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Ask when they'll inspect your room too, I moved out of a place a few days before the end of my lease so I could come back the next day and clean it without any furniture in the way and the fuckers came in as soon as the moving truck left and slapped me with a "cleaning fee" that magically equalled the amount of my deposit.
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Jan 23, 2015 00:36
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Found my lease, one of my obligations upon vacating is "clean and deliver premise as specified in paragraph C". The only thing I can see in paragraph C that can be related to steaming the carpets is "Repairs shall be performed in a good, skillful manner with materials of quality and appearance comparable to existing materials. It is understand that exact restoration of appearance or cosmetic items following all repairs may not be possible". The majority of C is about my right to a pre-move-out inspection and how any repairs and remodels will be done out of my pocket and most importantly: Repairs may be performed by Tenant OR through others So, even if they were to say that making the carpet cleaner then it was when I moved in is a needed repair, that sentence alone should allow me to do the steam cleaning myself right?
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Jan 25, 2015 01:48
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Leal posted:Found my lease, one of my obligations upon vacating is "clean and deliver premise as specified in paragraph C". The only thing I can see in paragraph C that can be related to steaming the carpets is "Repairs shall be performed in a good, skillful manner with materials of quality and appearance comparable to existing materials. It is understand that exact restoration of appearance or cosmetic items following all repairs may not be possible". The majority of C is about my right to a pre-move-out inspection and how any repairs and remodels will be done out of my pocket and most importantly: I can't really tell you but if you vacuum the place you'll probably be fine.
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Jan 25, 2015 04:30
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Leal posted:So, even if they were to say that making the carpet cleaner then it was when I moved in is a needed repair, that sentence alone should allow me to do the steam cleaning myself right? They will keep enough of your deposit to have the carpets professionally cleaned. You will have to go to small claims court and sue them for the amount of your deposit they kept. You will present evidence in front of a judge. Depending on what judge you get, you will get somewhere between none and all of your money back. (Depending on your municipality, it is actually possible to get 2x or 3x of your money back). No one will enforce this and it is unlikely that your landlord will ever pay you. If they have a day job you can file to garnish their wages. If they don't, you can place a lien on their property such that when they sell it (which will happen somewhere between tomorrow and 50 years from now) they will have to pay you the ~$70 they kept from you. This will be good for ten years, if they don't sell by then you can re-file for another ten years. If it makes you feel better, this $70 problem will be a pain in the rear end when they go to sell. If you win a lawsuit and they never pay, you can formally forgive their debt, which is seen as a gift in the eyes of Uncle Sam, and they will have to pay tax on your gift, which will only be $15 or so, but they will invariably forget and in a couple of years Uncle Sam will come collect the $15 with taxes and fees, and they will be out more than $70 - it just won't be paid to you. Any of these steps may cost money, in fact once you add them all together it will probably eclipse the ~$70 they keep from you. I say all this because your question is phrased in such a way that once you find out who is right and who is wrong, whomever is wrong will be presented with the appropriate evidence and say "gosh, I was wrong! Here's $70", and that is unlikely to happen. The truck mounted carpet cleaning units are 10x better and more powerful than the Rug Doctors you rent at the store, that's why the landlord requires them. If you wanted my overall $0.02 on who is right and who is wrong, I'd say that you are in the right and the landlord is in the wrong. I don't think that will get you your $70 back. I do think that opening the yellow pages and finding local carpet cleaners, and having a frank conversation with whomever answers the phone of "I have one room, I know you don't usually do this, but if I were flexible with the schedule... days, nights, weekends, whatever... you'll be in and out in 10 minutes... what would you charge?", you will find a smaller operation who will do it for a better deal than you're currently getting.
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Jan 26, 2015 00:00
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If the don't mention steaming in the lease, then you're in the right and you don't have to steam, as long as the carpets are in good condition. As photomikey pointed out, that won't necessarily stop your landlord from withholding money from your deposit anyway. If the carpets really are as nice as you say, I'd just leave it as is. If the landlord takes money out, I send back an email pointing out that it's not in the lease. Hopefully your landlord is not a scumbag will return the money at that point. Of course, he could also make your life hell and trump up other complaints and try to keep even more money so yeah... good luck!
