acapelo_dp Posted October 9, 2019 Share Posted October 9, 2019 Long story short. Three of us girls moved into a townhouse in May 2018. We were all friends before this so it was exciting. Let's call her Lisa. Our third roommate Lisa had a boyfriend for six months and suddenly decided to move to a different city with him In November 2018. Lisa stated that since she was still on the lease she would continue to pay rent and utilities at our townhouse since we decided we didn't want to look for a random right away (or perhaps ever). Lisa said this was fair. Lisa moved and didn't continue talking to us, unless it was about bills complaining about paying them because her bf ended up cheating on her and losing his job so she was paying rent two places (not our fault?). Anyways. The lease with all three of us ended May 1, 2019 which the second roommate and I decided to continue living there and signed a new lease with just the two of us. Trust me, roommate and I tried for many months to find a third roommate, had viewings, and no one accepted. It wasn't a lack of trying. After Lisa broke up with her boyfriend, Lisa moved to a different province randomly two months ago. Not a word from her, she never asked how we were or anything. However, today she messages my roommate about getting her damage deposit back VERY rudely. I don't think it our problem until our lease ends May 1, 2020 when we both move out (we do plan to move out and not renew the lease) because a. Lisa should have done a walkthrough with the landlord when HER lease expired here and got her DD back, and second roommate and I could pay a new one. She wants me to message her about it and I plan on telling her it was poor planning on her part and she will definitely receive her money in April 2020. I don't think it's our fault she put herself in this situation and my roommate and I have to suffer for her poor planning. We did nothing wrong yet Lisa doesn't take accountability for her actions and blames us for all this. Advice? Link to post Share on other sites
Art_Critic Posted October 9, 2019 Share Posted October 9, 2019 IMO, you should pay her back her part of the deposit.. come on.. that's just mean You resigned the lease and didn't give her her deposit back and you should of.. She paid rent and seems like she stood behind her part of the deal so it's time for you to stand behind and do your part.. pay her back her share. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Author acapelo_dp Posted October 9, 2019 Author Share Posted October 9, 2019 (edited) IMO, you should pay her back her part of the deposit.. come on.. that's just mean You resigned the lease and didn't give her her deposit back and you should of.. She paid rent and seems like she stood behind her part of the deal so it's time for you to stand behind and do your part.. pay her back her share. It's not us that didn't give it back. The landlord has it. It's not like we are purposely keeping it from her out spite and we have it in our pockets for her. She hasn't even asked until months later. The proper way should have been to do a walk-through with the landlord once her lease was up. Maybe it's mean but She stood her part and she treated us very poorly because of it, for a decision she got herself into. We were always nice and respectful to her. So I don't understand the anomocity once she moved out with her boyfriend. She literally treated us like garbage for no reason saying awful things to us despite us making efforts to maintain the friendship and discuss things like adults. Edited October 9, 2019 by acapelo_dp Link to post Share on other sites
Mrin Posted October 9, 2019 Share Posted October 9, 2019 IMO, you should pay her back her part of the deposit.. come on.. that's just mean You resigned the lease and didn't give her her deposit back and you should of.. She paid rent and seems like she stood behind her part of the deal so it's time for you to stand behind and do your part.. pay her back her share. Agreed. If you had not renewed the lease she would have her portion of the deposit back. She did the right thing and paid her share of the lease during it's terms. You are being petty and basically defrauding her. Pay her. Link to post Share on other sites
Author acapelo_dp Posted October 9, 2019 Author Share Posted October 9, 2019 Agreed. If you had not renewed the lease she would have her portion of the deposit back. She did the right thing and paid her share of the lease during it's terms. You are being petty and basically defrauding her. Pay her. Okay despite her being completely rude and treating us like garbage for months I will pay her back. I wish I saved the messages she sent us over the months. She was a friend and this whole situation was hurtful for us. So pardon for being petty. Link to post Share on other sites
carhill Posted October 9, 2019 Share Posted October 9, 2019 What I normally do when a tenant makes changes at lease time is perform an accounting of the deposit, refund the amount to the tenant no longer on the lease after we do a walk-through to confirm condition, then get a new deposit/increased deposit from the new tenant matrix depending on how that works out. If down to one, forex, that one would then bear the burden of the whole deposit. If a new co-tenant was added to the lease, then they would present their portion of the deposit/first month's rent at lease signing. Generally, tenants are jointly and severally liable for rents and deposits, at least on the leases I use. Link to post Share on other sites
Author acapelo_dp Posted October 9, 2019 Author Share Posted October 9, 2019 What I normally do when a tenant makes changes at lease time is perform an accounting of the deposit, refund the amount to the tenant no longer on the lease after we do a walk-through to confirm condition, then get a new deposit/increased deposit from the new tenant matrix depending on how that works out. If down to one, forex, that one would then bear the burden of the whole deposit. If a new co-tenant was added to the lease, then they would present their portion of the deposit/first month's rent at lease signing. Generally, tenants are jointly and severally liable for rents and deposits, at least on the leases I use. Okay thank you. Right, and our landlord and Lisa did not do a walk-through once her lease was up and the DD was not changed at all. The second roommate and I just renewed a lease with just us. Landlord was aware of this as well as Lisa. Link to post Share on other sites
Art_Critic Posted October 9, 2019 Share Posted October 9, 2019 You do realize that in essence she covered your deposit.. at this point it is yours and you owe her the back deposit.. no matter what she said or did to you.. if you are trying to punish her then that is what you are doing.. but you are not in the right Link to post Share on other sites
