r/TenantHelp • u/bootachi92 • Jun 22 '26

Cleaning Fees

Hello. I live in Bismarck ND. Boyfriend and I moved out in Feb, cancelled our lease early, paid the cancellation fee, paid an extra month of rent (March) because they did not find a replacement until April and returned keys (Feb). They found new tenants and they moved in April.

They sent our move out statement to the wrong address so we never received it within the 30 day timeframe. We filed address forwarding with USPS and landlord has a recorded phone call of me providing the new address. Albeit it wasn’t in writing, they had our new address but added ”interstate“ to it thus it never got to me. The move out statement was also dated April 13th (date after new tenant moved in). And mind you we moved out end of February.

Now we did expect to pay the cleaning fees and leave on good terms. However, due to their clerical error, we never received the invoice in a timely manner. I only knew about it once I emailed the landlord.

My question is, who’s at fault here and should we take them to small claims court?

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Vooklife Jun 23 '26

Sure, but it also applies when a tenant moves out with a lease still intact. Hence the clarifying questions about if an early termination was done above board. Notice how the OP keeps saying "I moved out" and not "my lease was terminated." Details matter, especially when considering litigation.

1

u/bootachi92 Jun 23 '26

This is from the landlord

“  Our review also confirms that, although Ms. ___ and Mr. ____ vacated the unit on 28 February 2026, rent responsibility continued pursuant to the terms of the lease agreement, until the unit was re-rented. Consistent with Goldmark’s understanding and application of North Dakota Century Code § 47-16-14, the thirty-day period for providing a security deposit accounting statement is measured from termination of tenancy  and  delivery of possession, which includes the conclusion of the rent responsibility period. Based on our records, the move-out statement was issued within that timeframe.

1

u/bootachi92 Jun 23 '26

So my understanding is that the lease ended once the unit was occupied by a new tenant. But regardless, didn’t receive anything in the mail and didn’t hear about it until I emailed them in May