G
gullken
Guest
What is the name of your state? Texas
Two friends and myself rented a house in Texas from a lady. We lived there for two years and were never late on the rent. We never had any problems ... until after we had moved out.
The inital security & pet deposit was $1450. Im not going to lie, when we moved out the carpet was not perfect. There were some stains that two different carpet cleaning compaines could not get rid of. Part of the carpet was also torn while we were moving out. (oops!) We knew that our deposit was gone, accepted it and moved on. Before we moved out, we replaced some linoleum at the entrace of the house, painted all the walls, and got the front and back-yards landscaped.
However, three weeks after moving out, I get a call from my old land lady, who tells me that she wants to charge me and my two room-mates $10,000 in damages to the house. Needless to say I was floored. After about an hour on the phone she said she would simply charge us the cost of whatever it took to replace the carpet.
She called me the next day with two estimates on this three bedroom 1400 sq ft house, one for $4000, and another for $2500. Now, there are only two areas of the house that had any damage, and the stairs and second floor are perfect, nay immaculate. The carpet is the cheap carpet you would find in aparment complexes and was literally "patched together" in parts when we moved in.
She gave me an ultamatium:
1. Pay the difference in the security deposit for the carpet ($1050)
2. Get a list of the damages items, and pay for them. She said if she "has to make this list" it will be much, much more. She has stated that she is replacing all the linoleum in the entire house, re-painting (needlessly), changing the master bedroom from carpet to tile, replacing the garage door etc etc... and would charge us for all of it. Even though its obviously way out of scope of the damaged carpet.
She says if I dont do this, *this week, she will give the three of us a $10,000 black mark on our credit.
Now, where I stand paying her $350 to drop it looks pretty good as the the thought of getting that kind of black mark on my credit scares me! My room-mates are very much against the idea, and may want to fight her... I think that would cost more than $350 each and is not worth the risk....
Does she have the right to charge us on top of the security deposit if she deems it so? Should I fight her or keep trying convince my room-mates to pay her off? If I do pay her off now, how would I stop her from calling me again in 6 months asking for more money?
Any advice would be greatly appericated!
~gullken
Two friends and myself rented a house in Texas from a lady. We lived there for two years and were never late on the rent. We never had any problems ... until after we had moved out.
The inital security & pet deposit was $1450. Im not going to lie, when we moved out the carpet was not perfect. There were some stains that two different carpet cleaning compaines could not get rid of. Part of the carpet was also torn while we were moving out. (oops!) We knew that our deposit was gone, accepted it and moved on. Before we moved out, we replaced some linoleum at the entrace of the house, painted all the walls, and got the front and back-yards landscaped.
However, three weeks after moving out, I get a call from my old land lady, who tells me that she wants to charge me and my two room-mates $10,000 in damages to the house. Needless to say I was floored. After about an hour on the phone she said she would simply charge us the cost of whatever it took to replace the carpet.
She called me the next day with two estimates on this three bedroom 1400 sq ft house, one for $4000, and another for $2500. Now, there are only two areas of the house that had any damage, and the stairs and second floor are perfect, nay immaculate. The carpet is the cheap carpet you would find in aparment complexes and was literally "patched together" in parts when we moved in.
She gave me an ultamatium:
1. Pay the difference in the security deposit for the carpet ($1050)
2. Get a list of the damages items, and pay for them. She said if she "has to make this list" it will be much, much more. She has stated that she is replacing all the linoleum in the entire house, re-painting (needlessly), changing the master bedroom from carpet to tile, replacing the garage door etc etc... and would charge us for all of it. Even though its obviously way out of scope of the damaged carpet.
She says if I dont do this, *this week, she will give the three of us a $10,000 black mark on our credit.
Now, where I stand paying her $350 to drop it looks pretty good as the the thought of getting that kind of black mark on my credit scares me! My room-mates are very much against the idea, and may want to fight her... I think that would cost more than $350 each and is not worth the risk....
Does she have the right to charge us on top of the security deposit if she deems it so? Should I fight her or keep trying convince my room-mates to pay her off? If I do pay her off now, how would I stop her from calling me again in 6 months asking for more money?
Any advice would be greatly appericated!
~gullken
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