ajequals Posted October 9, 2019 Share Posted October 9, 2019 It's Lisa's responsibility to contact the landlord and get her deposit back ,you signed a new lease.. if the landlord did not request a new deposit it's on him. you are now in a separate lease from Lisa's 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Rockdad Posted October 9, 2019 Share Posted October 9, 2019 You know you could make this drama stop very quickly if you really wanted to. Or is it you truthfully want to irritate her as she has irritated you and your roommate? Doesn't matter whether you force her to go to the landlord to get involved and him reimburse her then he will be charging you so that the deposit is in full or you pay her either way it's coming out of your pocket which it should. Do yourself a favor, be mature, stop the drama and simply pay the lady her due as much as it hurts to do so. I'm sure your landlord would appreciate not climbing into the drama circle. I speak as a landlord myself. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
d0nnivain Posted October 9, 2019 Share Posted October 9, 2019 Give Lisa her money back. You should have done that when she moved out. If she's stopped being a friend it makes more sense to sever all ties, including this one. When the landlord finally give you your money back at the end of the leases when you move, you & the other roommate will split the money 2 ways instead of 3. You can be as mad at Lisa as you want but you can't keep her money. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Author acapelo_dp Posted October 9, 2019 Author Share Posted October 9, 2019 (edited) You know you could make this drama stop very quickly if you really wanted to. Or is it you truthfully want to irritate her as she has irritated you and your roommate? Doesn't matter whether you force her to go to the landlord to get involved and him reimburse her then he will be charging you so that the deposit is in full or you pay her either way it's coming out of your pocket which it should. Do yourself a favor, be mature, stop the drama and simply pay the lady her due as much as it hurts to do so. I'm sure your landlord would appreciate not climbing into the drama circle. I speak as a landlord myself. My goal is not to irritate her by withholding her money. It's not as though I have it in my pocket and I am holding it over her head. She did not contact us or the landlord until NOW about the DD. Not when her lease was ending. She just disappeared from the province and blocked us on all social media like a child. We never did anything to her. For those saying she kept up her share for paying the rent while she moved. Well, of course, it is a contract and she was responsible for her portion until it ended. It was her decision to move early and break the terms of the lease. I plan on moving in with my boyfriend as well, but since I am being smart, I am planning to AFTER my lease is finished where I am. Simple common sense. It wasn't mine or my roommates part of the contract to give her the money right away, that's for her to contact the landlord beforehand and plan how it will work out. Yes, I want her out of my life so as a result I can just give it to her. I'm not a mean or backstabbing person. It's a crappy situation that was started because of her poor planning, so yes I am angry. Unfortunately, since there was no walkthrough when she moved out (which should have been done) if there are any deductions at the end of our lease it is on us, not her. Even if she did some damage. Not to mention she left a BUNCH of her belongings here for us to deal with. She did not care to even clean up when she left. There's a lot more to the story than that, so that is why I am coming off so angry. Because I am. I guess the only option is to give her the money and tell her never to contact me again. Edited October 9, 2019 by acapelo_dp Link to post Share on other sites
d0nnivain Posted October 9, 2019 Share Posted October 9, 2019 Unfortunately, since there was no walkthrough when she moved out (which should have been done) if there are any deductions at the end of our lease it is on us, not her. Even if she did some damage. Not to mention she left a BUNCH of her belongings here for us to deal with. She did not care to even clean up when she left. There's a lot more to the story than that, so that is why I am coming off so angry. Because I am. I guess the only option is to give her the money and tell her never to contact me again. It's a live & learn. If you think she did damage for which you will be charged, spell it out for her & hold that money in escrow . . .meaning you give her the rest back & keep that so it's available to return to her. She may not go for that & you should have done the walk through with the landlord when she left but it still would have been your responsibility to pay the money back to her. plus she can argue that you two did more / different damage after she left & that is not her responsibility. You can be angry but you also have to be smart. Before you kiss her off, find out what she wants done with the stuff. Tell her you need some of the money for storage or to transmit the stuff back to her. Seems like the friendship is already over but you don't need to be dragged into small claims court. Link to post Share on other sites
Author acapelo_dp Posted October 9, 2019 Author Share Posted October 9, 2019 It's a live & learn. If you think she did damage for which you will be charged, spell it out for her & hold that money in escrow . . .meaning you give her the rest back & keep that so it's available to return to her. She may not go for that & you should have done the walk through with the landlord when she left but it still would have been your responsibility to pay the money back to her. plus she can argue that you two did more / different damage after she left & that is not her responsibility. You can be angry but you also have to be smart. Before you kiss her off, find out what she wants done with the stuff. Tell her you need some of the money for storage or to transmit the stuff back to her. Seems like the friendship is already over but you don't need to be dragged into small claims court. Yes that's true. My roommate spoke to her yesterday and told her about all the stuff she left and what she wants us to do with it. She denied she left anything at all and didn't seem to care about it. So I guess it will be donated when we move out. It is definitely over. She wouldn't be the type to take us to claims court. Just sucks it had to end this way but it really showed her true colors of what kind of friend she was when she was living with us and how she treated us afterwards. Link to post Share on other sites
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