This landlord took my deposit money! He walked through our apartment with my wife and me, and stated to us that he didn't see any reason we couldn't get back our entire deposit. He said he would mail it to us.
After we moved, we did not receive any mail from him. So, we called and left a message. He called back and said that because he had to clean the apartment, we would not be getting back any of our $375.
Now, this landlord is pretty lax on paperwork. Upon move in, he did not give us a copy of our lease until we had a question about it. Also, he did not provide us with an itemized list to check out the apartment and return to him. Upon move in, we mentioned that the carpet and other areas were dirty and he said 'Hey, it's just an apartment.'
So, we understood on our move out that he realized the apartment was not in the best of shape when we moved in. This was a stupid assumption, because he stated that his cleaning would cost us our entire deposit.
Because we live in a completely different city now, it is not worth our expense to figure out how to get our money back. Because of our lack of experience, we did not document that the apartment was dirty.
If you are looking to rent from him, or do business with him, I would suggest a very well-documented approach, so that he cannot back out on his claims. Please do not trust his easy-going attitude.
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