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Feb 1, 2015 15:51
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So my roommate that has been living with me since September just up and left in the first week of January. I have called/texted her a lot and no response now for 3 weeks. She did not pay her half of the rent for January (we split it and are not responsible for the other person's payment) and seeing now that it is February, I am wondering when all this furniture and poo poo becomes mine. I have talked to my landlady briefly but will be talking to her more extensively tomorrow.
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Feb 2, 2015 04:33
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Your lease probably has a section on abandonment, if you ditch the place and don't come back within a certain number of days the landlord can throw away your poo poo and re-rent and/or come after you in court for the remainder of the rent you owe. I would personally not adopt ANY of her belongings as yours and instead let the landlord handle it in case she resurfaces and accuses you of theft. Edit: have you determined she is in fact alive and accounted for somewhere and is just avoiding you in particular?
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Feb 2, 2015 04:40
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Your lease probably has a section on abandonment, if you ditch the place and don't come back within a certain number of days the landlord can throw away your poo poo and re-rent and/or come after you in court for the remainder of the rent you owe. Yeah hopefully the land lady will give me a date when all the stuff is evicted and once that is legally allowed, I will take it. Idk. Its a house full of furniture and none of it is ours. This girl decorated the house and spent countless days setting everything up, repairing furniture and then up and disappears.
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Feb 2, 2015 04:43
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Have you reported this to the police? Because it sounds like you really need to report it to the police.
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Feb 2, 2015 04:56
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Thanatosian posted:Have you reported this to the police? Because it sounds like you really need to report it to the police. Honestly I am at the point where I would not care if she had been vaporized off the Earth, I just don't want to have any trouble. I got in touch with her parents who said she regularly disappears for weeks and will check in just say say she is alive and then not respond again. WTF e: Looks like she also lied to our land lady about her sister trying to commit "suicide" so she could waive the late fees. gently caress Craigslist roommates. She seemed like a decent person, was in school, said she didn't do drugs besides weed and bam. A legit crazy person. goodness fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Feb 2, 2015 |
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Feb 2, 2015 05:04
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:I would personally not adopt ANY of her belongings as yours and instead let the landlord handle it in case she resurfaces and accuses you of theft. You think she's gonna accuse someone of theft for leaving her furniture where right where she left it?
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Feb 2, 2015 15:31
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goodness posted:Honestly I am at the point where I would not care if she had been vaporized off the Earth, I just don't want to have any trouble. You mention splitting the rent. Is that an actually part of your contract with landlord? Most leases will say both are jointly and severally liable for the rent.
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Feb 2, 2015 15:41
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If you truly aren't responsible for her part of the rent, then the debt is owed to the landlord and her poo poo goes to the landlord.
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Feb 2, 2015 18:03
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i like nice words
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:You mention splitting the rent. Is that an actually part of your contract with landlord? Most leases will say both are jointly and severally liable for the rent. Yeah splitting the rent is official in the contract. We are not liable for her paying or anything. Update though, I called her parents this morning and said I was going to call the cops and magically the girl texts me a couple hours later saying she talked to our landlord. She will be paying January and for February now so we can have time to find a new roommate. And even better she is coming to get all her crap and move out this week.
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Feb 2, 2015 18:11
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Anne Whateley posted:If you truly aren't responsible for her part of the rent, then the debt is owed to the landlord and her poo poo goes to the landlord. No it doesn't. Landlords can't just claim personal property to settle debts. That's what the security deposit is for. However, the landlord is probably responsible for storing her property for a reasonable amount of time.
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Feb 3, 2015 02:31
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I didn't mean the landlord automatically takes full possession, just that handling the roommate's poo poo is the landlord's to deal with.
