That’s right, there’s a stink in the Santa Monica air, and that stink is my ex-landlord. The story of why we moved into and out of his apartment in 2 weeks can be found right here. To sum it up, the walls were super thin, and we learned way too much about our neighbors (and they heard a little too much from us.)
When I called the landlord to explain why we were moving out (main reason being we can’t see ourselves living in an apartment where we need to whisper so the neighbor doesn’t hear us through the thin sheet of metal that is the heater, and the fact that we can’t watch our TV at a normal volume at a reasonable hour) he said that he understood and we even joked about how it was no big deal he just dreaded having to go through the process of finding a new tenant. I told him that I’d help get the word out that there’s an apartment just a short walk to the beach available that would be perfect for one person (that doesn’t talk loudly to themselves and goes to bed pretty early.) He told me not to worry about it and it’d be fine. The only thing was that he’d have to keep our security deposit until he found another tenant.
Then I call him just after March 1 asking if he’d found a new tenant yet so we could get our security deposit. He says on the phone “Yes I found a new tenant, give me your new address so I don’t have to go find it and I’ll send the check.” I give him the address and a couple weeks later the check arrives. $500 of the $1500 that we were supposed to receive. Along with the check was this note:
Enclosed please find a check for $500.00 as a refund on the balance of your deposit at Unit X at XXX XXXX St, Santa Monica, CA. You originally signed a one-year lease renting unit X for $1500.00 per month beginning on December 1, 2008. You paid a deposit of $3500.00. You decided to vacate Unit X in mid-December 2008. Because I was unable to rent Unit 5 until February 1, 2009 I am applying $3,000.00 of your initial deposit for the December 2008 rent and January 2009 rent.
Please call me if you have any questions.
First of all that wording is confusing. Our deposit was actually $2000 plus $1500 first month rent. Secondly, there was no mention at all of the fact that he would use our deposit if he could not find another tenant. His wording was “I’ll hold on to your deposit until I find another tenant, and when I find another tenant I’ll send you the check.” He mentioned that if he found a tenant on January 1st he’d send it on January 1st, and if he couldn’t find a tenant until February 1st, he’d send it then. Not once did he mention that he would withhold any amount. In fact the apartment had been sitting empty for a months before we moved in, so basically he was using us for free rent, so he could lazily seek out another tenant.
So.. any Los Angeles area Tenants Rights lawyers want a free feature on LA Snark? Send your comments/advice along to lasnark@gmail.com and we’ll link to your site in this post.
