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Comment by hprotagonist | Hacker News Reader

This is why I vastly prefer to rent on handshake deals and standard lease agreements with homeowners. It's waaaay more human.

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I've been burned by a major corporate rental before, and will never do that again. Moving in wasn't a problem, though the "Smart Saver" non-refundable deposit they offered should have been enough of a red flag. Once while on a week long company retreat they upgraded their payment system, which removed my payment information not only causing my rent to be late, but they then filed for eviction after only three days. That cost me easily half a month's rent in fees to clear up because of their own technical fuckup. The only notice for the upgrade, of course, was a flyer left hanging from my door which I found when I got home along with a notice on my door. When I moved out they claimed nearly a thousand dollars in cleaning fees, with line items like "trash bag (5), $75 each," which in itself would be bullshit had I not had the place cleaned. When I tried to dispute the charges, the ever so helpful rental agents told me to pay it in thirty days or it would go to collections.

These mega rental corporations just exist to nickel and dime the shit out of everyone and will throw their weight around. You'll just spend more on legal fees, and they bank on that.

From me, pulling that sort of horseshit gets you a certified letter notifying you, the landlord, of your impending small claims court date.

Companies that want to play that kind of game don't want to play it with me. Particularly in my state (MA), the law is vastly in my favor, and I am willing and able to spend the time proving that point. I know a lot of people can't, so i'm happy enough to exact some measure of karmic equivalence.

Ditto. I'm happy to spend the time to crush people like this.

In my state (VT), there's a section of the law that says something to the effect that if a landlord willfully withholds returning any part of the security deposit after 14 days then the tenant is automatically awarded 3x of the deposit.

I learned all about this in the last apartment I rented before buying a house. I was trying to work with the property management companies lawyer over how much it would cost to replace broken door (another long story), and the lawyer was of the mind that I owed them more than I had on deposit and I should set up a payment plan ASAP.

The 14 day limit passed and I got a summons that I was being sued for $1500 over the deposit for a couple of small things plus a empty heating oil tank (heat wasn't included). They said it was full when I moved in, but I produced a receipt that I paid for the tank to be filled on the day I moved in along with a voice mail from the actual landlord that said I didn't need to fill the tank when I moved out.

The lawyer immediately wanted to "settle" with them keeping the whole deposit, but I was happy to go to court. We were in front of the judge for less than a minute and they ended up paying almost 1/2 of the first year of my mortgage.

I found a really lovely blog post a few years back where something like this happened. The landlord's lawyer's face apparently visibly collapsed when the tenant replied "oh, let me check my notes" on the stand in response to questioning and pulled out 3" of paper..

And this is why I love California...

http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/sec-deposit....

> What if the landlord doesn't provide a full refund, or a statement of deductions and a refund of amounts not deducted, by the end of the 21-day period as required by law? According to a California Supreme Court decision, the landlord loses the right to keep any of the security deposit and must return the entire deposit to you.

At that moment the ex-tenant can also sue for 3x the deposit amount.

In college as an RA, I did detailed room audits before/after people moved in/out.

The best thing you can do before moving any of your stuff in is document any defects in detail (every single apartment has them).

The best thing you can do before finalizing moving out is to take photographs of how you left the place for evidence.

Ideally you have before/after photos to demonstrate things that may have been defective before you moved it but that you may be (mistakenly) charged for. Most people don't do this and have little recourse when the bill shows up.

That, and not having to deal with the BS corporate yield management system trying to increase your rent, and some leasing office agent saying the "system says..."

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