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Feb 3, 2015 02:46
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Any advice on finding someone to take over my lease? I've got an ad on Craigslist with pictures already and I've been stalking the Housing Wanted ads but I'm not sure what else I can do. I'm near downtown in Portland, OR which is supposedly a tight rental market generally. My landlord says the market is really lovely right now or something because she's had two similar rooms open for over a month. Also this building is somewhat fancy so the rent is above average a bit. Is there anything else I can do or am I stuck waiting until summer or whenever it is that people actually start going outside again? I've had zero responses and it's been up since Monday. Edit: To be clear this is not a sublet, they would take over the rest of my lease with their name on it. HondaCivet fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Feb 6, 2015 |
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Feb 6, 2015 16:45
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Have you shared a link to the Craigslist posting in your city thread on SA or a city subreddit? I actually found housing through reddit before, as weird as it seems- it feels a little less anonymous when you can look through someone's post history.
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Feb 6, 2015 23:15
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HondaCivet posted:Any advice on finding someone to take over my lease? I've got an ad on Craigslist with pictures already and I've been stalking the Housing Wanted ads but I'm not sure what else I can do. I'm near downtown in Portland, OR which is supposedly a tight rental market generally. My landlord says the market is really lovely right now or something because she's had two similar rooms open for over a month. Also this building is somewhat fancy so the rent is above average a bit. Is there anything else I can do or am I stuck waiting until summer or whenever it is that people actually start going outside again? I've had zero responses and it's been up since Monday. Do you have a lease-break provision? Typically (around here at least) it's typically "30 days notice + two months' rent" or something like that. If so, you're basically out that money one way or the other, so work to save what you can. Try offering 1/2 month free rent or "the rest of the month" and you'll probably get more attention.
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Feb 6, 2015 23:50
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Zaftig posted:Have you shared a link to the Craigslist posting in your city thread on SA or a city subreddit? I actually found housing through reddit before, as weird as it seems- it feels a little less anonymous when you can look through someone's post history. Good ideas, thanks! I dunno about directly posting the link but maybe at least get the word out. Yond Cassius posted:Do you have a lease-break provision? Typically (around here at least) it's typically "30 days notice + two months' rent" or something like that. If so, you're basically out that money one way or the other, so work to save what you can. Try offering 1/2 month free rent or "the rest of the month" and you'll probably get more attention. If I get someone to take over the lease I won't be breaking it so won't have to pay that fee. That's kind of the idea.
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Feb 7, 2015 07:27
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I know this is less than ideal, but you can drop the rent $25 or $50/mo or something, and pay it yourself.
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Feb 7, 2015 07:48
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photomikey posted:I know this is less than ideal, but you can drop the rent $25 or $50/mo or something, and pay it yourself. It's not a sublet, it's a lease transfer. Once I hand it off to someone else, I'm done and it's just between the landlord and them. Since I am not the landlord I have no control over the lease terms. The only way I could "pay their rent" is send them a check every month.
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Feb 7, 2015 08:38
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Pay a small lump sum up front or something then. Just anything to help sweeten the pot so you can get someone to take the lease over for you vs. all the other places they could go.
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Feb 7, 2015 13:47
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^^^ This is exactly what I'm suggesting.
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Feb 7, 2015 18:37
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HondaCivet posted:If I get someone to take over the lease I won't be breaking it so won't have to pay that fee. That's kind of the idea. Stanley Goodspeed and photomikey are saying basically the same thing I am. The problem with "the idea" is that, if you can't find someone, you're out some amount of money, one way or another. You may not have a "Pay nothing, get out free" card. Your options look like this: 1 - Pay the lease-break fee. 2 - Offer some portion of the lease-break fee to get someone in faster. 3 - Just keep renting until your lease runs out (probably more expensive, but if your new place can wait, maybe not a bad idea). 4 - Keep paying your rent for 1, 2, 3 months, maybe more, until someone comes along to take your unit. I don't know about your relationship with your landlord, but I doubt she'll fill your space for you if a tenant comes looking at one of her other rooms. Why shouldn't she try to get both rents, especially since she knows yours might sit idle for a while, too? If you're thinking "I don't want to pay anything; I just want to leave", well, best of luck to you. If you want to get out quickly with as much money in your pocket as possible, then maybe you should consider cutting your losses and throwing down a few bills to attract interest.
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Feb 7, 2015 20:19
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My fiancee and I are looking at moving in together. She has an appointment to look at a townhome tomorrow, but I'm probably going to be out of town for work. What should I tell her to look for? I know to check toilets for how well they flush, sinks/showers for hot water, electrical outlets for current, but what else? I only moved by choice once before, and that was just to where my best friend was living.
