tenant rights

“I was wondering if anyone knew if a landlord can charge you for cleaning/maintenance fees after you’ve moved out if they weren’t stipulated in your lease or move-out letter?”

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user James Crane

“Dear PoPville,

I was wondering if anyone knew if a landlord can charge you for cleaning/maintenance fees after you’ve moved out if they weren’t stipulated in your lease or move-out letter. I paid $250 to move into a building back in 2012 and recently moved out due to the horrible management (this is not an isolated incident; long-time tenants of my building are moving out in droves) but was never required to pay a security deposit. This new management company (Alvin L. Aubinoe – run!) is the third one to take over since I moved in, and the fourth overall. When I asked for a copy of the move-out policy (at least three times) the property manager didn’t provide it. After never receiving anything and securing a new place, I submitted my 30-day notice and received an acknowledgment letter. The letter outlined the basics – return your keys, don’t leave anything in the apartment, clean the fridge and stove. I did all of these things, returned the keys, and never heard anything for over a month.

Over the weekend I received a letter from my ex-landlord with photos of my stove and freezer, and a broken kitchen cabinet latch that had been broken for a LONG time, along with a bill for $400 (a $300 cleaning fee and $100 for the broken latch).I had asked previous management companies to fix it to no avail, and the new company had done three inspections in the past six months (including one for “improvements”) but didn’t fix it. I was present during all of these inspections and they saw it, and acknowledged it – but never did anything to fix it. I also don’t believe wiping down a freezer and oven (not stove) would cost $300 and if so, shouldn’t they have mentioned that in my move-out letter?

My partner and I went above and beyond to clean the apartment, including abating the mold in the bathroom ourselves – something they ignored for some time.

While I am not against paying reasonable, and warranted, fees, I believe if I am not contractually obligated to under my lease, they should have at minimum provided me with this potential fee in writing.

This rental company has been a horror to work with, and my building went downhill FAST since they took over in October 2016. Packages were stolen, the property manager screamed at my partner on the phone after he asked a simple question, and she ignored my emails and shrugged off my requests. (more…)

“Recourse when landlord keeps your deposit?”

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user Erin

“Dear PoPville,

Is there a recourse when your landlord keeps your deposit?

Background: We’re a professional couple in our mid forties who’ve rented a Mt Pleasant row house for three years. We’ve treated it like our own, have made small upgrades (with the permission of the landlord) and have had no incidents during our time here.

Now that we’ve finished our lease to move back overseas, the landlord has kept half of our deposit (and this is Mt Pleasant, so that’s a lot). She’s given no explaination other than this is for repainting and cleaning.

We had the house deep cleaned before we left. There is no structural or cosmetic damage to the house other than what would constitute normal wear and tear (we have no kids, no pets and frankly the house is in better shape than when we rented it). But as all this is subjective. Do we have any avenues to challenge her to get our deposit back?”

“Lease renewal help!”

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user Jim Havard

“I live in a group house and my landlord is renewing the one-year leases for all of our roommates with the exception of one because he wants his friend to move into her room. She hasn’t violated any house rules so there’s no retaliatory action involved. Does he have the right to refuse her lease renewal?”

You can see all forum topics and add your own here. If you are having trouble uploading your question please email me at princeofpetworth(at)gmail Please Note this is NOT an events calendar.

“Joint several liability in a group house, is this fair?”

By Prince Of Petworth

grouphouse
Photo by PoPville flickr user brunofish

“I understand that in general with joint several liability in a group house lease agreement, the landlord can hold any or all of the tenants responsible for unpaid rent.

In our current situation, 3 of us are moving out of a 4-bedroom house, leaving the 4th responsible for filling the rooms. We’ve been helping to fill the rooms, but it looks like some may not get filled with viable tenants by the end of the month. The landlord already said he’d be holding the remaining tenant responsible if that’s the case. Is there any recourse here?

Everything I read about joint and several liability deals with cases of other tenants not paying rent, not cases of multiple roommates who’d been on a month-to-month basis leaving. It just seems unreasonable to expect someone to be responsible for filling 3 rooms regardless of circumstances. Any help would be appreciated.”

You can see all forum topics and add your own here. If you are having trouble uploading your question please email me at princeofpetworth(at)gmail Please Note this is NOT an events calendar.

“I wonder if anyone has had a similar experience to advise on a situation I have encountered as a tenant.”

By Prince Of Petworth

tenant
Photo by PoPville flickr user LaTur

“Dear PoPville,

I wonder if anyone in the community has had a similar experience to advise on a situation I have encountered as a tenant. We lease a row house to a property management company that oversees our space (in addition to others) owned by a landlord living outside the country. We have been living here for about 2 years and have never been directly billed for our water use. The first several months of our residence we were continually receiving bills and delinquent payment notices addressed to homeowner, some of which included DC Water. After notifying the property manager several times, including expressively inquiring the status of the DC Water account, we were assured that it would be taken care of.

