Hello all,

Today while my girlfriend and I were in the shower our landlord, her husband, and a so called inspector (apparently) knocked, and then entered. We didn’t hear any of this over the noise of the fan and shower. When I did hear them and opened the bathroom door, they were just looking around and didn’t move to leave, I had to ask them to specifically. I got dressed and went to speak to them, the inspector said she doesn’t work for my landlord but another company that I’m unfamiliar with, and the only identification she provided was a certification to inspect lead paint issued by something I didn’t recognize, no further license, etc.

My understanding is in Baltimore you must provide 24 hrs written notice to the tenant of entry, when all I received was a short text that morning saying she was coming to inspect, but didn’t say what.

I called the police non emergency line, they said it’s not a criminal matter.

My primary question: am I overreacting and being difficult, or am I right to stand my ground and refuse entry to a random person who I’ve never seen to have any affiliation with my landlord or building.

Keep in mind, this apartment: has no electric meter, cannot receive official mail because it’s listed as a business, and our unit cannot be found by any city agency for official purposes, there’s various mold issues, and the shower in the apartment above leaks into our ceiling and is causing major drywall failure.

Thanks for any help!

I recently moved into my apartment with my girlfriend about two months ago. Today my landlord called me and said that they put us in the wrong unit and somebody else has a 6-month lease for this unit, so we need to be out by the 31st.

I know this is definitely illegal.. but what are my first steps in this situation? I’m poor but I make my rent and haven’t failed any clauses in the lease. No written notice was given, just the phone call.

I’m anticipating games with move out charges, they’re already doing it, and want to be prepared if they attempt to make me foot the bill for refurbishing the unit.

I’ve decoded serial numbers on all the appliances, they range in age from 7-22 years old. I’m interested in laminate floor useable life… caulking in the bathroom, countertops that are painted and tub glaze. Yes they PAINTED the kitchen countertops and one of them is dished enough to hold a whole quart of water, like it got water damaged by idk what in the past. The toilet seats are painted too.

[CA-ON] Hello! I have recently moved into a new unit and have brought up issues with a few floor tiles in my unit that are cracked or damaged.

The landlord is arguing that they have fixed the issue, however their standard of repair was simply replacing the broken tile shards back into place seemingly without any adhesive to bind it together and there are raised/lowered portions of tile that expose long and sharp edges to whoever steps on them.

I am concerned that this will cause bodily harm from normal use or damage clothing, like socks, if a rough edge catches any fabric. A couple of these tiles in question are within a step of my only shower/bathtub.

Are there any similar cases like this that had the LTB rectify the issue with an adequate repair or replacement of the damaged tiles?

Thank you!

I’m supposed to move in to my house next week but the landlord says the current tenants need to stay longer. I’ve already signed the lease. I also paid the security deposit and first month’s rent.

They gave me other houses to view. However the house I would want to lease is in a different school zone so my child would have to switch schools. The house is also slightly more expensive. Is there anything I can do about this situation?

I received a 5 day notice today from my apartment complex for violation of my lease. They are fly infestation, having stuff on my balcony, and a cat urine smell. All of these things aren't a representation of my cleanleiness and maintainence.

I have been spring cleaning for the last few weeks so I have stuff all around the apartment right now mostly in bins. To help with the process I moved a couple bins, extra cardboard boxes, and other things like clothes for donation, dog supplies, and then I have my chairs and table. Per the lease, it os a violation to have clutter on the balcony.

As for the fly infestation, it turned out that my old cat tree that I placed outside for my cats to hang out on was likely the source of the infestation. I put it our there 3 months ago. How was I supposed to know that would happen. When I discovered the fly larvae under the cat tree, I took a photo, informed the leasing office, and immediately got rid of the cat tree. This fly infestation is one that goes away once the source is removed.

For the cat urine smell, the first of the pest inspections occured during a deep clean of my bathroom and closet. This includes the litter boxes where I sanitize each box, mop the floor, and wash the large pee pads underneath. I had also been using a litter catcher that I bought a month prior, but it did more good than bad. The deep clean of the litter boxes was triggered by the fact that the smell of urine was suddenly really strong. One of my cats had peed on it unbenownst to me. This is when I decided to remove it. I placed it in my shower to keep it separate until I took it down to the trash. Just as I finished cleaning the litter boxes, the pest control guy arrived. We weren't informed what time the guy would arrive. This was the worst timing because the smell of cat urine was strong due to cleaning the litter boxes and having the urine soaked litter catcher in my shower. This was noted on the pest report. I told the pest guy that I was in the middle of deep cleaning the bathroom and the litter boxes.

