Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 at
9:17 am
We live in California and rented 1 room in our house to someone we knew. We did not charge any deposit. We recently gave a proper 2 month notice and set the move out date to November 30th. He decided to move up his move out date to be November 1st. His rent was paid up until October 31st.
When he started moving out his stuff we noticed a water stain on the baseboard and a little water damage was also on the walls on top of the baseboard. This was the only spot in the entire room that seems to have water damage. The water stain on the wall was about 4" in diameter and it appears to be dry. I do not know if this water damage was caused by something natural since it is on ground level, but if that was the case I would think there would be more water damage around in the room.
We asked him yesturday (october 31st) when we could expect him to come get his stuff on November 1st. so we could plan our day, and he said he’ll be out clubbing on oct 31st so he’ll come when he feels like it because he was planning to pro-rate until November 1st anyways. Since we got no time from him we had to wait around the house until he got here at 3pm. When I asked him to sign a document here is what he said:
1) He refused to sign the document that says in writing that he moved up his move out date to November 1st, and since he’s only paid up until October 31st, he owed us a prorated amount for 1 day
2) He refused to sign the document that outlines the baseboard water damage and says that the LandLord will have a Home Inspector look at the damages and it if appears to be caused by something other than natural moisture he will be responsible for the damages, he didn’t sign
Today, (November 1st), he just came and got the rest of his stuff and left, refusing to sign anything and left with the keys. Later he rang the doorbell and quickly handed the keys to us in a plastic bag and ran off.
This is a guy who never told us about the water damage on the baseboard, never told us his bathtub was cracked, he ruined our whole weekend because he never made a time with us to come get the rest of his stuff so we had to sit home all day. Oh, did I mention he also let our neighbors in on our side yard to install cable which took us 6 months to fight and get them to take it down because it was not in standard to our association laws. He even had the odasity to tell us he wanted to see our association by-laws because he thinks it was okay to let them in (did I say he never even asked us)
He never left us his forwarding address, I do know where he works. Should I send him an certified letter to his work saying we received the keys on November 1st. He owes us 1 day prorated rent and outline the water damage and mention that if the inspector determines this was not from something natural then he owes us for the property damage. He also has 2 holes in the garage he did patch up but it still needs to be painted. I am just wondering how to handle this. If you have any questions, just ask and check back because I will add the answers to this message. Thanks
Even if I did have a deposit, could I take money from the deposit for the water damage?
So to the realtor who responded: Then tenant can get away with 1 day of not paying rent and ruin our whole day by not giving us a move-out time? I don’t think a large rental organization would let him get off that easy.
I thought he should sign the documents because that is what I thought professional rental companies did. Isn’t a renter suppose to sign an official move out date and time? At least this is what I remembered having to do when I rented from a professional company.