please take the time to read and let me know if this is legal?

Question

for the people who dont wanna read all this stuff my main question is, after doing a move out inspection and signing the form filled out after the inspection can the aparments go back when im not there and try to add things to the inspection, or charge me for things not on the inspection?
Ok well I moved out of my apartments not to long ago. And we are having two issues with the bill for the things that were wrong when I moved out. 1. When we did the move out inspection for the walls she wrote down "Finger prints on wall to dining area next to kitchen/ blues marks in living room wall next to hallway". She said that it was only gonna need a touch up paint for one hour. And for one hour of paint it will cost 22.00. When I got the bill the charged me 190.00 saying there was pet urine on one of the walls and the whole apartment was gonna need to be repainted. now I did have a dog BUT SHE WAS A FEMALE how the hell is a female dog gonna piss on the wall? I am sure they are referring to... well when I first moved in the apartments there was a leak in the ceilings from the apartment up stairs the water dripped down in to the bathroom wall and on the wall that is in the hallway and left brown marks at the bottom of wall. So one this is not my fault! And lets say I did have a male dog and it did piss on the wall (which i didnt im just asking!) can the add this all after we signed the move out inspection form?
Now 2. I had brand new carpet when I moved in to my apartment and the majority of the living room was covered with my furniture and and a big rug I had in the center of the living room. And I only lived in the apartment for 4 months im no where near a dirty person and when my dog pissed inside i cleaned it up right off the top! i when get rag with hot water and scrub it THEN id get the carpet cleaning spary and scrub it again! So anyways on the move inspection paper she wrote "carpet has light pet stench black marks around traffic areas" The black marks was only dirty that is easily cleaned! And yes there was a light pet stench. But when i get the bill to move out she sent another copy of the move out inspection form and you can CLEARLY see where she went back and changed the words from "has light pet stench" to "has heavy pet stench" it is VERY clear she used white out you can even still see the bottom of the letter "g" from light.
Now for the walls she did not go back and edit anything she said. Its when I called she told me about this "pet urine on the walls". But can she litterally go back and edit the form paper? Is this legal? When I called and asked about the walls I also asked about the carpet and she said there were pet urine stains. (this was ofcourse not of the form sent to me or filled out the day we did the move out) She said when the carpet cleaning people came out there to do the bid on the carpet they said they looked at these "urine stains" and said they were not gonna be able to clean it and told her the whole carpet through out the 1200 square foot apartment was gonna need to be replaced! When i asked about these stains she said there were only a few. Should i have to pay 1200 bucks to have the whole carpet cleaned because the didnt even attempt to clean the very few stains. And its not even like these aparments are all nice and everything. These aparments are TWENTY YEARS old! Are the able to do all this? should i have to pay all this money on basic wear and tear (even thought i didnt see any stains when i lived there nore did the lady who did the very thorough inspection) for aparments that are twenty years old? What kind of lawyer should i call to ask about all this? HELP PLEASE! I have already paid 3000 bucks in move out fees now they are adding this 1500 ( i say 1500 cause it was 1200 for the carpet and 300 on small things that i admit were wrong for the most part). these apartments are HORRRRRRRIBLE the manager is the biggest B(*#$ in the world! if you wanna see some reviews look up stoney brook apartments in san antonio texas off border brook rd! please HELP ME!

Answer 1

Bear in mind that landlord-tenant law won't be the same in every jurisdiction, but I'll try to take some logical guesses.



The real contract that specifies what you have agreed to be charged for is the lease. The inspection form doesn't quite carry the same weight; it's more of a pragmatic measure to try to avoid arguments like this. Thus, I doubt that the landlord will be absolutely barred from collecting damages just because the damages weren't all listed on the inspection form. The lease is the binding contract, and if the lease says you can be charged for any damages, you probably can be.



The good news is that if you have to go to court to argue this out, the circumstances of the inspection may help you. The judge would have to decide whether you did in fact cause the claimed damages, and the judge may be more likely to believe you if the original inspection form was favorable to you. Also, the fact that they changed the form after you left makes them look a bit slimy, which may make the judge less likely to believe the landlord.



Given the amount of money involved, I'd say it's probably worth talking to a lawyer. A letter from an attorney _might_ get them to drop the fees without going to court, and even a halfway-decent chance of that is probably worth paying an attorney for.

Answer 2

I'm not sure what this other person was talking about...report it to your congressperson? Really? I think passing health care legislation is a little more important than piss stains on some carpet, but hey, I'm a Socialist-- perhaps she had a Republican congressman, they don't do anything and can spend time on this stuff.



Oh, and the BBB is not tax payer funded and won't do anything unless the apartment is a member.



Back to your question-- I hope you have a copy of the TRUE inspection. If you do, great, remind them and say you'll sue if they charge you for anything not noted on that report. If you signed it and gave it back to her, well, you've learned a valuable lesson. The white out evidence is good though-- she'll have to explain that, and it will buttress your claim that she added stuff after you signed.



As to the standard, you hit the nail on the head-- wear and tear, honey, let it become your mantra. It's their property, if they want it to look like it's never been lived in before, let them invest the money. You lived there, it's gonna look like you lived there. They only get money for damages in excess of normal wear and tear. Stand up for yourself! Small claims court-- get your evidence together and let 'em have it. You can look up your local legal aid organization or law school clinic to see if they'll give some guidance, also, courts have pro se help desks. It's not hard though, just file.

Answer 3

Simple if you have a copy of the original inspection sheet. Just take it to the Better Business Bureau and send a copy of your complaint to your local congressman. It would also help if you had any pictures of that area where she is claiming the dog pissed on the wall from around the time you moved in. I wouldn't pay her, but I wouldn't let it go on my credit report either. There is also the Fair Housing Authority where you can report your complaint to. Just make sure you have at the very least a copy of your lease and all said agreements in it. If the additional costs following final inspection were not mentioned in the original lease agreement she doesn't have a leg to stand on. Also in the original lease agreement it should have the any balance due if it is your fault that you broke the lease. If you broke the lease through no fault of your own ie. false advertisement, concern for personal safety... then you should not have to pay any money to get out of the lease except for the damages that you did claim. I would just talk to my local authorities and the above mentioned organizations. They will be more than happy to help you with this for FREE!!!! That is why we pay our taxes.

Answer 4

If it's paintings comparable and you're no longer allowed to learn it at paintings you must observe the days you learn it at residence in view that it is paintings comparable and also you must be getting paid for it. You would simplest receives a commission like part to usual hourly price however you must be being paid for it... until of path it simplest takes a couple of mins to learn then that is simply useless you hold monitor of