subject: Landlord Vs. Tenant: Why Can't We Both Be Honest? [print this page] In my experience, there are few things more frustration than renting! Both before and after I got married, I had the misfortune of finding myself living in properties with cramped space, a shoddy superstructure, and very sketchy management.
My spouse and I were glad to escape our first apartment, but we were certainly not thrilled when, instead of receiving a check for the amount of our security deposit, we received in the mail a false checkout form which claimed that we essentially destroyed our apartment, along with a threatening letter that demanded almost a thousand dollars.
Yikes! Our first move was, of course, to contact the apartment office. But we were given the run around, unfortunately. We were told to fax in our copy of the checkout form, at which point they would "get back to us." They never did.
Months would go by, and again we would receive an even more threatening letter. This happened twice after the initial accusation, although we made repeated attempts to get in contact with office managers and the litigation department.
After doing some research online, we found out this particular management company has a history of doing exactly this. Our good fortune was to have a family friend who was a former judge. He wrote a letter that strongly encouraged the management company to cease and desist all contact--including their threatening letters.
We haven't heard from them since, for which we are so glad. We were prepared to hire an attorney in St. George if our friend's letter had no effect. But now that we live in a townhome complex managed by a Home Owners' Association, we have seen the tables turned a little.
My spouse and I are very involved in our community, so we have learned from our HOA board that many tenants all around us do not pay their dues, which has been a major setback in helping the complex get ahead so we can pay for major changes like new roofing and fencing.
The HOA dues do not exclusively cover the funding for major projects like the ones I described. They actually cover all of our utilities each month. But when tenants do not pay, the HOA does not have the luxury of turning off those utilities because they cannot isolate the power for individual units.
Only recently have board members become more aggressive about collecting back dues. Going into litigation has actually paid off for our community. We wish it weren't necessary, but it has been helpful.
After experiences on both extremes, I just wonder--why can't we all be honest?
