This is always the correct play.
Until covid makes the college go remote and all the students move back with their parents.
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I’ve lived in the same apartment complex for 5 years. 4 years in a 1 bedroom paying $1200 with only 1-2% raises each year (security deposit was $500). Recent moved into a 2 bedroom that costs $2400 in the same complex. They didn’t even bother asking for a new deposit. Communication is incredible, maintenance guy is the GOAT, but probably because I hook him up with “rare” IPAs every so often. Just chiming in to having a positive experience with renting. I’m definitely the minority. We don’t have one of those fancy pools that Cuse and his neighborhood pay for though.
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Magical, not fancy
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In general it is so much better to rent from “mom and pop” than a professional manager. Mom and pop real estate investors just want to avoid vacancy and hassle, so if you pay on time and don’t flood them with maintenance requests they will almost never raise the rent more than a token amount. Obviously if you want amenities you’re going to have to deal with corporate management.
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OK to those of you who refuse to pay last month’s rent and just let them take it out of the deposit, how do you work that? Like I’m sure it’s a point of major contention and legal threats? They could potentially hit you on your credit report, right?
Please let it rain tonight lol… These morons are going to leave this door open indefinitely because they don’t know why it’s open.
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They’ll have some nice wildlife living in that unit soon. Just read through most of this thread and lol at everything about this management company. I always rented from mom and pop type places before buying and never dealt with a lot of this shit, lived in my last place for 3 years in a popular nightlife neighborhood in Minneapolis and never had a rent increase and if we did it was like $50 a month
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The door remains open. I already notified them and offered to close it for them yesterday, at this point I just laugh at them for leaving it open right?
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I’m defintely leaving it open and not reminding them that it is open.
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This right here is my line. These people are awful and I want them to fail exactly as hard as they should be failing.
I’ve propped up enough people like this in my working life lol. Now I actively try to make sure that unless it’s in my DIRECT interests to protect them I do not.
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Many cities have very tenant-friendly landlord-renter laws that impose punitive fines on landlords who violate those laws. I’m most familiar with them in Chicago, where they require that landlords provide your security deposit and an itemized list for any deductions within 30 days, or face triple damages. A quick google indicates that Pennsylvania has something similar, but milder. Basically, if the apartment administration doesn’t have their shit together, and they fail to provide this within 30 days, it looks like you’re going to get double the security deposit back. And I would expect there to be minimal effort involved in actually carrying this out.
Don’t let landlords bully you out of security deposits. You’d be surprised at what they’re required to do in order to keep them.
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Yeah, I got pretty lucky when I used to rent. I was the first person to live in my first apartment and had no problems with management - they were always very friendly. I remember I had trouble installing a ceiling fan and asked if I could pay maintenance to help finish the job. I was going to be at work when they came, so I left a tip and note on the counter. They never charged me anything and the maintenance guy even added to my note, thanking me for the tip.
My second place was a townhouse. The week we were to move in, they said we couldn’t have that unit because they decided to renovate it. So they gave us a newly renovated place for the non-renovated price.
And neither place I rented kept any of my security deposit, even though my dog had chewed a window sill and a banister.
I almost never used the pool.
I’d claim squatter’s rights to the open apartment.
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So that’s the full deposit? In the past when places have withheld a couple hundred they always say it’s for cleaning and itemize it. Of course, there is no damage that is my fault, and I leave them clean. But they’re always going to clean an apartment when you leave and always going to take it from the deposit in my experience. That can be fought?
The thought crossed my mind, but if I’m going to squat I should just do it here lol… Don’t want to mess up my credit report and all that, though.
There were actually squatters in the house next door to mine years ago. The owner had moved out of the country and was renting it, but didn’t have tenants for a while. One day, she called us and asked if we could check on the house because she heard someone might be there. My wife and I took a look and it definitely seemed like someone was inside.
The owner called the police and we had a great view from our back windows of them going in, weapons drawn, and dragging someone who appeared to maybe be transgender out of the house and making them lie face down on the driveway. It seemed like everything ended up ok - the person wasn’t really roughed up, though I don’t know what happened afterward. Rumor was that there were two other people living there, too, but they weren’t home at the time. I doubt they were much of a problem, considering my wife and I had no idea they were there until we checked.
Read your lease and research the law in PA. Once you indicate you know the law they’ll cave.
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Steal all the lightbulbs.
Yes, that can be fought. And here’s where it’s nice to be familiar with landlord-tenant law. It’s very likely they’ve already committed a minor violation. So if they act shady on the security deposit, you can use their prior violation as evidence/threat that they’ve exhibited a lack of good faith towards the security deposit. For example, a widely-ignored requirement is what the landlord does with the security deposit upon receipt. In Pennsylvania, go here:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjb2afnsPXqAhUHHc0KHcZaCScQFjABegQIAxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelpa.com%2FPA_landlord_tenant_act.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3HW7X4k0HyIxoca6du7QrQ
Section 250.511b specifies that security deposits must be deposited in a regulated escrow account, and “the lessor shall thereupon notify in writing each of the tenants making any such deposit, giving the name and address of the banking institution in which such deposits are held, and the amount of such deposits”.
I assume that you did not, in fact, receive written notice that your security deposit was placed in an escrow account at a regulated institution. That, on its own, is whatever. But it’s nice ammunition to have when you think the landlord is scamming you out of your security deposit.
[I am not a lawyer, just someone who has spent far too much time researching landlord-tenant law.]
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