Our lease states that we are responsible for ‘individually metered’ water utility charges but the bills have since sopped arriving in our post box. However, we’ve just received a call from the property manager that the landlord has (only now) realized that he has had the water account setup to automatically debit the full bill amount from his personal credit card/bank account each month and has unknowingly paid for our collective water usage for over 24 months. (more…)

“Am I still liable after appropriately exiting my month-to-month lease?”

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user Shamila Chaudhary

“Hi there! I’m really hoping for some advice. I recently moved into a new apartment. I was living with a roommate in another apartment previously and we were both on the same month-to-month lease. In terms of moving out, I did everything I needed to: I informed my roommate months in advance, I gave 30 days notice to building management, ensured the rent was paid through my notice period, moved out at the end of the period, and left the keys. The remaining roommate had already identified a friend to move in (J). The landlord decided that he wanted to shift to a brand new, year long lease with J and the old remaining roommate. J applied for this lease and was approved. We all signed and executed the roommate addendum, which stated his official move-in date as December 1. Management said the next step was receiving his security deposit and fees, at which point I would have my deposit refunded to me.

However, just today I discovered that this hasn’t happened. (more…)

Today in Tenant Rights: What to do when Tenants rights when landlord refuses sublet/assignment of lease?

By Prince Of Petworth

tenant-rights
Photo by PoPville flickr user Jarrett Hendrix

“My husband and I bought a house in DC and wish to sublet or assign our lease. We do not have an early termination clause and are within the first year of our lease. Does anyone know our rights to “assign” or sublet our lease if the lease states the landlord cannot “unreasonably” withhold consent. We informed our landlord we are happy to host an open house, find multiple potential new tenants and pay for their credit and background checks but the say they’re traveling December and January and cannot accommodate our request.

We’re pretty laid back tenants and in the 8mo we’ve been here always paid on time, been responsive to the landlords so their unwillingness to consider the options we’ve presented is disapponting. Thanks for your advice!”

You can see all forum topics and add your own here. If you are having trouble uploading your question please email me at princeofpetworth(at)gmail Please Note this is NOT an events calendar.

“she is going to have the closets and bathrooms renovated and my rent will go up. Is this legal to do to a tenant during a lease?”

By Prince Of Petworth

lease
Photo by PoPville flickr user weheaton

“Dear PoPville,

I live in a condo, as the Craigslist-found roommate of the condo owner. I have a lease with terms for paying X amount through June 2017. The condo owner informed me a couple weeks ago that she is going to have the closets and bathrooms renovated (which includes the closet and bathroom that I use exclusively), and that my rent will go up when these capital improvements are completed.

She pointed to a section of the lease that says “The Landlord may increase the Rent for the Property upon providing to the Tenant such notice as required by the Act [DC law].”

She will not give me a break on rent for the time in which I am not able to use the bathroom I am paying for, and this rent increase is taking place during the lease term, when I was obviously not expecting it. It’s a condo, so exempt from rent control.

Is this legal to do to a tenant during a lease? I am having trouble parsing the DC code on exempt housing. Next stop DC Landlord-Tenant Resource Center?”

“We just want to know in case they come back at us with a “no”, do we have any sort of tenant rights here for rent abatement?”

By Prince Of Petworth

shower
Photo by PoPville flickr user District Shots

“Dear PoPville,

We moved to DC on October 28, into an apartment that is owned by a couple overseas and managed by a local real estate services company. Since the day we moved in, our shower has been broken. It only runs at 120+ degrees Fahrenheit or freezing cold. We let them know immediately and the issue is finally being fixed tomorrow, when they can shut the entire building’s water off. It will have been three weeks without us being able to shower in our apartment. We asked for a deduction in our rent ($25 for every day we haven’t been able to shower) and the real estate company said they will have to check with the owner.

We just want to know in case they come back at us with a “no”, do we have any sort of tenant rights here for rent abatement?”

“Our building’s and our own treatment is doing nothing to fix an ongoing roach problem. Is moving the only solution?”

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user super b

“I know people have posted before about extermination but I couldn’t find anything that quite fit our situation. My husband and I have been having issues with roaches in our apartment for the past 5 months. In theory the building’s treatment is thorough, but not working. We have to take EVERYTHING out of our kitchen and bathroom cabinets and they spray all of it. We’ve had to do this at least 8 times since June and it’s a huge inconvenience. My husband said someone from maintenance told him one or two of the nearby apartments are not complying with pest control and leave out pet food, which is obviously a huge problem. (more…)

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