Landlord Rant

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Sarvis
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Landlord Rant

Postby Sarvis » Fri Jun 17, 2011 7:09 pm

So pissed off right now. Apparently my rent has been 10 days late every single month of the 4 years I've lived here. Only, my landlord never mentioned anything until this January, and I thought it was something else so I didn't catch it then. So now it's accrued even more. This is happening because I used online bill pay through my bank, and my bank shows the rent as deducted on the first or second every month but the landlord is claiming they didn't get it until the 10th.

So let's assume they are correct and they really didn't receive rent until the 10th of every month, which is probable based on what I just found out about HSBC's online bill pay.

Wouldn't honest, good, sane business practices state you bill for those late fees at some point? I mean within a few months, not 4 years later. Rather than wait until it accrues to $400?
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kiryan
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Re: Landlord Rant

Postby kiryan » Fri Jun 17, 2011 8:56 pm

I'd argue that they never provided you with timely notice which took away from your ability to address the issue. I wouldn't pay any of the fees, but I'm not exactly a rule follower.

I do believe they have a duty to notify you when you are "delinquent" or when you have a past due balance. However, the statue of limitations varies by states, but usually its 2 years for recovering billing errors so if they are right with the law, you owe it. Not sure if you have a legal argument, but even if you do... if they want that $400 so bad they're willing to ruin a relationship, then time to move and tell them to take their $400 bill and shove it. They have no leverage over you other than your credit report. Hell if you really wanted to save some extra cash, make them evict you (in some states you can drag this on for 6 months of free rent). I recommend against that if you ever plan to rent again, just refuse to pay the $400 and move out then dispute it on your credit report (if they bother which they usually don't unless they are a large property management company). Caveat, landlords do credit checks for a reason, mostly because they want to find out if you've been evicted or skipped out on someone else.

Also, realize, this is not the banks fault or your landlord's fault, its your fault. pure and simple. I know that's not the point of your rant and it is unreasonable, but you are clearly the party who didn't live up to their end of the agreements. I can't pass up an opportunity to remind a liberal of where the problem is since they often think its "businesses" fault or "culture" or institutional racism.
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Re: Landlord Rant

Postby Teflor Lyorian » Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:04 pm

Yes, they should have provided you a statement or something showing that you owed late fees well before this. Go get 'em Sarvis.
"You see, the devil haunts a hungry man.
If you don’t wanna join him, you got to beat him."
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Sarvis
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Re: Landlord Rant

Postby Sarvis » Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:08 pm

kiryan wrote:I'd argue that they never provided you with timely notice which took away from your ability to address the issue. I wouldn't pay any of the fees, but I'm not exactly a rule follower.

I do believe they have a duty to notify you when you are "delinquent" or when you have a past due balance. However, the statue of limitations varies by states, but usually its 2 years for recovering billing errors so if they are right with the law, you owe it. Not sure if you have a legal argument, but even if you do... if they want that $400 so bad they're willing to ruin a relationship, then time to move and tell them to take their $400 bill and shove it. They have no leverage over you other than your credit report. Hell if you really wanted to save some extra cash, make them evict you (in some states you can drag this on for 6 months of free rent). I recommend against that if you ever plan to rent again, just refuse to pay the $400 and move out then dispute it on your credit report (if they bother which they usually don't unless they are a large property management company). Caveat, landlords do credit checks for a reason, mostly because they want to find out if you've been evicted or skipped out on someone else.

Also, realize, this is not the banks fault or your landlord's fault, its your fault. pure and simple. I know that's not the point of your rant and it is unreasonable, but you are clearly the party who didn't live up to their end of the agreements. I can't pass up an opportunity to remind a liberal of where the problem is since they often think its "businesses" fault or "culture" or institutional racism.


It's not racism, I'm white. It's greed and opportunism. They don't tell you about the late fees, you move out, then they take it from your security deposit and everyone assumes there was some damage to the apartment or whatever.

I seriously almost didn't pay, but I figure if I go to a lawyer about this I look better if my account is even. I definitely could have held out, my g/f is a landlord and she knows from experience that it takes months to evict someone in NY. Plus I'm moving out already so....
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Sarvis
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Re: Landlord Rant

Postby Sarvis » Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:13 pm

Oh, and frankly at this point I'd rather just crush them as a company. Anyone got ideas on how to start a real estate empire with the goal of putting another one out of business?
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kiryan
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Re: Landlord Rant

Postby kiryan » Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:18 pm

Oh.. I didn't realize you're moving out. Yea you're pretty much screwed at this point.

Your best bet is to threaten to file a complaint if they don't refund you the $400. The file the complaint. If they lose, they owe you the $400 plus in some states like $30 a day for each day they fail to return your money to you. Most of the time, they'll refund it due to the risk of you prevailing and getting socked with a huge fine. Your GF probably knows about it. Either way, it costs them time and money and a certain measure of risk for very little or no cost to you.

