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Trojan97 · 09-05-2010, 06:52 PM

Sorry for the bump, didn't want to start a new thread for a landlord question.

My roommates and I moved out of our rental house on August 31st and have been having an issue with our landlord returning the security deposit.

No walk-thru was done upon move-in as a time to meet couldn't be reached by all parties and it just never ended up happening (Yes, I now realize how important this is to do). As an act of good faith, we even shampooed the carpets in our house since our landlord had kicked out his previous tenants and it hadn't been done prior to us moving in. Finally, we never received a copy of our lease, warning bells probably should have gone off at this point, perhaps we are just naive. I never knew you are able to withhold rent until a copy of the agreement is provided.

Anyways, we spent three full days cleaning at the end of August (5 of us) and the house was in better condition than when we moved in. Three of us met with our landlord on the morning of the 1st and upon walk-thru of the house he told us that everything looked good minus the dryer which he would have someone in to look at. I asked him if there is anything that can be signed to state that the house is in good repair and had met his expectations of cleanliness to which he replied that it was not necessary and he would bring us our damage deposit this upcoming week.

Later that night, we received a call from our landlord and his father, they claimed that they had found multiple issues with the house and that we would be responsible for them. This includes ridiculous things such as the carpet at the front door being "worn down" relative to the other parts of the room. He claims that the carpet needs to be replaced because of it. It's a bizarre list to say the least.

We've now received phone calls claiming we never shampooed the carpets upon move out and that we never washed the walls, etc. etc. These are all things we did and actually put a significant amount of time into doing. He is essentially claiming we have destroyed the home when infact, we had taken exceptional care of it and left it in tremendous repair.

My question now is whether he has any grounds to come after us for damages despite a lack of walk-thru at move in? Does a lack of walk-thru document absolve us from his claims? We have emailed him officially asking for our full damage deposit within 10 days retroactive to September 1st when the final walk-thru was completed. We have talked to Service Alberta representatives and they seem to be mostly on our side that our landlord is trying to take advantage of us for wear and tear repairs that have accumulated over the years but I'm unsure how to pursue action from here.

Any input would be really appreciated. We're trying to tread carefully in this matter until we have a better idea of how to go about it.

09-05-2010, 06:52 PM	#19
Trojan97 First Line Centre Join Date: Jan 2004 Exp:	Sorry for the bump, didn't want to start a new thread for a landlord question. My roommates and I moved out of our rental house on August 31st and have been having an issue with our landlord returning the security deposit. No walk-thru was done upon move-in as a time to meet couldn't be reached by all parties and it just never ended up happening (Yes, I now realize how important this is to do). As an act of good faith, we even shampooed the carpets in our house since our landlord had kicked out his previous tenants and it hadn't been done prior to us moving in. Finally, we never received a copy of our lease, warning bells probably should have gone off at this point, perhaps we are just naive. I never knew you are able to withhold rent until a copy of the agreement is provided. Anyways, we spent three full days cleaning at the end of August (5 of us) and the house was in better condition than when we moved in. Three of us met with our landlord on the morning of the 1st and upon walk-thru of the house he told us that everything looked good minus the dryer which he would have someone in to look at. I asked him if there is anything that can be signed to state that the house is in good repair and had met his expectations of cleanliness to which he replied that it was not necessary and he would bring us our damage deposit this upcoming week. Later that night, we received a call from our landlord and his father, they claimed that they had found multiple issues with the house and that we would be responsible for them. This includes ridiculous things such as the carpet at the front door being "worn down" relative to the other parts of the room. He claims that the carpet needs to be replaced because of it. It's a bizarre list to say the least. We've now received phone calls claiming we never shampooed the carpets upon move out and that we never washed the walls, etc. etc. These are all things we did and actually put a significant amount of time into doing. He is essentially claiming we have destroyed the home when infact, we had taken exceptional care of it and left it in tremendous repair. My question now is whether he has any grounds to come after us for damages despite a lack of walk-thru at move in? Does a lack of walk-thru document absolve us from his claims? We have emailed him officially asking for our full damage deposit within 10 days retroactive to September 1st when the final walk-thru was completed. We have talked to Service Alberta representatives and they seem to be mostly on our side that our landlord is trying to take advantage of us for wear and tear repairs that have accumulated over the years but I'm unsure how to pursue action from here. Any input would be really appreciated. We're trying to tread carefully in this matter until we have a better idea of how to go about it. Last edited by Trojan97; 09-05-2010 at 06:56 PM.