<p>S1 lived in a fancy apartment complex with 2 friends sophomore year (3 br/3 bath - 3 separate leases). He moved out in Aug/12. In Oct/2012, supposedly they emailed him a bill for the following:</p>
<p>$100 Aug utilities
$105 light carpet cleaning/shampooing in his room
$ 10 trash removal</p>
<p>S1 claims he never saw the bill (Lord knows he happily emails me other bills, and he would have been annoyed because he spent a lot of time cleaning so I think he’d remember), but yesterday I got a call from a collections agency saying we owed the complex $215. They couldn’t give me these details so I had to contact the complex mgr and finally just got the numbers.</p>
<p>I just paid the bill today, since I didn’t feel like I had any defense and don’t want to jeopardize my credit, but now I’m thinking how we can avoid this in the future. S1 currently lives in a homey (aka very old) town home with the same boys and this landlord seems super nice, but S2 will be starting college next year!</p>
<p>S1 said he went to the office to turn in his key and requested a walk-through, but the girl told him they were too busy and they would walk-through later and “let him know” if there were any issues. We both forgot when months went by with no word. They didn’t collect any kind of deposit upfront - maybe that should have made me suspicious?</p>
<p>I wondered if any of your have had experience with this? Wonder if we had taken a bunch of pictures of the cleaned apt if that would have helped - or if “slightly dirty carpet” can always be cited? Seems like “normal wear & tear to me”.</p>
<p>Any help greatly appreciated! I’m really mad about sending this straight to collections. They obviously had my mailing address as they sent me several paperwork forms early on. I think the stalling was part of the strategy. I feel like reporting them to the BBB.</p>
<p>does the lease have any provisions regarding the cleanliness of the apartment on move out? I never was charged for a carpet shampoo, but I lived in bohemian student apartment, and low rent nyc for my rentals. Perhaps in high end apartments this is the norm?</p>
<p>I think once you pay, you would have to sue to get refunded, as it was perhaps paid under duress.</p>
<p>Recently, when we discontinued our Yellow pages ad with SUPERMEDIA (just want everyone to know), and the final bill was not paid in 10 days, I got a call from a collection agency. Nice treatment for a twenty plus year client of those Yellow pages. I told them that it was not a good way to ever get our business again, and I paid up, which I always intended to do. The bill was less than $60. So tacky. I have no idea whether they put a mark on our credit with that.</p>
<p>Exact same thing happened to my daughter. She never got a bill from the complex and she too learned about the charges through a collection agency. She did pay a deposit up front - these were additional charges. She lived alone (graduate school) and left the apartment in good shape so she was most displeased. She requested an itemized statement but ultimately paid the bill as it was not worth the hassle not to pay it. I wondered at the time if the complex takes advantage of the fact that it deals mainly with college students and it makes some extra money this way. Contact a collection agency and make the student worry about his credit rating so that he’ll pay in a hurry. Cynical, I know. (This happened in Austin, TX - with its large student population. I mention this because I notice the OP lists TX as his/her location.)</p>
<p>“S1 said he went to the office to turn in his key and requested a walk-through, but the girl told him they were too busy and they would walk-through later and “let him know” if there were any issues.”</p>
<p>Last place we rented, the agent didn’t want to bother with a walk-through as we’d been there long enough for the apartment to qualify for a full remodel anyway. I insisted because I wanted him to note several issues (one electrical that could have caused problems for an unwary remodeler), and to sign off in my presence. </p>
<p>It is tough for young people to force this kind of issue, but I’d encourage them to try. They all have cellphones with cameras these days, maybe a “virtual walk-through” would be an acceptable substitute.</p>
<p>Many apts are going to non-refundable cleaning fee–often in $200 range. Makes life easier for everyone–just leave broom clean and let pros come in and do the job properly–carpets, blinds, etc. We charge this.</p>
<p>Slightly different situation, but thought I’d share. We rented a vacation property in the mountains. Weeks later, rental management company contacted us to let us know we had broken the hot tub cover. We never even used the hot tub the entire time we were there. But how were we to prove we had not damaged it? We didn’t go around taking pictures of the entire property (including the hot tub) when we checked out. We decided to pay for the replacement. I think it was around $350. Will never rent from that company again.</p>
<p>Here is the opposite. When DS and roommates moved into one apartment, it had NOT been cleaned…not even swept. Actually it was filthy. The previous renters had lived there for three years. Luckily, I had packed a large box of cleaning things…and a vacuum. Well…these three kids were cleaning seriously yucky place when the rental agency came to do the walk through. They commented that the place had been painted wrong colors (like these kids would have had any idea when that happened). Luckily my husband was there, and pointed out that the rental agency should have come to inspect BEFORE they handed our kids the apartment keys. I always thought these kids should have gotten something for cleaning the place. My bet is the previous tenants got a bill…</p>
<p>I think it’s really common for private landlords as well as the management companies to try to squeeze extra money out of renters in any way they can. With the exception of the last two places I rented, every.single.landlord. found some reason to either keep the deposit or charge us extra for SOMETHING, even when we HAD proof, such as a walk-through. They KNOW you’re not going to fight a few hundred dollars, especially if you have already moved out of state.</p>
