OT: Buying first home\landlord rant

Well proud to say machining has earned my family just enough to buy out first home..its a nice lil place
1700 sqf
3b/1.5ba
2.0 acre lot(most is wooded with a hill)
Everything is going just swell till i talked to my current landlord..now tell me am i wrong in thinking this guy deserves dbag of the year..

Our close date was pushed back from 5/31 to 6/8..which presented a problem with our current lease expiring 5/31

So i contact him and explain our situation and offer to pay 1/2 month if we could extend the lease out 2 weeks..pretty simple

he says no! he only does full months....which is BS cuz when we first were moving in he was going to prorate us 2 weeks because the unit wasnt going to be ready for the 1st...needed a hot water heater( took 47 days to replace we were without hotwater for all that time)

We were very patient and understanding of his needs back then but he couldnt reciprocate..

So tell me am i wrong in thinking he is a dbag

Edit:this post got me to "cast Iron"

Yes he is and stupid also, he will lose a 1/2 mo. rent when you find another solution.

If you are absolutely sure you will close escrow and move 6/8, just let your lease expire and do nothing. Let the landlord evict you. It will take around 90 days for anything to happen; by that time you will be in your own home.

Oh, and congratulations on your new home! (I am 30 yr homeowner)

LM

WE decided to go camping with the kids for 6 days and hotel for 2( i took a week off to deal with the close)

IF i let him evict me then he gets to keep my $1350 security deposit..plus my wife says thats bad Karma

See, you found a solution and he lost 1/2 mo. rent

Subtract the 2 weeks rent you tried to pay from the $1350. That is your real loss. Also you don't have to clean (old) house when you leave. :-)

LM

tay2daizzo8 said:

Our close date was pushed back from 5/31 to 6/8..which presented a problem with our current lease expiring 5/31

Click to expand...

Move into the new house and pay rent for that living space, in your case it is 8 days. It is a common method.

tay2daizzo8 said:

Well proud to say machining has earned my family just enough to buy out first home..its a nice lil place
1700 sqf
3b/1.5ba
2.0 acre lot(most is wooded with a hill)
Everything is going just swell till i talked to my current landlord..now tell me am i wrong in thinking this guy deserves dbag of the year..

Our close date was pushed back from 5/31 to 6/8..which presented a problem with our current lease expiring 5/31

So i contact him and explain our situation and offer to pay 1/2 month if we could extend the lease out 2 weeks..pretty simple

he says no! he only does full months....which is BS cuz when we first were moving in he was going to prorate us 2 weeks because the unit wasnt going to be ready for the 1st...needed a hot water heater( took 47 days to replace we were without hotwater for all that time)

We were very patient and understanding of his needs back then but he couldnt reciprocate..

So tell me am i wrong in thinking he is a dbag

Edit:this post got me to "cast Iron"

Click to expand...

Congratulations.

All things considered, I would not plan on getting your deposit back. These types of personalities will find all sorts of reasons why you won't get a check. Remember, the cash is on his side of the table. You will have to take him to court to part with the cash unless he is so inclined to fulfill your rental agreement. That will cost you money and time even if you win the whole amount plus court costs.

Second concern is to be careful about closing. I have seen many deals collapse at the closing do to unforeseen issues on the sellers part. You need a plan C in place for the just in case situation.

I'm surprised that he did not jump on your offer. Most landlords usually do a paint and cleanup after a renter, even good renters. This usually requires a couple of weeks and also makes the property fully available for showing to the next renter.

Your landlord is not only a db but also an idiot. Handle accordingly.

Fingers crossed nothing comes up..the sellers are also committed to there new home with the provision they sell their current one at the same time so they are also super motivated to make this happen on time

tay2daizzo8 said:

Fingers crossed nothing comes up..the sellers are also committed to there new home with the provision they sell their current one at the same time so they are also super motivated to make this happen on time

Click to expand...

That helps a lot.

Probably too late now, but I would read the lease word by word and line by line. Do it from your point of view. I once had to "break" a year's lease. It had something to do with snow coming into a bedroom window and the landlord wouldn't fix it. He actually made it worse when he sent someone out.

I sat down and read the lease. It was only two or three pages so it didn't take long. Then I read it again because I couldn't believe what I saw. The lease spelled out, step by step, what I had to do to break the lease. All I had to do was stop paying and stay in the apartment. They sent all the legal warnings that the lease spelled out and I still didn't pay. I moved out two months in arrears. The deposit was one month rent and I paid the last month when I moved in. I sent him a letter telling him to keep the already paid last month rent and the deposit to cover the late rent. Since I followed the steps in the lease word for word, there was nothing they could do. The lease said that it was ended if those steps occurred and I had documentation that each and every one was. I told him to keep the deposit so he could not claim that there were any financial damages. I left it in much better shape than when I moved in, except for that window which I believe was damaged by a previous occupant when they installed a window AC unit. There was no way he could blame me for that.

