Renters rights questions reasonable charges for painting?

Russ Smith · December 16th, 2007, 11:07 AM

We moved a few weeks ago were in our old place for exactly 12 months. Today we got the settlement check for our deposit and from our original $600 we got only 337 back. $135 for cleaning which we were told up front would be the case no matter how clean it is, they will have a professional cleaning service in there.

But we were also charged $120 for painting, it says as per the lease, anything less than 13 months you get no prorated discount for painting. Is it actually legal to charge someone for repainting an entire apartment(completely unnecessarily) when they were there for only 1 year?

nathan · December 16th, 2007, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russ Smith

We moved a few weeks ago were in our old place for exactly 12 months. Today we got the settlement check for our deposit and from our original $600 we got only 337 back. $135 for cleaning which we were told up front would be the case no matter how clean it is, they will have a professional cleaning service in there.

But we were also charged $120 for painting, it says as per the lease, anything less than 13 months you get no prorated discount for painting. Is it actually legal to charge someone for repainting an entire apartment(completely unnecessarily) when they were there for only 1 year?

The standard in most states is that landlords can retain portions of the security deposit to repair damages "beyond normal wear and tear." IMO, a new paint job would fall outside that scope unless you painted the walls or did something to them. Were the walls painted for you just before you moved in?

Russ Smith · December 16th, 2007, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nathan

The standard in most states is that landlords can retain portions of the security deposit to repair damages "beyond normal wear and tear." IMO, a new paint job would fall outside that scope unless you painted the walls or did something to them. Were the walls painted for you just before you moved in?

I think so because the paint was a weird gloss that really looked horrible, especially on all the doors. We noticed immediately that any dirt on the door showed because of the gloss, and was very hard to clean off. They were so glossy the paint looked wet.

It's my opinion they realized this when the place was empty and decided to repaint it with a flat or semigloss instead and just charged us for that.

really ticked off $120 is 20% of our deposit.

Linderbee · December 16th, 2007, 08:25 PM

You'd have to see what the laws are in California, but I can tell you that sort of stuff here seems to largely favor the landlord.

Folster · December 16th, 2007, 11:51 PM

I recently moved out on Dec. 1st. I'm getting my full $300 deposit back. The place was spotless after I had a Marine Corps style field day on it. They could have moved someone in the next day.