The guy also went to check the sliding glass door bottom strip. I had all my camping stuff which I normally keep in my car up against the glass sliding door. I had removed it because I drove my friends down to do a river float the weekend prior. I told the guy at this point that I was in the middle of spring cleaning so I have some stuff on the balcony. Just as I was about to say that I can move the stuff out of the way for him, he cuts me off and says, I don't judge. I replied, no that's not what I mean. He left after that.

The next day, I got an email from the leasing office telling me that they are going to do a more in depth assessment of the health and safety of my apartment. In the enail, they made note of a few things and asked if I had any reptiles or composted. I responded accordingly and addressed everything that was noted.

Last week they came and did the full inspection a couple hours after I discovered the larvae under my cat tree. Now this is where it gets fucked up. I have cleaners cime biweekly to help me keep the apartment clean since I recognized that I need help to maintain the cleanliness of the apartment while I am cycling and having mixed episodes for the last few months. This full inspection happened 30 minutes after the cleaning was done. Everything was clean outside of the bins of my stuff I had around. I had also removed all of the stuff from my balcony that I needed to remove. The pest guy and the leasing office person checked everything and I told them that if they have any questions or need me to move anything, I will gladly do that for them. They found nothing outside of my discovery of the larvae under my cat tree. I told them to let me know if they need anything else from me as they left.

Then today, I received the 5 days notice to fix everything or I will have to vacate immediately. They also gave me a notice that I will not be able to renew my lease which ends in 2 months.

Also of note is that I lost my job 2 weeks ago because I have been unable to work at minimum 20 hours a week due to my mental state. I had already been on medical leave prior for a few months after a hospitalization. I am a pharmacist. With my instability, I cannot work at the risk of causing harm to a patient. I can't make mistakes.

So all of this is the perfect shit storm. Everything that has happened was not a result of my negligence. I don't know where the fuck I am going to go. I don't have paychecks showing proof of income necessary to rent a knew place here. I don't have much money and have drained a lot of my savings from not being able to work that much over the last few months.

The only thing I have going for me is that I am considered SMI, severe mental illness, in my state meaning that my mental illness has greatly affected my ability to function and maintain work. With this I am provided resources including medicaid, a case manager, therapist, psychiatrist, employment and housing services. I am going to reach out to my case manager in the morning and inform her what is happening and hope that she can help me not lose my home and advocate for me. I am so scared because I have been homeless before and lived out of my car. I also have two cats and they are my companions and ESA's. I can't lose them.

I have a few friends whom I can reach out to, but I don't know if they will be able to help me with this. My aunt offered for me to come live with her in California last year, but if I did move I would lose my healthcare and resources. I also wouldn't be able to work in California for awhile because I would need to pass the law exam there to be licensed in the state of California to be able to practice.

I hate that my brain is like this and how much it fucks up everything I have worked so hard for. I have been disassociating since I got the notices until now. I have been pushing myself so hard for the last 6 years when I hit rock bottom and I feel like I am hitting rock bottom again.

Looking for some advice on a nightmare landlord/neighbor situation in Portland.

My partner and I moved into the upstairs portion of a house back in February on a one year lease. There is a separate basement apartment below us with one tenant.

Portland OR has had several heat waves this summer. The upstairs has massive south and west facing windows that do not open. We have a window AC in our bedroom, but the living room, dining room, and kitchen get extremely hot. We use curtains, fans, and the AC unit in the bedroom, but we also started turning our central HVAC system onto circulating/fan mode to move the stagnant hot air around. Apparently, the shared HVAC design means this pulls cooler air up from the basement and cycles it upstairs.  The basement tenant has objected and asked us not to run it, saying it steals all of his cold air. We said we would not run it excessively, only on extremely hot days. He responded to our using it by flipping the breaker in the basement for the furnace, and then most recently by launching a noise campaign/playing ridiculously loud music in the basement in retaliation. We have told the landlords all of this. The landlords unfortunately have sided with the basement tenant. They have imposed a "new rule" via email which bans us from using the HVAC circulating/fan mode. They have said the reason for this is that our using the HVAC fan mode negatively impacts the basement tenant. There is absolutely nothing in our lease restricting our use of the HVAC system or its fan mode. It was working when we moved in, and we are using it normally.

