Moving Out of Apartments
“Oh, every 5-10 years or so,” came the reply.
“And how old was this carpet?”
“Eight years.”
While we did not get our deposit back (as was expected), we also did not have to fork over the obscene amount of money they were trying to charge us. After that incident, I came up with some suggestions for what to do when moving out of an apartment so you can avoid landlords pulling stunts like that.
1. Plan ahead and start fixing stuff a month before you move out. If you’ve dinged the walls or put holes in them, spackle and repaint. If your dog chewed up a door, try to repair it.
2. Plan WAY ahead and, any little thing that’s not working right, have them fix it right away. Don’t wait until you move out to tell them that an appliance was never working; they will blame you for breaking it. DOCUMENT your telling them these things, too, so that they can’t claim you didn’t.
3. Moving is way stressful, and you get worn out doing it. If you’ve got the money, and your deposit is pretty big, it might be worth hiring a maid service to come and scrub the place down professionally right after you’re done. Retain the receipt for this so that the landlord doesn’t later claim that you left a mess behind. The aforementioned sleazeball said we left the sinks and toilets filthy, when I scrubbed those suckers down MYSELF.
4. After everything is repaired, you’ve got all your stuff out, and the place is clean, make the property manager or landlord do a walkthrough. If they decline to do one, keep pushing. Don’t let them get away with telling you that it’s not necessary; they will later screw you royally by making things up. If they absolutely refuse to do a walkthrough, tell them you want their refusal in writing. We suspected that, after our moving out, they did not keep the doors locked, and maintenance workers probably used the bathrooms in the vacant apartment. That might account for them being dirty–but we could have avoided being faulted for it had we made them walk through (they refused the three times we asked).
5. Take photographs after you have moved out and cleaned up the place. Use a newspaper in the pictures to document the date, if you need to. Keep those photographs until you have gotten your deposit back.
6. If you have something wrong when you move in, such as a stained carpet, hole in the wall, or appliance that doesn’t work, take a photo of it and ask the landlord to sign something acknowledging all of the pre-existing problems. If you don’t, they can and often will try to claim that they’re YOUR fault. I had a fridge that was so old, the plastic inside was crumbling. They claimed that we “trashed” the fridge and tried to get us to pay for a new one. When we responded that it was old and decrepit, they asked why we hadn’t asked maintenance to look at it. If we had, then it would have been documented, and maintenance would have noted that it wasn’t our fault.
Remember, a sleazy landlord will try to pin everything he or she can on you. We were warned before we moved out by a departing property manager that these scumbags had done this to all kinds of other people. Because most residents of the building had been immigrants, they were unaware that they had any option other than to pay off the thugs. They were also making enough money that they could pay it off.
So, basically, if you’re a renter, document EVERYTHING, fix what you can, clean the place up really well, and make sure they walk through with you afterwards. Otherwise, you could be accused of all kinds of false things, and you won’t have any defense against it. Remember, too, that landlords with a lot of rental units are very, very familiar with city court judges, because they are in court frequently for evictions. They might have a repertoire with the judge that you probably do not. We were fortunate in that the judge didn’t actually seem to like these folks, but familiarity can go the other way, too.
A final note: Pet odors and stains can really foul things up (no pun intended) for you, especially if you want your deposit back. It is a really good idea to rent a Rug Doctor or buy a steam cleaner (I really love my Hoover Steamvac; my ex and I both have one because they’re so useful) to first remove as much stuff as possible from the carpet. After a good carpet shampoo, use a product that will remove trace amounts of pet odor. While Nature’s Miracle and Simple Solution are pretty good at this, there is another product that works much better: Con-San Triple Action 20. You can find it in feed and agriculture stores like Agway, or in Lowe’s garden center. This livejournal comment is a good brief instruction on its use.
I hope this helps someone. I wish I’d known, but I was in my early 20’s and very naive!
