Got a call from the DD indicating that I needed to pay another last month’s rent deposit. :bz
This child has not moved out of her rental, and doesn’t plan to, but has a new lease with new tenants. So, the landlord has asked her to pay another deposit for “last month’s” rent.
I informed her that they still had her “last month’s” deposit and that it shouldn’t be charged every year. So she told me, “Mom, its because I have a new Lease”. I said, “That doesn’t matter, they should be transitioning that money over to the new lease.” I told her that I needed to speak to the leasing agent and to give me the phone number. Then she said Mom, I’ll just pay it cuz I don’t want to cause any problems". To which I replied, I won’t be paying that, where will you get the money?
Called the leasing agent, who said that because a couple of the girls had moved out, they had to charge new deposits! So I said, you didn’t paint, clean or shampoo the unit. Nothing justifies you keeping the last month’s deposit and billing for a new deposit set. Then I referred him to California codes. They are now in the process of transitioning her fees from last year’s lease to the current lease.
Students, keep informed and use your state guides. READ your Leases. Use your housing office and their guides. Only the uninformed pay extra!
So was the “last month’s rent” on the old lease actually applied to the last month’s rent (or returned if not), and was the damage deposit on the old lease returned (less costs for any chargeable damages)? If not, then they seem to be taking advantage of your naive daughter.
@ucbalumnus, yes the last month’s rent on the old lease.
It was not being applied to the new lease and was not returned. The damage deposit was not returned because most of the students are still living there (7 girls-two moved out).
Yes the dd is very naive and I only get calls after the problem. Now it’s “fixed” because I “threatened” some “State” intervention.
I questioned cleaning and damage charges against one kid’s security deposit. To make a long story short, the property management company (probably the largest in our college town) determined that ‘oops’ the students’ unit had been billed for cleaning by 2 different contracted cleaning companies and that one was ‘obviously lying’. I wonder how many students just go along with the charges without question.
Next time at move-in I took 65 pictures of pre-existing damage, including dings, dents, chips, stains, mold, rust, nail holes, water marks, and scrapes. I made 2 sets of printed pictures and on a CD and gave 1 set to the property management company with a corresponding numbered list with descriptions in order to document pre-existing damage and reduce security deposit charges.
@Madison85 - That is a great idea and one that I will utilize when my D moves in May to the house she and some friends are renting for their senior year.
I do think it’s shameful that some landlords in college towns try to take advantage of naive students.
With this one, I took some pictures but, for every preventative measure we take, this middle child of ours has given dh and I every grey hair. We have tried to explain to her that if it sounds to good to be true, it is a problem. “Mom, why would they lie?”
She falls for EVERY scam! Very book smart but common-sense extremely dense and GULLIBLE!
The computer virus one: “Mom, I got a virus on my computer but I called the number to have it taken off” on a MAC!
The “job” of cashing a check using her funds and buying gift cards sending the card numbers.
I’m waiting on a call for a pyramid scheme or swampland for sale in Florida!
I didn’t drop her, nor did I fall when I was pregnant with her.
Eldest and youngest are nothing like this middle one! Holy Cow!!! I’m going to have years of trying to fix things.
Aunt bea, one of my kid said something similar. Just give her my salary so I can cosign the apartment. I had to do some investigation and essentially told her no. She had to use her income for the apartment. Kids this age are like that. Not just your kid.
My daughter’s BF was almost taken in by a Craig’s List rental scam. Luckily my level-headed daughter caught it. She says it’s his ADHD, I just don’t know.
Anyone renting should also understand their localities’ (State, city, county) laws on damage deposits. In many places, the deposit cannot be used to repaint, re carpet, or take care of normal wear and tear.
I had experiences in renting an apartment but did not have experiences in leasing a house as tenants.
For the latter, i.e., when leasing a house, do the tenants sign the lease contract with the real estate agent of the property management company if the owner of the house has a contract with the agent to help manage the house? Or, do the tenants sign the lease directly with the owner of the house?
When the release expires and existing tenants decide to continue living there, do they renew the lease with the agent or the owner?
This is the reason why we have this question: We relocated to another city due to the job change. We rent an apartment in the new city, but we do not sell our house. So we are both tenants and landlords. (We have been paying an real estate agent to manage our house.)
Recently, we requested a copy of the renewed contract (tenants did not move out.) Our agent told us that, even though the existing tenants stay, the renewal of the contract requires some charge (a certain % only but the % is higher than the % for the monthly management fees. It is neither a whole month nor half a month) in addition to the regular monthly management fees. We do not know if this is reasonable or not.
When we’ve had holdover or renewing tenants, we have not increased security deposits unless we’ve significantly increased the rent since they made the deposit–in such a case, I can see getting a sum to equal a month of the current rent (minus what’s already being held). The deposit is just supposed to protect the LL from damage by tenants or them leaving w/o paying, not provide a windfall for LLs.
It’s not always though. Capital One gave me $176 free for opening a no-fee checking and savings account there, immediately (or after a month or something, I forget but it wasn’t long). Sometimes the lottery is +EV (check your state lotteries, more likely to be the case for state lotteries than national lotteries). Sometimes you can profit from buying amazon gift cards with your credit card, then selling the amazon gift cards at 96% face value. “Sounds too good to be true” but actually true things come up all the time.
Yes, bonuses for financial transactions are pretty amazing at times. Our S gets a ton of “free” trips from the credit cards he opens and meets the qualifications for, but in general, it’s better to avoid “too good to be true” things until one can discern the REAL from the SCAMS (which abound).
OP- good thing you intervened. I suspect your D would have multiple security deposits that would get forgotten by management otherwise (and management could change and info lost…). Son told us back when he was a student renter which management companies were better/worse- word passed among students. He and other students were also lucky that UW-Madison has a renter’s information page on its off campus housing website with plenty of rules developed over the years by a tenants union and the city of Madison. Large school with a large renter population.
Our DD’s school also has a renter info page that was developed by the university and the local tenants associations.
Do you think the dd bothered to review it? It has a list of questions to ask, along with a check list of items that need to be asked. Its a great resource if the kids use it.