It was originally my grandma’s kitchen table 25+ years ago and it’s sturdy enough that it’s stuck around with me. Plus the legs can be removed so it’s easy enough to transport.
Congratulations, it looks like a great apartment! I hope you and the kitty settle in quickly - he may be missing your other cat and not used to being completely alone.
I second the suggestion to haul the furniture to the curb. Anything I’ve done that with has also been snatched up pretty quickly.
But what does your landlord want copies of checks from 12 and 17 years ago??
She wants copies of the security deposit checks I wrote her. Not sure why unless she doesn’t know how much I paid her. I’ll get to it when I get to it - today I’m too exhausted from moving, so I’m going to go on my day off next week to finish cleaning and just take today to recharge before I have to go back to work tomorrow.
Ah okay, I hadn’t considered that might be what she’s trying to figure out!
Wow, that’s a lot more than I’ve ever done, the standard for moving out is “broom clean & vacant” IIRC.
Why don’t you expect to get the security deposit back? It’s not to cover normal wear and tear, it’s to cover actual damages that happened while you were in the apartment. For example, if the carpet is 17 years old and worn down and needs to be replaced before she can rent the apt again, that’s her cost, not yours. Same with painting the walls (assuming you didn’t leave a ton of graffiti or MAGA slogans on them).
If you don’t own it, you shouldn’t fill out the warranty card. That’s up to the new landlord.
It’s a treasure!
I… wasn’t the best housekeeper for the last few years. I kept the common areas I used clean, but I sorta let my room go to pot. The floor was in a bad state and it took me awhile to get it mopped clean, the windows needed a lot of work and I still have to get some duct tape residue off of them, and there are some stains on the walls that need to be scrubbed off. I’m not proud of it.
Now that I have a place that’s actually in my name, I intend on keeping it clean and tidy. The Roomba’s gonna go a long way towards that for sure.
The doorframe needs to be repaired and at least one of the window slats needs replacing, and I accidentally broke the lid of the toilet tank last week while deep-cleaning the bathroom. I assume that between those and whatever deep cleaning/renovation has to be done during the sale process will eat up the rest.
The management of my new place must have liked what they saw in my background check, though, because during the application process I was told my deposit here could be anywhere from $500-$1300, and they approved me for $500.
Status of feline-robot relations - Noctis was examining the Roomba while it was parked at its charging dock, tried to climb onto it, and pressed the power button, which started its cleaning cycle and spooked him into running and hiding behind my clothes hamper in the open closet.
Not too bad for a First Encounter. Coulda been worse.
Do you know about this subreddit that is all about cats on Roombas? Maybe show it to Noctis to prove that sometimes a Roomba can be fun.
r/catsonroombas
(I don’t know if you will be able to view this from here.)
Again, that’s not your concern. Landlords in general can’t withhold a security deposit due to normal wear & tear, even if you’ve been in a place 17 years. I mean, if you want to be nice to the owner, that’s up to you, but it seems from other posts in this thread like that security deposit would be very useful to get back.
Especially if the owner is selling the place. It’s quite possible the P&S doesn’t call for any deep cleaning/renovation (again, “broom clean & vacant” is the standard for selling a house), so she’s probably just handing over the keys & walking away.
Where I am a landlord, if I want to keep a deposit I have to give the tenant an itemized list of each deduction, and those must be my actual expenses, not just an amount I made up to cover it. So “Lowes receipt: toilet tank lid $68; handyman receipt: doorframe repair $350”, not “too dirty fee $500”.
If I don’t do that, and fail to return the full deposit within 30 days, then I can be forced to pay back triple the amount withheld.
If you feel that you (not just the passage of time) have left behind work that would require your full deposit to fix, then forfeiting your deposit without require every bureaucratic step is reasonable. Don’t do it just to be nice, though.
Anyway, my point is, there are probably rules, and your old landlord does not deserve a gift just because they can’t be bothered to follow them.
My parents and two of my siblings are or were landlords in a state where the same treble damages but their practice is to NEVER refund the security deposit. The itemized list of reasons is largely bogus. Wear and tear items on old apartments.
They have close to 100% loss late in court, but far less than 10% of tenants have the tenacity and organization (and recently immigration documentation) to take them to court. The times they have to pay treble damages are just cost of doing business.
If they were a big real estate company, they’d probably be in trouble. But being mom-and-pop landlords they seem to be able to fly under the radar.
I appreciate landlords who do the right thing. When I was thinking about investing in rental real estate, my mother and sister said that my “slavish adherence” to laws and rules would make me a “terrible landlord”. Including my unwillingness to play audit roulette with the IRS.
I knew someone who inherited a small apartment complex from parents some years back. When they looked over the financials including tax records, their eyebrows quirked 
. When they took the tax records to their accountant, said accountant blanched 
. I mean just blatant cheating. They straightened things out and sold it off, but were honestly shocked at just how much risk the one parent that did the books was willing to take for a few dollars more.
I sincerely hope that your parents and two siblings, and all other landlords of their ilk, face the same judge one too many times, who in an effort to dissuade them from this behavior decides a few nights in a cell for contempt of court might be the correct encouragement.
Unfortunately they are/were in counties with millions of people, so dozens of judges. My parents were well known to the tenants’ legal aid office. My brother refereed to that organization as The Looters Alliance.
