Damage Deposit Question

[Jets4Life]

hi all,

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, I found out today that when a landlord rents out a room to a tenant in the landlords living quarters, it is not covered under the Residental Tenancy Act. It looks like small claims court is my only option, which sucks because I live in Brooks right now, and Medicine Hat is the closest place that has a civil court.

Hopefully my chances of winning are still good. It's not so much the money I am after, it is the principle that some person thinks they can steal money from you and get away with it. I'm not going to let that happen.

[ken0042]

If you are going to go small claims, let me take a page out of Troutman's book and suggest you call a lawyer for some advice. I had a small claims case a number of years ago and I called a lawyer I picked out of the phone book. (He had the same last name as me.) He was happy to spend some time with me over the phone, and even asked me to call him with the end result. The judge had asked how I was so well prepared, and I mentioned the lawyer that donated his time to help. Turns out the judge also happened to call my lawyer; worked out good all around.

[Jets4Life]

Originally Posted by ken0042

If you are going to go small claims, let me take a page out of Troutman's book and suggest you call a lawyer for some advice. I had a small claims case a number of years ago and I called a lawyer I picked out of the phone book. (He had the same last name as me.) He was happy to spend some time with me over the phone, and even asked me to call him with the end result. The judge had asked how I was so well prepared, and I mentioned the lawyer that donated his time to help. Turns out the judge also happened to call my lawyer; worked out good all around.

Thanks for the advice. I have a consultation with a lawyer on Monday. Today the ex-landlord dropped off a letter to me. He basically claimed that he owed me nothing since I caused "more damage" to his home than my security deposit.

Here, in summary are the deductions:

$85.00 shampooing of carpet ( I had repeatedly asked him to check my room in its condition on the day I moved out but he claimed he was too busy)

$45.00 cleaning of bathroom tub (I cleaned the washroom on the day before he left. he never checked it when I had asked him to)

$650.00 Carpet Replacement cost ( claims that "carpet could not be cleaned, although it was in the exact same condition it was in when I rented it)

$90.00 (claims I "left the front door open" one day, which is total lie. Says it cost him that much in heating over a few hours)

$45.00 Delivery fee for "new" carpet. (probably lie as carpet was in perfect condition when I left the home)

His math must be off, since he totalled the amount at $930.00, even though the calculated costs he claims I owe him are $915.00

---

I'm not sure what to do now. I guess it would be upto a judge to decide. Does anyone think he has a chance at winning, considering he avoided my requests, calls, etc for 10 days after I vacated the premises, only to deliver this letter to my work out of the blue?

[RW99]

I'm looking at shared accommodations in Calgary right now. Can you PM his name so I can avoid like the plague?

[photon]

Originally Posted by Jets4Life

Thanks for the advice. I have a consultation with a lawyer on Monday. Today the ex-landlord dropped off a letter to me. He basically claimed that he owed me nothing since I caused "more damage" to his home than my security deposit.

Here, in summary are the deductions:

$85.00 shampooing of carpet ( I had repeatedly asked him to check my room in its condition on the day I moved out but he claimed he was too busy)

$45.00 cleaning of bathroom tub (I cleaned the washroom on the day before he left. he never checked it when I had asked him to)

$650.00 Carpet Replacement cost ( claims that "carpet could not be cleaned, although it was in the exact same condition it was in when I rented it)

$90.00 (claims I "left the front door open" one day, which is total lie. Says it cost him that much in heating over a few hours)

$45.00 Delivery fee for "new" carpet. (probably lie as carpet was in perfect condition when I left the home)

His math must be off, since he totalled the amount at $930.00, even though the calculated costs he claims I owe him are $915.00

---

I'm not sure what to do now. I guess it would be upto a judge to decide. Does anyone think he has a chance at winning, considering he avoided my requests, calls, etc for 10 days after I vacated the premises, only to deliver this letter to my work out of the blue?

If it were under the act I'd say he didn't have a chance in hell. I've seen people put in new carpets, have one tenant for 2 years destroy the carpets, got to court, and have the judge seem that normal wear and tear.

Since it's not, really hard to say. The whole concept of a security deposit kind of requires laws around it.. if the act doesn't apply, the letter and spirit of the agreement you had together would apply.

I'd say take him to court, the guy deserves to go down.

[ricosuave]

^ agreed, if anything, do it for the poor saps that have to rent from him again, if not yourself.

[ken0042]

Refresh my memory if it's already been covered in the thread, but does he have an "In" inspection that you signed off on? Because IIRC if he doesn't have that, you pretty much would have to trash the place to not get anything back.

A number of years ago I had a jerk for a landlord and was leaving on less than happy terms. But when I moved in he gave me the In report to sign and I never did. So on move out day he came in for the "inspection" and asked me "so, is there anything I should know about here?"

You could be on the hook for the carpet cleaning; assuming he asked you to do that.

[Jets4Life]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Refresh my memory if it's already been covered in the thread, but does he have an "In" inspection that you signed off on? Because IIRC if he doesn't have that, you pretty much would have to trash the place to not get anything back.

A number of years ago I had a jerk for a landlord and was leaving on less than happy terms. But when I moved in he gave me the In report to sign and I never did. So on move out day he came in for the "inspection" and asked me "so, is there anything I should know about here?"

