I rented an apartment from Paul Bennett for about a year and a half. We did neither an initial walkthrough nor a final walkthrough. (I should have known better.) While renting the apartment, Mr. Bennett was an average landlord. The only landlord-tenant issue I had was a broken water heater, which was promptly replaced. The apartment was in decent shape for an incredibly old house.
My husband and I ended our month-to-month lease at the end of June. Upon receiving notice, Mr. Bennett provided a comprehensive checklist for cleaning the apartment prior to vacating. Both my husband and I have been renters before (in commercial luxury apartments) and are quite familiar with the exacting standards with which landlords review apartments of tenants leaving.
I have always received a full or nearly full deposit refund. Therefore, my husband and I spent several long evenings thoroughly and comprehensively cleaning the apartment prior to our final occupancy date of June 30. This included washing windows, mopping, cleaning out cabinets, bleaching and scrubbing the bathroom, and wiping down every available surface. I turned in the keys on June 30, along with a note stating that everything had been done.
When I took possession of the apartment, the apartment was not spotless, and I spent most of my first day there cleaning floors, wiping out cabinets, etc. The apartment in its final state, when we turned in our keys, was infinitely cleaner than when we took possession.
I'm not sure when Mr. Bennett availed himself of the time to inspect, but when I received my deposit refund in the mail, Mr. Bennett's letter stated that he expressly disagreed with the cleanliness of the apartment, deducting $200 for maid service and another $48 for burnt out light bulbs. When I called to ask for an itemized deduction and for explanation about the light bulbs (which we had actually replaced days before we left), Mr. Bennett proceeded to scream (yes, scream) at me, saying not that the light bulbs were burnt out, but that they were the wrong kind - not the fancy ones he preferred. When I calmly replied that I had never bought specific light bulbs for ceiling fans, he told me I clearly must not be able to read because the purpose of the light bulbs was on the box, and only the "pretty, nice looking" bulbs were appropriate for ceiling fans.
Further, when I asked for an itemization of the $200 in deductions he made (no listing was included with my refund, as is required by law), he continued to scream at me, asserting that house was filthy. When I assured him it had not been when we left and pressed for specifics, he could only say that the toilet bowl, tile, and bathtub had mold on them. Of course a toilet bowl gets dirty when standing water sits in it and no one lives there for weeks at a time. The bathtub and surrounding tile had been completely bleached, so that it glistened as much as it could with the peeling paint from the inappropriate paint his handyman used on the bathtub.
Mr. Bennett's statements could only possibly be true if he went weeks without coming into the house, as the bathroom had extremely poor ventilation, leading to high humidty in the bathroom anyway, and July is known to be an extremely humid month. It's been 100 degrees for a majority of the summer, and with no air, I don't doubt the bathroom got a little funky after no one lived there for 3 or 4 weeks. Or, Mr. Bennett possibly failed his duties even further by simply sending the cleaning service in to inspect, in which case Mr. Bennett would have no first hand knowledge about the state of the apartment. He was too busy screaming at me to make the distinction clear.
Unfortunately Mr. Bennett either appears to be untruthful, or he completely and totally neglected his duty as a vigilant landlord by failing to inspect the apartment in a timely manner. He acted in an incredibly unprofessional and undignified manner when he screamed at me on the phone when I merely exercised my right to inquire about deductions that were grossly unfair and wholly unsubstantiated by him.
I have never in my life been screamed at by someone I've done business with, and I wholeheartedly do NOT recommend Mr. Bennett as a landlord. The quality of craftsmanship by his handyman is incredibly poor, and Mr. Bennett has a hostile and arrogant manner. Further, Mr. Bennett refused to comply with South Carolina state law by providing an itemized list of deductions (likely because the cleaning service was unnecessary).
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