His lawyer and I exchanged letters for several months and I politely answered each and every one. I explained that I had followed the letter of the lease and I had not cheated him out of any money. The only thing he could not do was try to claim my security deposit because I gave it to him for the second to last month's rent. The last month was paid when I moved in (first, last, and one month for security deposit). We were dead even and the lawyer must have known it because he finally stopped trying to collect anything. I hope the legal bill was at least as much as that two months rent. Oh, and I stopped by the apartment on the first day of the month following the last month that I paid for. A new tenant answered the door. That proved that he did not lose any rent past the last day that I paid for. No financial damages there either. There was absolutely nothing he could sue me for. Nothing. And it would have cost him a lot to try.

I would not have done that if he had just fixed that window. He was a jerk. Most landlords are: I have other stories.

Anyway, read the lease. Read every word carefully. It may surprise you.

If you need some 'back-up' for 'negotiations' to regain your deposit, gather documentation for the water heater incident at the beginning of your stay. I believe hot water is a basic requirement for occupancy -- does your landlord want to be called on the carpet for renting substandard units? In clear breach of contract? You could easily create a slumlord reputation for him. Check with the building department to see if the hot water heater was installed by a licensed plumber, with a permit pulled, and final inspection passed. While you're there, see if there are any other permits that were pulled but don't have final inspections completed. Since he's a busy guy, call for those final inspections on his behalf. Any other shady building/electrical code issues? Photograph and document them now, while you have full access. (Termites? Bugs? Roaches? Fleas? It would be awful, just awful if the place became infested with them after you leave. Awful. Should you do that? No.)

Once you have all this together, (but not the pests) show him what you're going to the building/health department, and the local consumer advocate TV reporter with, just so he knows what's coming. This may motivate him to cough up the deposit forthwith.

Demand a walk-through with him upon moving out. Make it clear you expect your check at the end of the walk-through -- no exception, not negotiable. Video record the whole thing on your phone. He will object, but he has no standing, as it's your home until the lease is satisfied. You don't even need to tell him you're doing it.

Chip

Even if you only stay 5 minutes past the end of the month, you owe him for the entire month. Your lucky he's only charging you your current rent. Since your lease is expired on becomes a month-to-month, he could charge you whatever he wants. Yes, he could be more accommodating, but as a landlord, he is either a moron or a dbag.

What's your time worth? Do we really need to see you on Judge Judy trying to get your security deposit back? Pay him for the month and don't hassle it, because you won't win. As a benefit, you can then take your sweet time moving.

If it's only $1350, do as suggested and pay for the whole month. Then use the whole month to move out at your leisure. There's value in that.

I also agree this dick has no plans to return your deposit. How you plan to address that is up to you...but don't spend a lot of time pursuing it. I'm always amazed at people who exhaust themselves chasing down $75.....

Karma will take care of him. Sometimes karma with a little help, too.

It sounds to me like you want him to take the two weeks loss for the partial months rent. Where's the fairness in that? A new tenant likely won't start paying rent middle of the month. I agree that you owe for the entire month. Pay it, get business done on your new deal and quit whining about something you can't change. Congrats on ownership, you're in for a whole new set of headaches!

I can see both sides of this.

How long have you been renting this place? Were you a good renter and always paid on time?

If you have only rented from him one or 2 years I don't blame him. People make a career around taking advantage of people. Shitty renters can really put the hurt on a landlord and there is a lot of them.

Now if you have been a good renter and for a long time he is a dbag. Good renters are hard to find and deserve to be treated as such.

He could be inexperienced and not know what a good renter is like or he could just be a slum lord and not give a crap.


Congrats on the new house and don't forget to save for that water heater since you will be flipping the bill this time.

The closing date is the first time the loan officers open your file and let you know what paperwork and tests they forget to ask you for.

Read your lease and your state likely puts out a print version of the common landlord tenant laws and how they apply. Oddly, these pamphlets can usually be found in the courthouse.

tay2daizzo8 said:

Well proud to say machining has earned my family just enough to buy out first home..its a nice lil place
1700 sqf
3b/1.5ba
2.0 acre lot(most is wooded with a hill)
Everything is going just swell till i talked to my current landlord..now tell me am i wrong in thinking this guy deserves dbag of the year..

Our close date was pushed back from 5/31 to 6/8..which presented a problem with our current lease expiring 5/31

So i contact him and explain our situation and offer to pay 1/2 month if we could extend the lease out 2 weeks..pretty simple

he says no! he only does full months....which is BS cuz when we first were moving in he was going to prorate us 2 weeks because the unit wasnt going to be ready for the 1st...needed a hot water heater( took 47 days to replace we were without hotwater for all that time)

We were very patient and understanding of his needs back then but he couldnt reciprocate..

So tell me am i wrong in thinking he is a dbag

Edit:this post got me to "cast Iron"

Click to expand...

Just refuse to move out until the 8th. Eviction proceedings will take at least this long. You can tell him this to his face, and I'm sure he'll come around and rent to you for an additional half month.

I can't believe you went without hot water for 47 days?

Mel in WA said:

I can't believe you went without hot water for 47 days?

Click to expand...

yea with a 3 and 5 year old...to top it off when they finally turned the hot water on the pipes had cracked the winter before and water came outta every wall..took till mid october to get the heat fixed