I rented a house from Skyline Properties through an agent named Jim. My rent was $2,600 per month for a 5 bedroom house in Cerritos. When we first moved in there were many things that had to be repaired before move in. Jim was our landlord and said the repairs would be done before we moved in but wasn't. That was a sign I should have noticed. We moved in without broken windows replaced, lots of doors that had to be repaired, and various other details that were not fixed as promised.
We had to move in anyway because our lease at the present place was over. After moving in I repeatedly called Jim to have these repairs made as promised and lots of things he deemed as "minor" such as the sliding screen door to the backyard being broken, missing screens in bedrooms, electrical wiring, leaking, etc., to have them fixed. He said those types of repairs were not imperative to our comfortable living and said that the owner would NOT fix it. I couldn't beleive it because Jim said they would be fixed before we moved in.into our 3-4 month of residence, I luckily ran into a friend of the owner who gave me the owners name and number. I called the owner Linda Jones and complained about the landlord. Jim later called to repair a few things but it took several weeks playing phone tag with him to even have him consider doing 10% of the repairs.
During all these 14 months of our lease, I called him about 20 times about the dishwasher and he never returned my calls. He finally answered my request and sent a repair guy to come out and look at the dishwasher. It was working perfectly fine but the hinge to the dishwasher was broken. The repair guy said he needed to order a part and be back tomorrow. He never showed up and I called Jim again and no response. Then we went to Skyline office and complained to the secretary about it and still nothing. During our last 2 days before moving out, we shampooed and vacuumed the carpet, painted the entire interior of the house, landscaped front and backyard, and patched up small holes in the walls. As tenants we didn't need to do that but we are respectable people and left the place the way we would like it had we owned it.
Jim came by to do a walk-through of the house and said everything looks good. And added that the owner, Linda Jones was coming in 2 days to do another walk-through and I should get my deposit back the same day.
I phoned Linda Jones and she was so ecstatic and kept thanking me and raving about how well we took care of the house and she literally thanked my father and I over and over for upkeeping her house and leaving it so beautiful upon moving out. She then told me about a stain in the carpet that I had no idea about. She proceeded to tell me that she's "gonna have to rip out the entire living room carpet and replace it." That's when I got firm and I said "no you're not! I'm gonna come by and take the stain out myself." (knowing that we never got any stains except for maybe light fruit juice on the carpet which can come out with soap and water). She then told me that the washer was broken and I told her that I phoned Jim many times and about the repair guy saying that it could be fixed and had to order a part. Linda then said that the dishwasher didn't work "AT ALL." and she is going to have to buy a brand new one. I didn't believe her cus it was working perfectly when we did the walk through with Jim. At that point I asked what was wrong with it exactly and she didn't give me a reason and instead kept repeating that it was not working whatsoever and had to be replaced. Then I brought up the fact that she wanted charge me for a brand new dishwasher when it was already 5 years old. She didn't pay any mind or consider anything I said. I then knew that she was trying to keep my deposit and buy herself some new carpet and also new dishwasher. One reason to lead to believe that is because for 1) most landlords would try a professional carpet cleaning before deciding to use their tenants deposit to "rip out the entire carpet and replace it, " and 2) I KNOW the dishwasher was repairable because the repair guy said he needed to order the hinge and also because it was working perfectly fine when we did the walk through and was never broken throughout our entire lease!
The next day I went to the house to take out the stain. I sprayed a detergent and starting scrubbing the light stain and it was coming out and showed on the paper napkins I was using. Then I brought up the dishwasher again and got the same repsonse from her claiming that it was "not repairable" and "didn't even turn on." I asked her if I can take a look at it and without waiting for a response immmediately went into the kitchen and starting video taping the dishwasher, turning it on and proving that she LIED! When she heard the washer working she rushed into the kitchen and prevented me from filming any further. On video I confronted her about her claim that it would not turn on and that it was not working and she just kept disregarded my questions and kept saying, "it's not repairable, it's not repairable. You can't be doing this to me, it's not fair."
So of course I was kicked out of the kitchen and luckily got the shot of the stain coming out of the carpet as I walked back to the living room. I had all the evidence I needed at that point. I then called Jim and told him about the dishwasher situation. He said that Linda told him that there was a new dishwasher installed already and the price of $400 would be deducted from my deposit. I then told him that I was just there and had on tape that the old washer was still there, the hinge was repaired, and everything worked fine, and the video tape I had to prove it. He said it was up to Linda to give me back whatever she felt appropriate. I was so angry and felt so defenseless because there was nothing I could do but take legal action and that's more stress for me.
So I called a lawyer friend and he gave Jim a call and found out that Jim knew about this dishwasher ordeal but didn't want to help us get our rightful deposit back in full. Jim later declared to my lawyer that he was keeping my deposit for the full 21 days even though Linda Jones had returned it to him, just because he felt like it. At that point my lawyer addressed that Jim would also be part of the lawsuit because he put his personal bias in holding our deposit. He then tried to wiggle his way out of any responsibility with the ordeal and that was the last conversation they had.
I also did some more research online that the dishwasher had been recalled by Maytag and Maytag would reimburse the cost of the defective washer. Plus it was discontinued by Maytag.
About 2 weeks later I received my deposit in the mail and Linda Jones charged me $100 for the carpet instead of the $700 she initially said we were going to be charged for. And also, she didn't charge me a penny for the dishwasher. I'm very glad that I thought ahead and got everything on video camera that prevented her from defrauding me. I would have been out a minimum of $1,100 plus had I not thought ahead.
So warning to everyone moving in or out. Take pictures of everything upon moving in and out and also video if possible with good lighting, and have the landlord fill out a checklist while you're there of all repairs before moving in and also upon your move out! Good luck and always be prepared for the worse and don't be taken advantage of!
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