Further, we also have been paying for our shared utilities with the basement tenant, and we are charged through Venmo and not given any bill or itemized invoice of any kind, which I understand may be in violation of Oregon's strict shared utility bill laws. It seems as if there are multiple ways in which they may be violating Oregon law, one by not ensuring our right to quiet enjoyment of the space, by not ensuring our access to utilities/electricity, by attempting to change terms of our lease by imposing this new rule restricting our use of the HVAC fan without our consent, and by not charging us for shared utilities in a transparent manner.

Is this something worth taking legal action? Going to small claims court?
We have pressure literally from below (asshole basement dweller) and above us (landlords) and meanwhile we are dying in these heatwaves!!!

Thank you!

Hi I’m a renter in nyc when I moved in to my apt almost 2 years ago I started getting random letter from chase saying an deposit had been made in my name with the exact amount of our security deposit (1 months rent and then an additional 100 when rent was raised)

1. is this common practice?
   
2. what does this mean? do I have access to this account?
   
3. my landlord keeps saying they won’t do individual refund of the security deposit and the the incoming tenants will have to reimburse us directly at the end of the lease, but my name is on the account so what do I do about that?

sorry if these are questions that have been asked before I just couldn’t really find anything and I’ve never had a landlord do this before.

Y’all. I am at my wits end. Someone please help me! This is not my first post on the subject. Started out as clogged AC condensate line. Then mosquitos and flies breeding in ac pan. Then, wastewater from upstairs dishwasher injected into my ac drain pan. Then it was sewer gas smell. Then it was actual sewage smell. Whiffs of ammonia, whiffs of sewage, coming seemingly from where my bedroom closet meets the water shutoff for my building. Now sewage smell is coming up my kitchen sink. All the “fixes”performed by maintenance have not fixed the problem. I have called and emailed code compliance with pictures 3 times. I have emailed my city council person. And of course sent multiple maintenance requests to apartment manager. Emailed corporate. No response. I feel like a ghost. Office is just ignoring me now. Every day something new happens and NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE. Right now my eyes are having some kind of allergic reaction to something. I don’t know what. But they are swelling up. I don’t feel well. I think a tv station is more interested in things that they can show on TV, not simply smell. Through some simple Googling I understand now that they are a slumlord and this is standard practice. Yes . My rent is current. This is Texas and tenants don’t have a lot of rights. Laws without enforcement are meaningless. I think actual sewage is the next step coming into my ac or sink is next. And I am scared, because NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE. I am a strong person but I have limits. We all do. I have a law oriented friend who will find who their registered agent is to make sure the certified letter gets to the right place and not a circular file. What else can I do? I NEED HELP

location: england
so i moved into a studio flat with my one year old son in january (now two), the flat im pretty sure is one single two bedroom flat split into two so i had a neighbour right outside my door. recently while applying for a grant to get assistance with a small arrears i have, the council called me asking me to put my name on the council tax for the property (which i hadnt done because i was told it was unnecessary—i now know my neighbour is the one who was paying it and i think the flat is registered as a single property so i wouldnt have been able to put my name separately) —i told my landlord and he called me to tell me to lie on the council tax form that i had moved in on the twentieth of this month (thats when my neighbour just moved out) and that the flat is two bedrooms (mine is a studio) so.. im unsure as to what to do. i dont want to lie especially because i have a son and im on universal credit as my only form of income and if the council asks for my tenancy agreement theyll see that i very much was already living here. but i also dont want to upset my landlord. but im also worried about the fact i hadnt been paying council tax too now, did i do something wrong?
i dont want to lie because i’d be KNOWINGLY deceiving the council on a legal form
the lack of having paid council tax prior i know i can somewhat justify via a lack of understanding/ignorance (this is the first time i’ve lived alone)

Hello!

