evil landlords!

ada · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 87 Location: London, UK

I think I just need to vent, I'm so pissed off with my ex-landlord.

She refuses to return part of my bond; she says I agreed to redecorate and didn't do it. Actually what happened is that I wanted to repaint the bedroom, asked her permission, and then never got around to doing it. It seems to me there is a world of difference between being allowed to repaint, and being obliged to do so.

So then I wrote her a letter saying I disagreed. A month later, I haven't heard back, so I try calling her cellphone. It goes directly to a dead line noise. So then I call her work number. When I talk with her, she accuses me of 'threatening' her by 'quoting legalities' at her. Then she says not to call her at work, and when I explain the cell didn't work, she says I'm lying when I said I tried her cell and didn't get to an answerphone, yells something about 'not being willing to put up with this', and hangs up on me.

It makes me so ANGRY! Of course I was quoting legalities, because what she is doing is illegal! (In the UK, it is illegal for a landlord to use a deposit to redecorate, unless damage had been done to the original decoration in the first place.) This sort of thing seems to happen in the UK all the time, because there is no agency that coordinates the process or mediates on disputes (in New Zealand, where I used to live, there was).

Maybe I should let it go, it's £100 that she has kept, it's not the whole bond... but then I think, dammit, why should I let it go, she's the one who is in the wrong, and after all she's rich enough to own a flat while I am poor enough to notice the difference from missing that amount of money. What do you guys think? How does it work in other countries? Any advice?

becca_13 · Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Posts: 206

i would send her a certified letter (she has to sign for it) with all of your facts written out. give her a time period to return to money and then simply state that further action may be taken if the matter is not resolved to your satifaction by that date. maybe that will scare her into behaving properly....

lizzymahoney · Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 804

Landlords screw people all the time in the States. One of mine left me with a nonworking stove for eight months, finally moved in a crappy used stove that tore up the linoleum and they had to saw off the edge of the countertop to get it to fit. In two years, we'd landscaped, done major tree surgery saving him thousands of bucks, painted and reglazed broken windows all on my money, but he held the one month's security because the countertop was ugly where his guy had sawed it off and the linoleum needed replacing. I received maybe a third of it after a few months of registered letters. That's the end of it. It would have cost me days at work and lawyer fees to collect the rest.

If I ever lose my conscience, he's still on my dirty tricks list. Write it off and move on. That's what I had to do to save my sanity.

kari-star · Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 71

I had a similar situation with my old landlord. our washing machine broke, and he didn't want to replace it (coming soon after "we broke the water heater." Honestly!) So I did the letters quoting the lease and the highlighting the lease where it said all appliances were included with the apartment, and he finally replaced it. but when we moved out he told us that we had agreed to pay for half of the washer. Half! why would I buy half a washer? so we lost money on our security deposit. After we were the best tenents ever, too.

But in the end we just let it go because maybe that makes me a push over, but it was such a huge source of negativity in my life that I was glad to get over it.

lexlandra · Joined: 09 May 2004 Posts: 17 Location: L.E.S.

I think it's better not to let things like that go, I feel the reason why some landlords can be so out of control is that people let them get away with it. By making them stick to their word you're making it easier for future tenants (or you if it's a current landlord) to get them behave appropriately. But I second kari-star, still be careful about putting too much of your energy into something negative...

On the practical side, in any landlord dispute document EVERYTHING. Keep a log of every letter, note, phone call, message, attempted phone call -- day, time, what was or wasn't said. Legally it counts for a lot to show what attempts you were making to resolve the situation.

actiongirl · Joined: 17 Sep 2004 Posts: 2 Location: London

I had a similar problem with a landlady who withheld part of a deposit because she said she needed the money to decorate - we hadn't agreed to decorate or anything, she just felt like spending our money on it instead of hers. Having had a problem with a landlord not returning any deposit for no reason (and threatening my then partner physically for asking for it) I got very depressed and didn't want to get any worse by chasing it up. Technically you can chase landlords through the Small Claims Court so if you have the time and energy it may be worth seeing your local Citizens' Advice Bureau for free advice about this.

The good news is that the UK govt is bringing in a new system whereby deposits will be held centrally and there will be a body to appeal to in cases of disputes. This can't come soon enough for me! Unfortunately they don't seem to be in any hurry.

At the moment I am just avoiding moving because I can't face being ripped off with impunity any more and the longer you live in one place the less of a loss your deposit is (ie if you live somewhere for 6 months and end up paying 7 months' rent it's proportionally worse than living there for 18 and paying 19 months' rent!)

ada · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 87 Location: London, UK

Thanks everyone for the advice. I didn't mention in the original post that we got the flat through a property management company, so I've sent an email to the person who was responsible for our flat, explaining what happened and asking her to mediate for me.

Don't know if that will work - property managers sometimes deserve their own 'evil' discussion strand - but at least it's a good compromise between not letting it slide, and not getting too stressed myself. Also it's a way to document the efforts I have made, so that if I do need to take it further myself, I have a record (thanks, lexlandra, for your advice on this especially).

actiongirl, I'm so glad to hear the UK government is (eventually) going to bring in a scheme like that. I hear what you're saying about not wanting to move! That's partly what stressed me out, the idea that I might have the same sort of thing with the new landlord.