Thursday, January 7, 2010

What are my options? Yes, this retains to the SLUMLORD....

I received my deposit check today.
I moved out by November 1st. The landlord has 60 days to return monies to the tenant. Funny, somehow, my landlord missed that part of the rental agreement.
I wasn't mean when I contacted him to inquire about the deposit. I opted for the professional plan. He never responded to my e-mails or phone calls. Still, I remained calm, collected, professional.
Last week, he contacted me on Tuesday to ask what my new mailing address was. I wasn't shitty in my reply regardless of how frustrated I was with him. I had sent a written letter regarding my move out date, re-e-mailed him to make sure that he received my notice. When I found my current rental, I e-mailed again, to keep him current with my situation. I gave him my address than, and again, when I left the key to the place. I wrote it down twice, so that he had no reason to not be able to send me the check quickly.
When I moved out, while it downpoured ridiculous amounts of snow, I wrote a note, with the key and explained that I had not raked the leaved in the yard, due to the snow factor and that one of the stairs had broken while moving out. Thankfully, no one was hurt due to the poor condition of his stairs.
Today, I received my check--a full week late and the post mark was yesterday. Again, complete disregard with rules or regulations of the lease agreement.
We paid $850, equivalent to a month of rent. He sent me a check for $589 where he listed the cleaning that he had to do. I was pissed at the amount and than I was annoyed that he charged me to rake the leaves and repair the back staircase---REALLY, WTF? Those stairs have been ready to collapse since I moved in in June of 08. And that jackass charges me to fix it. Or, better yet, apply a bandaid to the continuing disrepair of the stairs.
What are my options?
He was late with the payment.
He charged for things that were out of my control. The leaves and the stairs. And, he charged for crap that he should have fixed before I moved in, in addition to cauking the bathroom and the lovely carpets. Normal wear and tear of a rental unit. And, he is a SLUMLORD. Currently, he is refusing to fix the heat situation. He doesn't want to have to pay for his current tenants to have ample heat. Instead, he gave them space heaters until further notice.
His next solution was rigging a light switch that hooked up to the heater. If they turn the light off, they have NO HEAT....I don't know about you, but it is FRIGID in most of the United States right now.
Surely, I have some rights or avenues that will ensure him being forced to be an adequate part of society. I am so FRUSTRATED............I decided to move out after he refused to re-key the place when someone broke into the downstairs unit. He felt it wasn't his responsibility since he had just re-keyed the locks to accomodate the new move-in. When he acted all pompous with this situation, I innocently asked him why I had never received the new key?
Immediately, he said, I will re-key it. Can you see what a complete moron he is? And, I was a great tenant. Rent always on time, pleasant, not a junkie and yet, it didn't matter. He just needs bodies to fill that space.
If you have any suggestions about action that I can take, please let me know. I must do something!!!

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