<p>Let’s see-we got charged for landscaping to “restore” the backyard, after we moved into 2-foot tall grass, and left it nicely mowed and trimmed (management company); deposit kept for “cleaning” after we moved into a place with the previous tenant’s spoiled food, some furniture and toiletries still there (private owner), “professional cleaning needed” after we HIRED our OWN professional cleaners after being previously screwed for cleaning deposits (private owner), entire deposit kept for replacing an entire room rug for a small stain-about 6 inches, (private owner).</p>
<p>After the first few of these, I’ve always assumed that walk-through, photos or not, we’d be screwed somehow, and I’ve always been right, except for those last two. No matter what type of place I had rented, with or without my ex, with or without kids, no matter our income or the location, no matter the contract or lack thereof. Again, they know you won’t fight it.</p>
<p>Thanks, I’ve been mad at myself for not taking pics at move in. I did find the state tenant rights publication calls for damages to be assessed within 30 days so I am sending a letter with the original ‘bill’ email (closer to 60 days) just for the heck of it.</p>
<p>1) Take pictures at move-in. If your camera/phone doesn’t have a date-stamp, e-mail them to yourself so you have a record of the date.</p>
<p>2) Take pictures at move-out. Same as above.</p>
<p>3) Make an appointment for a walk-through. Send the request in writing (e-mail, fax) - anything to keep a record. On the second or third attempt, state that they do not get the keys until the walk-through is completed. You’d be surprised how quickly they’ll “make time.”</p>
<p>My d’s apartment manager didn’t want to do a walk-through and wanted her to leave the door unbolted (the door knob locked without a key) and the keys on the table. No way! Who knows who could have come in and done who knows what to the place. Two weeks before, we sent the e-mail requesting the walk-through. We also told them that she would only relinquish the keys to an agent in person.</p>
<p>We got the walk-through. She got the security deposit back.</p>
<p>In my experience this sort of thing is landlord-specific. D#1’s college landlord was a gem. The apt was clean when she moved in, and he appeared with her deposit check the day she moved out. D#2’s landlord felt that new tenants should clean the apt to their personal level of comfort. But he was upfront about it, and returned her deposit within a few days. And then there are landlords that fall into the “Other” category.</p>
<p>For those tenants unsure about their landlords’ End-of-Lease practices, I agree with prior posters who suggest insisting on a walk-through and sign-off prior to departure.</p>
<p>Our kiddos unfortunately also end up losing a part of the security deposit as a cleaning fee. I was shocked when that happened with one landlord who told me over the phone how helpful and handy S had been for her and the building. Even she didn’t return all the deposit. We now just expect them to keep $100 or so since its happened so often. Even the kids don’t want to bother hassling about it–not worth the aggravation. Have never been turned over to collections and would be upset if that happened.</p>
<p>The last place we rented we didn’t get our deposit back, or notified why not in a timely fashion.
We did scrub a little & we had only lived there a couple years & everything was in decent shape.
Our deposit was a 1/2 months rent I think ( its been 30 yrs) & I took the landlord to small claims to get it back, I won.</p>
<p>We vacated our kids’ apartment last spring. I had taken a lot of pictures before and after and documented all damage that we weren’t responsible for. We had kept it fairly clean for the time that we had it and we cleaned the carpets and everything else fairly rigorously before leaving.</p>
<p>I checked with the property company on the condition and they said that it was spotless and I got our deposit with interest (actually a lot more than what the banks pay). They also negotiated a sale to the next tenant for some improvements that we did.</p>
<p>We always maintained a good relationship with the property management company and were never late with a payment. We also made it easy for them to show the place.</p>
<p>Always take pictures before you move in - lots of them, preferably high-resolution. Store them on your laptop or on the cloud where you will have easy access. I store stuff like this on a computer notebook. Take pictures before you leave. Include the ceilings, carpet, windows, doors, etc.</p>
<p>I recently moved out of my apartment (after three years of never being a day late with a payment, and often being told I was the landlord’s favorite tenant), and still lost about $150 to cleaning. I was in the middle of moving when they said I’d probably lose that much of my deposit, so I just said screw it, and didn’t bother cleaning anything on my way out. </p>
<p>I figure it was worth the money to have a clean break since I had enough other junk on my plate at the time.</p>
<p>Obviously, the legality of such charges are state-specific and lease-specific. I had one place charge me for pulling the stove and the fridge out and cleaning behind them - no, there weren’t gross things or dead things there, just a year’s worth of more dirt than there was before. </p>
<p>I imagine that the legality of sending the thing to collections without first billing the person also varies by state. </p>
<p>Keep a copy of the lease, take pictures, do the walk-throughs, and, if your lease does not allow them to charge for normal wear and tear, but they charge for cleaning, you can fight it. Now, you might have to pay far more than it is worth, or you might get a lawyer-friend to write a nasty-gram on your behalf. (No, it would not be an unprofessional nasty-gram; it is merely a letter saying that the lease says X about wear and tear, here are the pictures of the place, please call off the collection agency or legal action will be taken.) In my experience, landlords don’t even want to fight twenty-year olds who quote sections of the state law at them; I can’t imagine that they would really want to fight real adults.</p>