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Feb 12, 2015 22:57
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Any of that stuff can be fixed. Look for stuff you can't fix. Is there parking, how's the neighborhood, is it noisy, does the landlord seem shifty, does the rent seem in-line with the amenities. If an outlet doesn't have power, you can tell the landlord to fix it, or you can run an extension cord from 6' down the same wall. If there's no parking in that neighborhood... get used to walking... a lot... to get to your car.
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Feb 13, 2015 07:42
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Okay. We already drove around the neighborhood last night to check it out. Parking seemed okay. A lot of cars in the area, but it's a cul de sac of townhomes, and it wasn't like there was no more room. Checked the crime map, almost all incidents were "city violations", whatever that means. I saw a couple of cop cars, which worried me, but they were parked and dark, I think there just might be police living around there.
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Feb 13, 2015 17:03
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Have her look in some nooks and cranies, like under the kitchen sink, any bathroom cupboards, top of bedroom cupboards. If there is any pest problem, these are the sorts of places you will find evidence (droppings/dead, etc.) Is she meeting with the landlord or with an agent? Either way, go through the things that were listed and important to you and ensure they are true - by this I mean stuff like who pays the water/sewage bill, whether specific appliances or hookups are provided, are pets allowed and any associated costs. I have regularly found advertised stuff to be directly against what is actually on offer, with the landlord (or more commonly, agent) hoping that once you are in the door you'll compromise on them. Ask why the unit is vacant, and what happened to the previous tenant. What made them move out? Ask the agent/landlord if they would be willing to provide contact information for the previous tenant (or another prior tenant) so that you can ask them some questions about living in the property (like noise levels, neighbors, etc.) Make sure you know how maintenance and things like groundskeeping is managed. Is the landlord taking care of it himself? Does he have a company that does one or both? Is it your responsibility? If you don't have any idea which end to hold a hammer, you want to know if you're going to be expected to handle minor repairs yourself. Same goes for any maintenance of the yard that you may not want to bother with (and conversely, if you're aching to dig a flowerbed, make sure that is ok). If you aren't going to be there, ask her to take pictures of the place. When I tour a place I also sketch out the floorplan so that I can reference it later when thinking about how it will function as a living space. That's particularly important if she can't take pictures (like if its occupied).
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Feb 13, 2015 17:30
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HondaCivet posted:Any advice on finding someone to take over my lease? I've got an ad on Craigslist with pictures already and I've been stalking the Housing Wanted ads but I'm not sure what else I can do. I'm near downtown in Portland, OR which is supposedly a tight rental market generally. My landlord says the market is really lovely right now or something because she's had two similar rooms open for over a month. Also this building is somewhat fancy so the rent is above average a bit. Is there anything else I can do or am I stuck waiting until summer or whenever it is that people actually start going outside again? I've had zero responses and it's been up since Monday. Sent you a PM. I might be interested.
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Feb 16, 2015 10:52
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I have a standing desk at work, and am looking for one of those comfort pad things for standing on that's supposed to reduce wear and tear on your legs. Is there a particular model or brand that's good, or is it something that pretty much whatever will work?
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Feb 19, 2015 19:15
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How's the quality on Target sofas compared to Ikea? I'm having trouble finding something that is semi-affordable and not horrendous Value-City stuff. My current sofa is the famous Karlstad and it's pretty beat up and want to avoid Ikea again if I can help it. Is it a horrible idea to order a couch online? Do I just have to get out there and look through stores in person? I'm in the Cincinnati area, by the way.
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Feb 20, 2015 01:33
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Human Tornada posted:How's the quality on Target sofas compared to Ikea? I'm having trouble finding something that is semi-affordable and not horrendous Value-City stuff. My current sofa is the famous Karlstad and it's pretty beat up and want to avoid Ikea again if I can help it. Is it a horrible idea to order a couch online? Do I just have to get out there and look through stores in person? I'm in the Cincinnati area, by the way. I got my couch for cheaper than Ikea prices from Craigslist. It was pretty good quality too. Just make sure to check that it's in a clean house and there's nothing nasty between the cushions.