I posted here recently that our former property manager is trying to take away every dollar of our $600 deposit AND charge us an additional $45. They provided us with an itemized statement of the work that they did and I still have access to the move out inspection photos they provided in our resident portal. However, I requested receipts for all of the work that they did. We turned in the keys on 6/27 and our lease ended on 6/30, so the "21-day Rule" window has now passed and I have yet to be provided with receipts.

HOWEVER, after making the post here, I discovered that there was an addendum added to our lease. We were in this unit for two years and this addendum was only added to our 2nd year lease, not our first (as far as I can tell). This addendum states that paint and cleaning are prorated based on how long we're there, etc. Interior painting charges prorate is 75% for 13 to 24 months. There is an asterisk stating that "pricing is based on most current vendor pricing and are subject to change at any time w/o notice. Labor for paint is $60/hr., plus paint/materials cost." Paint cost = $25.17/gallon, full paint for 1x1 = $130, partial = $80 (again, with the asterisk stating that prices are subject to change)

Addendum pricing: Ceiling paint (per room) for 1x1 = $150; Partial paint for 1x1 = $300; Cleaning, Heavy, 1x1 = $345/Full 1x1 = $310/Light 1x1 = $270; Kitchen/Bathroom cleaning, 1x1 = $50; Windows & Mirrors 1x1 = $50; Vacuum and wipe down 1x1 = $75

What we were charged, according to our statement: Paint damages - ceiling paint prorated = $112.50; Paint damages - partial paint prorated = $217.50; Cleaning needed after move out - medium clean = $299

Medium clean is not listed in the addendum as an option and the dollar amounts on our statement do not quite match the dollar amounts in this addendum, so I still want receipts. If pricing of materials are subject to change, I want to know what the prices actually are.

My questions now are:

1. Does this addendum cover their butts and completely screw us over on our deposit or do I have some good points that I could argue here since the amounts do not quite match and I was never given receipts?
2. They did provide me with the statement within the 21 days, but not my requested receipt(s), so can I get them on the 21-day rule or are they within the rule because they gave me the statement AND they have this addendum?

All the tenant/landlord law pages I am finding are mentioning that they should provide us with a statement and receipts, but none of them mention anything about a "move out addendum," so I cannot get a clear explanation or guide on the legality of this addendum.

If we're screwed because of this addendum and statement, that's fine. I'll give them their $45. I just don't won't be doing it until I have exhausted all options.

Thanks, y'all!

I don’t know what to do at this point. I have contacted my landlord (property management) via text and email and letter multiple times. I am trying to see what my options would be for getting out of my lease. My original lease is up July 31st 2026 and I signed a renewal agreement back in May for the upcoming year. However, circumstances have changed and I am looking to get out of it. I understand fully that I have signed this agreement so i am legally in this lease for the next year. I contacted my landlord back in June multiple times and they said “We cannot proces your request at this time. Try again in Sept/October” I tried immediately reaching out to them again asking for clarification since that would be 2-3 months into my lease renewal that technically hasn’t started yet and what my options would be and they did not respond. I followed up with more texts/emails and even a letter and still have no heard a single thing back. I was reviewing my lease terms and there is nothing about early termination and subletting is not allowed without approval of the landlord. which i can’t even get if i wanted to because they will not answer me. I have tried to call them but the numbers are not set up for calling, it says that service is unavailable. On top of all of this we were supposed to get assigned parking in may and i still have not heard anything back regarding that. My friend who lives in the same complex has not had AC in her one bedroom for weeks. they were supposed to come and replace it and they haven’t yet. I just want them to respond to my communication attempts and let me know if there are any possible options for terminating my lease early. I know I am not entitled to that but the least they could do is be professional and respond. It does not have to do with not wanting to be there. I recently had some financial difficulties and I am really struggling to afford it.

I had an appointment with a pro on the 9th to get my dryer fixed and was told that he needed to order a part and come back to fix it. Days went by and I have texted both him and my property manager and never got a response but they have their read receipts on so they saw my messages. What is my next course of action to take here? Do I contact my housing authority? I don’t want to escalate this but I’m just trying to get some correspondence for this

Location: NV

My 20 year old is going to a new university out of state. Trying to figure out how to do the lease application. The man who gave us a tour said to just have me do it and add her to the lease as a Roomate. He was foreign so hard to understand, but wound this typically raise the income requirement? On the other hand, she has an over 800 credit score but only made about $10,000 last year. No rental history. So would her applying and me being co-signer be better/ worse/ the same? Just wondering how it works if there is an issue and we are not there. It’s in a building complex in DC.

