As a renter, I’ve made just about every mistake there is. First, I trusted a landlord that I knew deep down was telling me everything that I wanted to hear so that I’d move in. It worked. The pleasant relationship we had turned into a screaming match and a lot of certified mail. Before I signed the lease, he and I had walked through the townhouse and there were a few things that needed attention. The carpeting needed to be replaced, the dishwasher didn’t work and the dryer was questionable. The real problem was that I believed him when he told me he’d get those things fixed before I moved in.
I signed the lease and it went downhill from there. Moving was delayed because of the carpet. Finally, I moved in. The dishwasher and dryer were still not fixed, and I was already regretting the whole thing. Now comes summer, and I found out the hard way that the A/C doesn’t work too well, either.
That was it for me. The fight was on, we threatened each other back and forth and each got a lawyer. In the end, I’m glad to say I did win. He didn’t have a Certificate of Occupancy, so I was pretty much an illegal tenant. I was lucky to find a very reasonable lawyer and he only charged me for a letter or two. He did tell me that the landlord claimed that I broke the dishwasher, dryer and screwed up the A/C. If it was not for the fact that he didn’t have a C/O, it could have been ugly.
I got smarter with every rental, and today, things would be handled very differently. For one, I would have documented everything, including notes on the lease. I would have a checklist in hand and I would wear the landlord down with questions.
My own experiences and a lot of research motivated me to help others by putting together a Guide For Renters. It includes plenty of good, sound advice on renting, including understanding the lease and getting the security deposit back. It also has a complete and thorough 7 page checklist that every renter should have when looking at rentals, demand for repair letters and demand of security deposit letters.
Please go to my web site for more detail and download information. It is also available on CD.
Tags: carpeting, certificate of occupancy, certified mail, dishwasher, landlord tenant, page checklist, renter, security deposit, sound advice, townhouse