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Feb 20, 2015 11:36
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Thanatosian posted:I have a standing desk at work, and am looking for one of those comfort pad things for standing on that's supposed to reduce wear and tear on your legs. Is there a particular model or brand that's good, or is it something that pretty much whatever will work? Human Tornada posted:How's the quality on Target sofas compared to Ikea? I'm having trouble finding something that is semi-affordable and not horrendous Value-City stuff. My current sofa is the famous Karlstad and it's pretty beat up and want to avoid Ikea again if I can help it. Is it a horrible idea to order a couch online? Do I just have to get out there and look through stores in person? I'm in the Cincinnati area, by the way. There are two categories of furniture, cheap lovely furniture that falls apart immediately and extremely expensive furniture that lasts forever. Target sells cheap lovely furniture that falls apart quickly. Furniture stores have an even split, couches that are $499 that fall apart pretty quickly and couches that are $1999 that last forever. Ikea wedges their own section into this pie, cheap furniture that lasts forever but is ugly. photomikey fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Feb 21, 2015 |
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Feb 21, 2015 04:47
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Human Tornada posted:How's the quality on Target sofas compared to Ikea? I'm having trouble finding something that is semi-affordable and not horrendous Value-City stuff. My current sofa is the famous Karlstad and it's pretty beat up and want to avoid Ikea again if I can help it. Is it a horrible idea to order a couch online? Do I just have to get out there and look through stores in person? I'm in the Cincinnati area, by the way. Places like Ashley and Havertys have good middle of the road couches. Not cheap-rear end particle board but not super fancy either. I had a Havertys couch in college that stood up to all kinds of poo poo. Pigasus posted:I got my couch for cheaper than Ikea prices from Craigslist. It was pretty good quality too. Just make sure to check that it's in a clean house and there's nothing nasty between the cushions. This is an excellent way to get bedbugs.
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Feb 21, 2015 05:43
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:This is an excellent way to get bedbugs. Don't forget scabies.
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Feb 21, 2015 07:44
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My landlord just renovated my apartment and I had to move out for a week. I didn't think twice about it because I have family nearby, so I lived with them for a week and told my landlord to prorate my rent for the days I wasn't there. Could I have had him put me up in a hotel, or would I have been responsible for that cost?
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Feb 22, 2015 22:35
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Depends on your lease and local law. If there was some damage (fire/flood/natural disaster) such that the apartment is no longer habitable, he can put you up in a hotel OR terminate your lease such that you can move on with your life, depending on the lease and the law. I think my lease says damage I can fix in 5 days I put you up in a hotel, damage > 5 days we part ways and you move on. It sounds like he made improvements to your apartment while you were living there (which is odd, but... whatever) which almost certainly isn't covered in the lease and is up to the two of you to work something out. IMHO if I were in that situation and the tenant wanted me to pro-rate the rent, I would. If the tenant wanted me to pro-rate the rent and put them up in a hotel.... I'd probably re-consider and do the improvements after they moved out. In short, it sounds like you got a fair shake (and some upgrades to your pad) and I wouldn't worry too much about it.
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Feb 23, 2015 03:22
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Most leases say that if the place becomes uninhabitable for whatever reason you can terminate the lease without penalty but most don't have any clauses about temporarily kicking you out because that's highly unusual. I'd imagine most landlords would pro-rate the rent but not cover the hotel costs since you can use the money you save by prorated rent on the hotel. Doing upgrades mid-lease is kinda weird though, most places wait till the place is vacant between tenants to do that sort of stuff.
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Feb 23, 2015 03:48
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My shower had been leaking into the unit below for...many years. Got a great new shower out of it (and the piece of mind that I'm not going to fall through a rotted floor). It is kind of weird, but maybe he's desperate for me to stay? I'm going to be the only one left on my floor soon and my lease expires in a few months. The only complaint I had with the work was that the contractor said the design called for a shower door, but my landlord was being cheap and leaning towards making me use a shower curtain - which would allow water to splash outside the shower and wreck the floor again. I must have bitched enough about it yesterday, because the landlord caved and said he'd order me a door. I just hope my rent doesn't go up.
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Feb 23, 2015 04:19
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