if the application fee exceeds 25 dollars and no rental occurs). They'll probably be able to tell you what recourse you might have under your local laws and suggest something/someone to talk to further.

Also, if there's any kind of rental licensing office in your jurisdiction (e.g., in DC you'd go to DCRA), you can probably talk to them and see if you can't get the rental company on their shitlist. Might or might not get you your money back, but can't hurt.

If you tell us where it is, someone will probably at least point you towards your local tenant's association and you might even luck out and get someone to look through local code.

cf1140
Jun 28, 2008

Kalman posted:

Check with your local tenant's association. In a lot of places, this kind of behavior isn't actually legal (for example, Montgomery County in Maryland requires a refund of anything in excess of the actual cost of a credit check if the application fee exceeds 25 dollars and no rental occurs). They'll probably be able to tell you what recourse you might have under your local laws and suggest something/someone to talk to further.

Also, if there's any kind of rental licensing office in your jurisdiction (e.g., in DC you'd go to DCRA), you can probably talk to them and see if you can't get the rental company on their shitlist. Might or might not get you your money back, but can't hurt.

If you tell us where it is, someone will probably at least point you towards your local tenant's association and you might even luck out and get someone to look through local code.

Harris County Texas (Houston). This is a very pro-business part of the country so I doubt a cap would be in place.

joat mon
Oct 15, 2009

I am the master of my lamp;
I am the captain of my tub.

BelgianSandwich posted:

Harris County Texas (Houston). This is a very pro-business part of the country so I doubt a cap would be in place.

http://www.houstontenants.org/

VVVVV
e: the attorney fees bit is by statute.

joat mon fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Jan 30, 2013

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Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

BelgianSandwich posted:

Harris County Texas (Houston). This is a very pro-business part of the country so I doubt a cap would be in place.

Texas has a state-wide property code, and Houston might have its own. If you're in Houston proper, check out http://www.houstontenants.org/ - they may also be able to point you towards whatever the appropriate local entity is.

Houston, at least, seems to allow recovery of attorneys fees on cases where landlords fail to refund when they should.

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