When Laurel and I moved from AZ to Oregon, the apartment complex tried to charge us 9 months of rent on the lease despite moving someone in 2 weeks later. They also tried to charge her for additional repairs on the apartment (some of which was legitimate like the crayons on the wall). I told them to go for it and that if they didn't immediately zero out our account my next call would be to the housing board. They zero'd it out.

You can and should fight for your rights. Whats a threatening phone call cost you? or a complaint? Nothing.
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Re: Landlord Rant

Postby Sarvis » Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:29 pm

Thanks for the advice, I'll look into that. I also left them with a letter explaining the situation, a bank printout showing the checks getting cashed before the deadline every month, and told them if I don't get my entire security deposit back I'd be calling a lawyer. (There really isn't any damage to the apartment.)
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Re: Landlord Rant

Postby kiryan » Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:47 pm

I wouldn't mention lawyer. You can always do that later. Mention the housing board, a lesser known tool. It demonstrates some sort of intelligence or knowledge that could be dangerous to them. You want them to think you are a capable individual who will give them trouble... not a blow hard who they just screwed out of $400.

When you threaten to sue, it makes you sound like you don't know what is going on and are just throwing blind threats out there. Suing is a lot harder and a lot more costly and involves tremendous risk to the plantiff that most people are unwilling to take on over $400... you could end up paying him $10k in lawyer fees when he wins. My wife's ex just threatened to hire a lawyer to "make sure his rights are enforced". He's a fool, his rights don't mean anything to a family court judge, what is in the best interests of the children are his sole concern. You suing them probably doesn't scare them at all. You complaining to the housing board... who isn't bound by laws and can affect their licensing and levy fines... will scare them a lot more.

another thing that might rattle them a little bit is sending it certified mail. Again, its easy to make a call and a threat. Showing some willingness to follow through puts you in a different class than the average person who they are used to screwing. One thing I like to do when I enroll the kids in a new school district, is bring down a notarized power of attorney (the older 3 are from Laurel's first marriage). It informs them that I'm a different kind of person... the kind of person who is very serious.
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Re: Landlord Rant

Postby Corth » Mon Jun 20, 2011 2:29 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches_%28equity%29

If they pulled that shit on me I probably wouldn't have paid the last month's rent. Let them keep the whole security. Good luck suing me for the late charges...
Having said all that, the situation has been handled, so this thread is pretty much at an end. -Kossuth

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Sarvis
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Re: Landlord Rant

Postby Sarvis » Mon Jun 20, 2011 3:51 pm

Corth wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches_%28equity%29

If they pulled that shit on me I probably wouldn't have paid the last month's rent. Let them keep the whole security. Good luck suing me for the late charges...


My g/f says pretty much the same thing. I was hoping I'd manage to get both my security AND all the late penalties back which comes out to more than the rent.
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Re: Landlord Rant

Postby Corth » Mon Jun 20, 2011 4:37 pm

Then stay an extra month or two without paying. The eviction process in NYS can be time consuming. :)

I've literally had landlords pay their deadbeat tenants a few thousand dollars to leave rather than have to wait 6+ months evicting them in NYC housing court. I imagine it's not quite so bad outside of NYC but still...
Having said all that, the situation has been handled, so this thread is pretty much at an end. -Kossuth



Goddamned slippery mage.
kiryan
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Re: Landlord Rant

Postby kiryan » Mon Jun 20, 2011 11:42 pm

I had to evict someone in Oregon, took i wanna say 4 weeks. 2 week notice of pay or quit, then a hearing 2 weeks later and an order for him to leave. He decided to leave instead of having the Sheriff come out to evict him, that could've taken another 2 weeks... but I've heard you can make it take about 6 months in NYC. Thats a lot of free rent.

Oh and he thought he had all this crap to show the judge and stuff about all sorts of crap he thought was wrong and i dunno i guess he thought he was entitled to live there for free because he broke some shit and didn't tell me about it for a month. It would've been so funny if it wasn't so sad how the judge just basically told him that all the crap that his social worker and his loser friends were telling him meant nothing in court. really, people who threaten to sue rarely know wtf they are getting into. People who know don't threaten, they just do it if they know they are going to win.
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Re: Landlord Rant

Postby Teflor Lyorian » Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:21 am

Corth wrote:Then stay an extra month or two without paying. The eviction process in NYS can be time consuming. :)

I've literally had landlords pay their deadbeat tenants a few thousand dollars to leave rather than have to wait 6+ months evicting them in NYC housing court. I imagine it's not quite so bad outside of NYC but still...

Just don't TELL your landlord that. Extortion is still a crime somehow ;)
"You see, the devil haunts a hungry man.
If you don’t wanna join him, you got to beat him."
- Kris Kristofferson (To Beat the Devil)

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