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I've shared in here a while ago that my AH and I had to go file a claim in small courts to get our deposit back from our addict-landlord. She flipped out on us when we told her we were going to have to move back in late January/early February. Our deposit should have been paid to us 15 days after we vacated, but when 45 days passed and still no payment, we called her and asked her what was going on.
She came back lying to us that she had an $800 electric bill that we needed to pay part of (somehow in the last month that we'd been there and paid our part of the electric it had magically jumped all the way up to $800).
She kept screening her calls so whenever we'd call her to try to talk, she'd never answer, and then when she'd return our calls, she'd wait until she KNEW we'd be busy or like the middle of the night. (She's living in CA right now).
Finally my AH called her and left another message telling her "look, we're playing phone tag. Call me back so we can work this out over the phone instead of with messages back and forth."
Of course, she never called back except again in the middle of the night to leave another message, and then proceeded to berate my AH telling him he's a liar and he's rude and that he was a jerk because he never helped her clean up when there was a flood back in November (excuse me? it's the tenant's responsibility to clean up flood damage? and besides that, I stayed home that day and DID help, but she's got this huge beef with my AH). Anyhow she told him never to call her again and to send her correspondence through mail.
So, we did just that - we sent our small claims paperwork to her per court orders and she's to appear in court with us next Tuesday, the 13th.
I checked the mail this morning and found a letter from her... I just KNEW it was something that would stir me up and trigger me, but I wanted to see what she sent (hey, maybe she had a change of heart and sent us a check).
Of course it's just full of more false claims saying she "never got our 30 days written notice of intent to vacate", and that we owe her all sorts of baloney money and back bills from the electric company.
I'm seriously wondering if she plans to appear in court at all next week if she bothered to mail that letter to us. Part of me really, really hopes that she doesn't show up.
In any case, the point of my post is that this is seriously screwing with my serenity right now. I got all shaky reading her crazy letter and her bizarre list of made-up charges and such...
I just don't know what to do with myself. I keep telling myself to hand this over to my HP and my HP will take care of it.
I'm just frustrated because I keep thinking to myself about all these "should of's"... we should have always paid our electric bills by check instead of money order (my AH's idea... he always hated waiting for checks to clear, so he'd get money orders and pay that way or by cash), we should have taken pictures of the condition of the place before we completely left (she's claiming we left all sorts of trash in the place that needed to be removed). We should have sent our notice to vacate via certified mail (didn't - AH faxed it to her).
So many "should of's".
I just hate this situation. It's another thing where I just kind of wish we'd let it go... but it was $1500 of our hard-earned money, and mostly my AH has his boxing gloves on and is ready for a fight, so I pretty much let him take charge of everything in how we left the place, and all that sort of thing.
The frustrating part of all of this is we did everything by the book as far as I could tell, and still, we just have this lady making everything personal. :(
AH seems more calm about it - he just tells me - "There's no legal documents in there. That letter is just her pretending to be a lawyer."
So anyhow... I'm just praying praying praying to my HP and handing it over. I don't know what else to do.
I can tell you my experience with small claims is that I have won some and lost some. I can also say that I thoroughly regret forever ever doing anything with the A. He made a huge fuss when the landlord finally put me on the lease. I wish I had stayed off the lease but hey its all 20/20. Before I was on the lease he would threaten to kick me out regularly. Living with an A and trying to negotiate stuff is tremendously difficult. I used to be incredibly hyper reactive about stuff like this because I would feel it was even more of a call to try to regulate the A. I could never do that of course.
You've done all you can do. You have kept your side of the street clean. I have a really awful landlord at the moment and one way I manage it is not to engage with him much. There is really not much to say to people who have unreal expectations.
Life gets very murky when you live with an A. There is only so much you can do without full scale world war III in there. I hated all that boundary blurring and messes. I used to get totally over wrought over it. I am now almost one year clear of him and will be cleaning up mess for years to come. I am not adding anymore.
Courts like documentation, otherwise it's just hearsay. The electric company would have record of your payments. I strongly suggest you contact them and get copies of your payment record. You don't have pictures of how you left the place, but neither does she.. unless she threw trash all over. Did you happen to write the 30 day notice letter on your computer first and have it saved?
As far as letting it drive you nuts...what's the point? You can't know how it's going to end up so just do your best to get your ducks in a row and whatever happens, happens. I'm not positive, but even if you win the judgement and she still refuses to pay, I don't think there is much more you can do about it.
The energy you put out is the energy you'll get back. So think of her in the kindest way possible.
Good Luck Christy
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If we think that miracles are normal, we will expect them. And expecting a miracle is the surest way to get one.
Aloha, check the tenant - landlord rights/laws for your state. When a landlord is given notice that you are moving out, they have a certain time period from the date of your move-out to either provide you with the refund of your security deposit, or to provide you with an itemized statement of what they claim you owe from your security deposit. By law, this must be done. I know in both Florida and California the time frame was 3 weeks. (Been through this as both tenant and landlord myself.)
If the landlord did not provide either the refund or the itemized statement within that time frame, they are generally out of luck. Doesn't matter what they find/claim afterwards. They did not find/claim within the time frame. Thats the law. So check your state law. Google. The information is there. Sounds to me like you are entitled to a full refund.
Kis
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Let your light shine in the darkness. "I can't just bring my mind to meetings...I must also bring my heart."
I was talking with my sponsor about everything this morning, and she simply asked me "well, right now, is there anything more that you can do about it?" of course, my answer was "not at this time.", so she gently reminded me to "let go and let God."
My AH was telling me, too, that the judge reviewing the case will know what he or she is doing - this problem is so common out here that they have a whole bunch of booklets and instructions on how to file a small claim over a rental deposit dispute.
And Kis - thank you very much for pointing me to check the laws. It has really put me at ease.
You know, I still have that consistent "need to know" and I did NOT know that her claims against us should have been turned in to us in writing within 14 days of our vacating. (If I'd known that, I probably wouldn't have been worrying so much!) Total relief for me.
But this is definitely a big thing I have to work on, though. It's still one of those situations that's out of my control and I definitely wrapped myself into knots in a bunch of worry over something I don't have any control over.
I also need to work past this whole thing where I've been taking it all so personal. This whole "we're right and she's wrong" thing is doing me no good. I'll feel better if I just remember to view this lady the same way as I try to view my AH when his disease is picking a fight with me - it's NOT personal. He's just ill and really having a hard time of it. Same with the landlord. It's NOT personal. She's ill and having a really hard time of it.
Breathe...
practice these principles in all our affairs...
We're not just "sick" around our close alcoholics!
