Once you live in a place, it will always suffer normal wear and tear simply because you live there. Of course, accidents and faults happen, so afterwards you have to see who is responsible for the repairs. However, a landlord in Arizona has sent a massive bill to their former tenant, claiming they are responsible for leaving the place in good condition. It’s not even a list of a couple of repairs, but a complete breakdown of everything the landlord wants to renovate on the property, and it seems to include everything in the property.
Redditor acid_coven shared on r/Tenant this landlord’s apparent attempt to take advantage of their move-out. It’s not that OP is trying to shirk responsibility for paying for damages. OP even says that there are some minor fixes, such as cat scratches, crayon marks, and some nail polish, and that they tried to clean the property as best they could. However, the real problem is that the Arizona landlord is billing for approximately $3,500 for repairs that the property needs after OP’s move. Furthermore, this amount is after deducting the security deposit from OP, as the charges for all repairs are actually approximately $5,300.
After receiving such a large bill, OP wondered if this situation was fair, as they believed they “left it in very good shape after nearly 6 years.”
“6 years means a lot of this is normal wear and tear… At least here in California,” said Malacasts.
Other users agreed with this comment, saying that in many more states, “damage” such as scratches, scuffs, missing paint, and deep cleaning is something that landlords should take care of.
“LL here. Your landlord is ripping you off on at least some things. Send a certified letter contesting everything and demanding receipts for everything. I would also start researching the small claims court procedure. Small claims is designed to be easy and straightforward without the need for lawyers,” commented Solid-Feature-7678. However, this is not all that this user said, as they provided an extensive breakdown of each of the charges made by the former landlord. Solid-feature-7678 actually made it clear that the landlord in this case wants to charge the OP for absolutely everything, regardless of whether it is their responsibility. In addition, the landlord does not provide further details about some of the alleged charges and damages, which further highlights their evasive, greedy, and abusive nature.