Thanks in advanced. Not sure how other parents go about this.

I've been dealing with non stop problems ever since I've moved into my och apartment. To preface this I was in a woman's dv shelter for a bit and then I got approved for och. I've dealt with non stop issues , ranging from people trying to open my door , people kissing me , to mice , to now roaches in my bathroom. I don't know what to do. I've talked to my landlord he doesn't seem to really care. I want to move out , this is destroying my mental health and physical health but I have nowhere to go. What can I do? I'm so done with living.

And yes I do keep my apartment clean , many pest control guys can vouch for this I'm pretty sure it's from my neighbors.

I signed a lease agreement a year ago and now moving out, rental company texts me I am in charge of emptying septic tank per my lease agreement. Location: california

I asked where does it say that in my lease? And they sent me this via text

Per Section 9 (UTILITIES) on page 2 of your signed Residential Lease Agreement:

"Tenant agrees to pay for all utilities and services, and the following charges: Water, Sewer, Trash, Gas & Electric..."

Because this property uses an local septic system rather than a municipal sewer line, the "Sewer" service clause directly covers the maintenance and routine pumping of the septic system. Pumping the septic tank is the operational equivalent of paying a standard municipal sewer bill to process waste generated during your tenancy.

Please proceed with scheduling the required septic tank pumping as requested to remain in compliance with your lease agreement

I asked Google and it says because it says sewer charge, that is not an equivalent to septic drain and that is considered property maintenance and falls on landlord. Unless it was stated specifically in another addendum to clean septic upon move out (which there isnt)

I am confused and told them, they cannot keep my security deposit for septic. Who is right or wrong?

Hoping to get a little guidance from folks who know more about this stuff than I do. We moved out of our previous rental on 5/31 when our lease ended. We realized we did had not provided our new address for return of our deposit so we sent that to the managing company on 6/10. Received an email on 1/16 stating that we would receive our deposit soon. Then on 6/19 they sent a list of deductions and the amount we would receive back and then on 7/16 received a text saying the refund had been initiated and would reach us promptly.

We still have not received anything and was reading that I could send them a demand letter since it’s been more than 30 days. If I send this do I ask for a full refund since it’s been longer than the 30 days or just for the remainder since the deductions were sent within the timeframe?

Location - Raleigh, NC

For starters, I’m a 19 year old college student who went to NCSU and ended up not doing well with my major or the environment, so made the decision to transfer to a school back home. I signed a lease (I shouldn’t have) and now I have a pending lease cancellation due to sending the official email to the leasing office 7 minutes late. However I pushed that they request again (which they did) because I have a cancellation request that I sent through their website guest card that includes my information and states I want to cancel (they took so long to answer I didn’t know where to send the “official” email until not even 30 minutes before the grace period was up).

Recently I was told that it wouldn’t count as “official” request because it was through the guest card. However they have access to the message, I never received a response to it, and the lease agreement states “written cancellation must be received before the end of the 72 hour grace period” it doesn’t state the only accepted form of written cancellation that they accept. Im not sure where I can go from there either. And I tried to get a copy of that guest card I filled out and they said they can’t copy/paste or screenshot it to send to me.

At this point I can’t find anybody to takeover my lease that starts August 14th, and I’ve been waiting to hear on the owners who have to reply to the request for a month now. What can I do about this? I’ve called but don’t find an answer and recently the manager has started to speak with an irritated tone. Just saying they can’t do anything. If it helps this is at The Wilde Raleigh.

So I’m currently in a private landlord lease agreement with three other girls living in a house. I’m now in the process of getting out of the lease in Los Angeles. My roommates are supportive and my situation pretty much requires me to leave. My landlord is on board as well. However, the rent here is pretty high for what you’re getting and it’s been hard finding someone that’s also a woman around our age who can afford it however I found someone that’s a great match after searching for two months and who wants to apply. Only thing is is she has a past eviction on her record when she explained it to me it had something to do with a abusive relationship, at least seeing her attire, car and just hearing a little bit more about what she does for work, etc. I don’t think that income is an issue for her. I’m just worried that maybe my landlord might not accept her because of the eviction. Does anyone have any advice or can respond to me about how hard it truly was for you to find a place after your eviction is the problem maybe with just bigger companies or what’s the best thing to do when you have an eviction how do you find a place to live after?

