Old 07-12-2010, 02:00 PM
  # 1 (permalink)  
FarawayFromCars
Climbing hills, flying down...
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: By the Sea
Posts: 565
OT: taking a landlord to small claims court?

Had a frightening / bad encounter this AM with my former landlord. I went back for a box of stuff I had forgotten; when I get there, he’s in the apartment inspecting it. A little background—we left this apartment because it has a serious mold issue: mold growing on the walls, windows, and furniture. The problem was poorly insulated windows and mold in the walls (which was evidenced by the mold growing on the walls and the walls having a damp feel and a ‘buckled’ appearance in the winter). We complained numerous times and he said the windows could not be “fixed”. I have asthma, so I cannot be around things like black mold, so we moved out. Before we moved out we did a walk through with the landlord on everything that needs to be fixed, and he assured us that the mold was due to the windows and not our fault (I wish we had gotten it in writing).

Flashforward to this morning. I entered the apartment and he flatly tells me, “you guys didn’t clean the place at ALL. Just look at this mold; LOOK at it.” I said, “well, yes, that’s what we went over—there is mold in the walls of your building.” He replied, “NO NO NO. I just had my contractor look at the place and he says the mold is YOUR fault. You guys didn’t air the place out enough and you didn’t keep it clean.” I was flabbergasted and said, “well, NO, I think we went over that the mold is in the walls, and on the contrary, we cleaned for DAYS to get this place clean from top to bottom.” So then he actually started screaming at me; I am not exaggerating. He cornered me in the kitchen and went off. It was frightening. So I grabbed my box and said, “I just came to get my stuff, clearly you are not going to listen to me”, pushed past him, and left. He was still screaming and then slammed the door. I was shaking and crying and called my husband (who is at work today). It was such an upsetting experience (I’ve always sensed this guy was a macho / misogynist; he has “talked down’ to me in the past and treats his wife like crap, yelling at her, belittling her, etc., so in a way his reaction is not surprising—just frightening).

So—we want to understand what our options are in case we have to take this guy to small claims court to get our deposit back; my gut tells me that he’s going to try to keep it and blame us for the mold issue. I have pictures of the mold damage dating back for a couple of years—on the walls and furniture.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks….
FarawayFromCars is offline