My question deals with landlord/tenant laws in Idaho. Last year, my
roommates' and I's lease was bought out from a property management
company by a single member of a very conservative church in our town.
We were never actually contacted by our original landlord about the
sale; one day, a guy just showed up at our house and told us to
address our rent checks to him from now on. (I'm not sure if this
pertains to my question or not).
Our new landlord agreed to take over our previous lease in full. As
part of our old lease, we had filled out a property condition report
upon move-in, detailing the damage existing prior to our occupation of
the property, in order to prevent any unfair deductions from our
security deposit. We also had paid our old landlord a $200
nonrefundable pet deposit for a cat, and a $600 security/cleaning
deposit, $140 of which was a non-refundable professional carpet
cleaning fee. All of this should have transferred over to our new
lease agreement.
Our lease was terminated by our new landlord July 31, 2004. It is my
understanding that under Idaho law, the landlord has exactly 21 days
to return the security deposit, minus the cost of any damages.
33 days from the termination of our lease, we received a letter from
our landlord stating that he could not return our security deposit
because his witness "everyone" says there is a "cat urine" smell in
the carpets (which is simply false). He also stated that he must
deduct the cost of a damaged window screen and some other items THAT
WERE LISTED AS DAMAGED in the initial condition report we filled out
when we moved in. He
also included a $50 "cleaning beyond reasonable" fee; however, we have
digital camera pictures detailing the immaculate condition of the
house dated the day that we left it, so this argument could not
possibly hold any water.
In his letter, he stated that "in the future, I recommend that you
take better care of your pets and prevent them from using the litter
box in the house." The $200 nonrefundable pet deposit we paid was for
1 inside cat, whom of course is going to use the litter box in the
house. Where else would he use the litter box?
My question is, how do we proceed from here? What legal steps should
we take in order to ensure that we receive the $460 of our original
deposit that we are owed? What considerations should we take when
drafting our letter to our landlord, and any other appropriate
agencies, such as the Idaho Attorney General? |