The odd thing is that when my parents immigrated to the US, they benefited from having the most kind and considerate landlord, when they themselves knew nothing about how any of this worked. They had no credit, no references, and he took a chance on them. Later, they regarded him as a chump, of course.
With one property, I’ve only dealt with a handful of tenants in my career as a landlord. It is amazing how many of them, and prospective tenants, just assume that the security deposit is something that the landlord gets to keep.
I’ve explained to many that their old landlord has 30 days (up to 60, if specified in the lease) to return their deposit with an itemized list of the actual costs of any deductions. This is in the tenant handbook which I’m required to give them when they sign a lease, and I’m required to get a signed document stating they’ve received it.
These shady landlords cut directly into my profits. I end up paying more in taxes (such as a landlord license) to subsidize government enforcement efforts. They also are artificially keeping rents lower because they can make profit through illegal behavior, such as substandard units, and stealing deposits.
I have found in the last 24 hours that my sister in common law, a person so avaricious that she makes my brother, a Randian devotee of selfishness appear quite philanthropic, is on YouTube as an unwilling cast member in a court video as a greedy, evil landlord trying to take advantage of a young couple. Actually the footage seems to be on many “channels” that cover courtroom proceedings on Zoom or from video released by the court.
Update: Today was the first big test of how truly livable this apartment is, because we’ve been struck by a heat dome and it reached a high of 97 degrees today. In my old room, this would’ve been rough - both because that house was built in the '40s and had thick insulation designed for the kind of winters western Washington got before the globe warmed, and because it had a west-facing window through which the afternoon sun would just beat down relentlessly in the summertime. With my portable AC on full blast and the windows covered, it would still get into the high 70s by the time the sun started going down. Without AC - well, one year I had to evacuate to my mom’s for a couple of days because my room was still over 100 degrees at MIDNIGHT. This place also has a west-facing window and, though newly renovated, is an older building (1967, I believe), so I was concerned about it heating up.
I have a desk thermometer that tracks the 24-hour highs and lows. Before I left for work today, I closed the curtain and put the AC (which is one of those big built-in hotel-style models) on full blast. When I got home, I saw that the hottest it had been in the room all day was…
(drumroll)
… 63 degrees! That’s utterly amazing. If I’d stayed home I could’ve spent all day lounging around with a sweater on and not even known there was a heatwave happening.
I’m really liking the place so far. For one, it’s quiet. I haven’t been able to hear my neighbors AT ALL. I tried putting my music on fairly loud and stepping into the hallway, and as soon as I closed the door I couldn’t hear it at all, so I think they can’t hear me either. I feel like I’m safe in a bubble.
My Ikea furniture is being delivered tomorrow afternoon sometime before 3 PM. Once I get it, I’m finally gonna try the restaurant here and get on those $9 happy hour fish & chips. The coffee shop had its grand opening today - I didn’t have time to stop by before work, but it looks very well-appointed. Then I’ll spend the rest of the day playing grownup Lego and assembling my new furniture and getting it into position so I can finish unpacking. If I’m not too worn out after all of that, I’ll actually cook some food from scratch on/in the new oven, which thus far I’ve only used for boiling water and cooking frozen dinners.
Thursday I go back to the old place one last time to finish the cleanup I promised I’d do and drag the abandoned furniture out onto the lawn, after which point I will officially be fully Moved In.
They’ve now added eight wheelie bins for general recycleables, and replaced the all-purpose recycle bin with one specifically for cardboard. Definitely an improvement.
I got the August bill and the water/sewer/garbage fee is $3. Maybe that’s just because they don’t have any data on me yet. Maybe it’s just that freakishly cheap when they divide the cost across 200 tenancies. We shall see.
One thing I didn’t previously mention is that they’re giving me a month’s rent for free as a bonus for being an early lessee. I was originally planning to break up the concession over the term of the lease, but after going over my finances, I decided to apply the full amount to August’s rent and then put the money I was going to use for August’s rent towards paying off some of my smaller debts, which should cut my monthly expenses by about $300 and soften the blow to my bank account in the long run.
My commute to work is longer than it was before, but not too bad. On the way to work, I have to leave about 15 minutes earlier than I used to, but I can get on the bus on the street right outside the complex and ride it straight to work without having to transfer. On the way home, I have options - I can take one bus, transfer to another one, and then walk 15 minutes from that route’s closest stop to my place, or I can wait half an hour for a later bus and right that one all the way from work to home.
I keep thinking of housewares and things I need to buy that I’ve never needed before because I never had this much space to myself. I’m putting in another order for a few things when I get paid tomorrow - a dishrack, a second shower curtain, a butter dish, a dehumidifier, and a standing lamp (there’s overhead lighting but it’s not as bright as I’d like it to be).
Noctis is adjusting. It doesn’t seem like he’s hiding when he’s home alone anymore. Tonight I came home and found him sleeping in his carrier, and he’s currently lounging on top of one of the not-yet-unpacked boxes I’ve still got, which mostly comprise my clothes and books and knick-knacks. He’s discovered that the windowsill is large enough for him to sit on and I’ve managed to catch a few shots from outside of him staring out into the parking lot.
(Note to self: Clean the outside of the window.)