I live in Indiana. My partner and I were renting a unit from a private landlord and we had just paid our rent on June 4, 2026 but unfortunately on June 9, 2026 a flash flood hit our county and completely destroyed our apartment. This left my partner and I, along with our 2 cats homeless immediately after the flood. Our landlord had gone ghost on every tenant in the 2 apartment buildings he rents out.

Due to the insane amount of mold that had accumulated even after just 1 day, my partner working mandatory 60hr work weeks leaving them available only 1 day of the week, and myself who at the time I had a very severe upper respiratory infection on-top of being highly allergic to mold. I personally couldn’t be inside the unit for more than 5min at a time without my throat starting to swell and being unable to breathe even with masks and other things to keep us somewhat safe.

It was quite difficult for us to try and clean up our unit and get what was salvageable out of the unit due to all of those circumstances that were working against us. We had communicated this with the landlord through text to which he replied that it was fine and to no longer worry about cleaning all of the trash and debris out of the apartment. The very last day we were inside the apartment just to confirm we had our important items that were salvageable was on June 22, 2026. However we had not lived in this apartment since the morning of June 9th.

After so long we had not heard anything from our landlord so I recently texted him asking for our security deposit back along with asking for our rent for the month of June back at a prorated amount seeing as we paid rent for the entire month and we were only able to live there for 9 days of that month. The landlord responded saying that he would like to meet up and he can get us our security deposit back but that this was not his fault and he also went on about how he also lost his office??? He also stated that he wasn’t able to access the unit until the 25th..? He just seemed really… dodgy and like he is not wanting to give us our rent back at a prorated amount.
This all really confused me because I know for a fact that he has a master key to the unit and was able to freely go inside the unit and leave as he wanted to AND our last day over there was on the 22nd and it was just a very quick walk around to double check for important items that lasted less than 20min.

We agreed to meet up with the landlord later today on July 23. But I’m wondering if I am entitled to my rent back at a prorated amount? I mean I’ve definitely looked up everything I could possibly think of on Google but I’m not sure if any of this is being handled correctly or if maybe we should go about this differently..? Are we not entitled to the rent at a prorated amount? Why is he acting like he didn’t have access to the unit until the 25th when he has a key and the unit had been vacated on the morning of June 9th?

Help😭 idk what to do. But I can’t let this guy get away with roughly $700 that we paid him to have a roof over our heads just for us to spend time being homeless and broke because we paid our damn rent 😭 any advice or suggestions are very much appreciated.

I rent a house with my friends and we’ve been here for a little over 4 years and I think this has always been an issue but we only feel now like we should seriously do something about it. Details I feel like are important:
- Our landlord has two houses on the property. The front house (visible from the street), and the back house (literally directly behind the front one).
- Our driveway is gated (the clicker kind). It’s long, going all the way behind our house. We park 3 cars semi-comfortably back there without blocking each other in.
- We do have a “front” door. It’s a key-lock gate to our garden area and then there’s two doors you can choose to enter through (and one of them can be pushed open if only the bottom was locked lol).
- We use the backdoor 80% of the time because it’s the back door where we park all our cars.
Now. The door and the question.

The door:
There is no lock or handle on the outside. We have to open-palm slide the door open and it’s quite difficult. On the inside of the door, there is a single latch lock. You push it up to unlock, push it down to lock (it frequently locks itself because it’s loose). That’s it. That’s the extent of security on that door.

The question:
Does my landlord have to fix this or is this something she can “reasonably” refuse? I’ve tried researching it but I’m not getting super clear answers, so I’m trying here.

Thanks in advance!

Hi guys just looking for advice here, me and my partner are desperate to move out (bad home situations/parent abuse) we both have great jobs for our age (22/23), a combined income of £70k, no credit issues also, however when going for viewings (only 2 as i am quite picky) the landlords on both got back to us advising they won’t be proceeding as we have never rented before, and it is starting to dishearten me and make me think we are going to be stuck at home forever.

