Yep, GEORGE is right, alot of these places have this damage covered by insurance and try the double dip.
Back up! So a CA is actually suing? Not the landlord? The CA wants to settle? This whole story stinks to high heaven. It doesn't add up. I think you need to back up and find out what really happened at the apartment. Your solution might be that the landlord is violating tenant/landlord laws. My question is: What happened to the security deposit? Was that kept and applied to this damage? Why didn't your daughter raise hell when her security deposit was not returned? Why is this the first time you have heard about this? Did the landlord follow state/local law when dealing with this damage? Did they notify your daugther properly? Did the landlord actually replace the carpet, and if so, how much did it actually cost. How many square feet was replaced, and what kind of carpet? In other words, does the amount they claim to have paid to remedy the damage reasonable, or have they inflated it? Did the landlord actually pay to replace the carpet, or do they just want the money? Was the carpet at the end of its life anyways? Does you state laws allow the LL to only bill for the residual value? A copy of the lease proves nothing, and is not in dispute. What is in dispute is (a) were there damages? and (b) how much money did it cost to fix? If the landlord is abusing the process by keeping deposits and charging for damage that was not done, or charging for damange that they do not intend to fix, they can be sued and fined by you for violations. In summary, fight this first based on landlord/tenant law rather than a credit law. You should have a lot more on your side this way. Once that shuts down the landlord, you can then attack the LL and the CA on the credit law side. A couple of other observations. (a) Demanding to know if the LL had insurance pay for the damage is a good idea. However, I would be very suprised if they did. They have insurance to cover fire and major damage. I don't think they could even get insurance for tenant abuse carpet damange. (b) The tax write off is irrellivent. Of course the LL writes off all expenses as allowed by tax law. It does nothing to reduce liability.
Re: Back up! cable666, My daughter had a 0 move in security deposit. She moved out at the end of her lease. I told her to make a video of the apartment or have a manager do a walk thru, because of the 0 deposit. Again at the time she was 19 and dads are dummies. Remember that phase of your life. She did hear about it in March in a letter from the CA and we responded. That validation letter was sent snail mail. I live in San Antonio and she lives in Plano (DFW). I emailed her the letters to send. Being young and dumb, and not listening to dad she didn't send the 1st letter CRRR. After I found out she didn't I made it perfectly clear that ALL future letters were to be sent CRRR. Since April, we were the aggressor in the matter. My validation letters were asking for proof, not carpet $1200, water $8.64 on the CA's letterhead as proof. The original letter from the CA was 1817 and that was immediately dropped to 1212 after the 1st letter. I asked why there was a reduction in the amount owed, no response Where can I find the laws that you are suggesting. Tenant /landlord and what else? What is LL? Thanks for the help. Charlie
Re: Back up! I went through a lot of the same hassles your daughter is currently having. Oddly enough, my problems happened in Lewisville, which is about 15 minutes from Plano. Anyway, my situation was a little different because I actually had a deposit on the apartment, but you can find a lot of good information here http://www.texastenant.org. I have used it quite a bit in tenant/Landlord disputes. I hope this helps.
Re: Back up! After sending several certified letters to the apartments, and the apartment owners we didn't hear anything else from them so we just thought it went away. Well, we found out last month that it was listed on our credit reports and we are now in the process of having it validated. We have everything ready for court if we need it. We don't want a long drawn-out battle. If they remove it from the credit report we will be happy. Good luck!
Re: Back up! Thanks for the other answers people! Regarding LL/Tenant law, I'd start with Nolo (www.nolo.com). They have some excellent legal guide books for novices. I would still focus on getting to the root of this problem, the landlord claiming that she owes him for a carpet. Just cause you shut down this CA does not mean another one is not going to pop up. Have you called or written to the landlord to find out their side of the story?
Re: Back up! cable666, We haven't sent the OC anything, yet. I'm waiting on the paperwork from the JP, and then I'll fax and hardcopy them before we file. Charlie
Re: Back up! cable666, I'm also going to call the CA tomorrow, and ask them if they can help me on some rental problems I have in the DFW area. Some if not most OC's are liable for lawsuits brought against the CA. I'll be able to tell when I get a copy of the CA to OC contract. I'm going to get a couple of appointments with lawyers in the area to see what their take on it is. Then we'll make a decision if we need to get a lawyer for this or if I'll do it. Charlie
Re: Back up! cable666, I'm also going to call the CA tomorrow, and ask them if they can help me on some rental problems I have in the DFW area. Some if not most OC's are liable for lawsuits brought against the CA. I'll be able to tell when I get a copy of the CA to OC contract. I'm going to get a couple of appointments with lawyers in the area to see what their take on it is. Then we'll make a decision if we need to get a lawyer for this or if I'll do it. Charlie
Re: Back up! Why are you wasting your time with the CA? Just get the LL on the phone and raise holy hell. I would.