You could be on the hook for the carpet cleaning; assuming he asked you to do that.

The funny thing is that he never got me to sign anything. No reference checks (although I have 3 good references), nothing to sign, etc.

Additionally, on Jan 31, when I moved out, after I had cleaned the washrooms, and vaccuumed the rug, which was in fine shape, he told me to "come back later" when I requested him to view the room and washroom.

I called him in the evening and was told to "wait until next week when I have money". Then after 5 calls, 3 msg left I finally got ahold of him on the 10th, and he basically out of the blue to me to "go ###### myself"

Then today I get this letter, as I was unaware completely of any supposed damage. I actually showed it to 3 people at work, and they think the guy is nuts, and to go after him, but argue at the same time that maybe it's not worth it because it would cost me too much to fight in civil court.


So basically it's not so much the money, but the fact that I trusted this guy and he basically stole the deposit and in more words or less, is saying "I have your money, now what are you going to do about it". It's a shame because I really could have used that deposit.

I'm just having trouble finding info on what to do if the Residental Tenancy Act doesn't apply, as I'm sure this happens quite frequently, especially in Calgary I would imagine.

[Rathji]

If you will not lose money in terms of work, fight it in small claims court. Very little cost to you. You don't need a lawyer to point out to a judge that this guy has stolen your money. Even if the landlord and tenant act does not apply, the spirit of the act probably will be considered by a judge.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by Jets4Life

I called him in the evening and was told to "wait until next week when I have money". Then after 5 calls, 3 msg left I finally got ahold of him on the 10th, and he basically out of the blue to me to "go ###### myself"

Do you still have the keys?

[Jets4Life]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Do you still have the keys?

yes.

[RougeUnderoos]

I'm just kidding around. You can't do anything with those keys, I'll bet, that wouldn't be against the law, and you don't want to do that.

It might be satisfying to know you caused him to be considerably inconvenienced in trade for the money he's stolen from you. You'd have to be either creative or relentlessly annoying for that to work.

I'm over it now, but after being ripped off by a landlord or two, and hating them with the heat of a thousand suns for a while and never doing anything about it, I wish I had done something to make the money they stole from me not nearly worth the hassle.

Something that would made them inevitably think "damn, I should have just given this guy his 500 bucks, because he's been bugging me for weeks".

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Rathji

If you will not lose money in terms of work, fight it in small claims court. Very little cost to you. You don't need a lawyer to point out to a judge that this guy has stolen your money. Even if the landlord and tenant act does not apply, the spirit of the act probably will be considered by a judge.

And I'm not sure if it's the same now, but back in the day when I won my small claims case I was awarded the costs of filing as well as my time I missed from work.

[Boblobla]

Hmmm, My parents are in the opposite situation to you. They own a house and the Fiancee and I live in the upstairs. They are great landlords and the tenants we have living in the basement are total ######bags. They make noise at all hours under our bedroom, smoke pot in the house, tried to put an extra lock on the door, broke several windows and now are refusing to pay utilities since it is their last month there.

What I have learned through all this is that the law leans HEAVILY in favour of the tenant so I would recommend doing whatever you can. My parents have talk to the police and to a few different lawyers and have basically been told to tough it out because the soonest they could evict the tenants would be 2 weeks and they can do a buttload of damage to the house in 2 weeks.

Any landlords in Calgary feel free to PM me and I will give you the names of the 2 tenants and their useless friend who they 'claim' isn't living there but seems to get mail...

[CaptainCrunch]

Nail a kitten to his door.

That'll get your money back.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Jets4Life

Thanks for the advice. I have a consultation with a lawyer on Monday. Today the ex-landlord dropped off a letter to me. He basically claimed that he owed me nothing since I caused "more damage" to his home than my security deposit.

Here, in summary are the deductions:

$85.00 shampooing of carpet ( I had repeatedly asked him to check my room in its condition on the day I moved out but he claimed he was too busy)

$45.00 cleaning of bathroom tub (I cleaned the washroom on the day before he left. he never checked it when I had asked him to)

$650.00 Carpet Replacement cost ( claims that "carpet could not be cleaned, although it was in the exact same condition it was in when I rented it)

$90.00 (claims I "left the front door open" one day, which is total lie. Says it cost him that much in heating over a few hours)

$45.00 Delivery fee for "new" carpet. (probably lie as carpet was in perfect condition when I left the home)

His math must be off, since he totalled the amount at $930.00, even though the calculated costs he claims I owe him are $915.00

---

I'm not sure what to do now. I guess it would be upto a judge to decide. Does anyone think he has a chance at winning, considering he avoided my requests, calls, etc for 10 days after I vacated the premises, only to deliver this letter to my work out of the blue?

Under the act, none of those costs matters one iota unless there has been an "in" inspection, an "out" iinspection, and he's given you that list of items before the ten days is up.

While you don't appear to be under the act, that means the Landlord isn't under the act as well, meaning that he's got even less ground to stand on in terms of keeping your money.

Write down the whole story down on paper, so you have a record of it for court.

[Boblobla]

I would get in contact with the media as well. There was a story on CTV news a few weeks back about a landlord/tenant dispute.