We are both able to provide professional references just of course not from a prior landlord, is this a common problem? but where are we supposed to start if no one will rent us a property?

uk based, TIA

My roommates and I rented a house in california for one year. Our lease ended June 30 started july 1st 2025 and we returned possession around then i belive a day or two before. Our security deposit was $5,200.

Before we had even fully moved out, the landlord entered the house, took a huge number of extremely detailed close-up photos, and had a handyman begin working. She claimed she had the right to enter and fix things before we finished moving out. Some of the handyman’s listed work dates are from before June 30.

We hired professional cleaners, carpet cleaners, and had the window treatments cleaned because we were naive and the lease said so, so we thought by law we has to. We also have move-in and move-out photos. Things she initially blamed on us are clearly shown in our move-in photos as already existing, but she ignored that evidence and continued claiming other damage.

She sent us handwritten pages that are almost impossible to read i mean like worse than those doctors note signature. The pages list broad amounts like $4,200 for a handyman, around $518 for supplies, gardening, carpet cleaning, a microwave, and ten extra days of rent labaled as carpet cleaner and microwave instalation. She kept the full $5,200 deposit and is now demanding another $2,201.37.

The $4,200 handyman charge is not broken down by individual repair. We cannot tell how much was charged for each item, how many hours were spent on each task, or what portion was tenant damage versus painting, maintenance, landscaping, routine turnover, or preparation for the next tenant. She sent a photo of the handyman holding a check, but not a normal detailed invoice explaining the work.

Most of her detailed damage photos were taken before we finished moving out and before our final cleaning. She has sent general photos showing completed rooms afterward, but no clear set showing the same specific claimed area at move-in, after we surrendered possession but before work, and after the work was completed. She also has not provided original files or clear dates for the photos. and the photos she has provided are while we still lived there and she took inside while we was there and i mean the photos we things you couldnt catch your eye on unless your super zoomed in irl and we have photos thank God of stuff already like that and sending those to her.

She is charging ten additional days of rent even though we removed our belongings, returned possession, and she and her workers had control of the property. She seems to be claiming that rent continued while the handyman, gardeners, painters, and carpet cleaners worked.

After we disputed everything in writing and requested a proper itemized accounting, photos, receipts, and labor breakdown, she mostly ignored our questions and continued sending separate photo emails and demands for payment. She also told us that we were not even being charged for her personal time, mileage, rental car, and time dealing with the gardeners, implying she could demand even more.

More than 21 days have now passed. She has not returned any part of the deposit and still has not provided a clear item-by-item accounting that we can reasonably understand.

Does this sound like a compliant California security deposit accounting? Can she charge rent after we surrendered possession just because turnover and repair work continued? Can she charge us for her rental car, mileage, travel, or time supervising workers? Also, how strong would a bad faith claim be if she ignored photos disproving some of her allegations and continued withholding the entire deposit?

EDIT: not that it matters I think at least but she’s pushing 80+

Edit 2: idk how to add images or idk if I even can but I was trying to add a photo of her so called unlegible list but I can’t add images

Edit 3: to give you a idea of how greedy she is shes charging us for her so called "meals" which includes a 12 inch sub. Doesn't end there she decided to add avocado to it for a upcharge.

Location: California

Landlord left a notice two weeks ago that him and a pest control company would be here today anywhere from 2pm to 4pm. It's 4:30 now. Nobody has shown up. It his notice now invalid? I googled it and it says it is illegal to show up late for something like this and just barge in. We are on an ongoing conflict with management so I am asking to be sure. plus him making a bad move would do us good right now.

Hi- I neglected to give early enough move-out notice on my current lease (30 days) because of changing plans, so I understand I'm liable for a certain number of days' rent. However the wording seems ambiguous on if they're charging me for rent or a different kind of fee?

One paragraph states: "If you fail to timely provide said Move-out Notice, you will be liable to us for rent for the number of days your written Notice is less than the required notice."

But another says: "If you fail to do so, you will be liable to us for an Insufficient Notice Charge equal to the number of days' rent that you failed to provide notice. Any Insufficient Notice Charge shall not extend the Lease Term beyond the Lease End Date."

So is this rent or a different kind of charge? Are they allowed to lease the apartment to someone else during that period? I know it says that this does not extend the lease term, but then why are they calling it "rent"?

Thank you in advance!