Layout:
Home > Its nice to be connected at just the right time

Its nice to be connected at just the right time

August 5th, 2009 at 10:48 am

With all thats going on, its nice to be taking a negotiation class during all this stuff with the old tenants going on. My professor is a department head for the university & specializes in negotiation/mediation and consults people in a variety of situations. I definitely thought his insight would be valuable given his experience. In fact, when I initially approached him he told me the best way to approach the situation is make the tenant aware that I'm not trying to take advantage of them.

I told him about the situation the first night of class, and updated him last night. Told him that we didn't include estimates for everything we listed in the first letter (cleaning, curtain rods, and damaged 4 y/o laminate flooring) because we knew it would go over the security deposit by a substantial amount & the tenants were fighting us over $365.

My plan was to write a response letter, include a CD with digital images of all the damages, a copy of their move-in inspection that THEY wrote the stove was in good condition, receipts of when I bought the stove to prove it was only 7 months old at the time of move in, a copy of the additional estimates for the flooring, curtain rods, and cleaning (they didn't clean before they left & that is another thing they were supposed to do according to the contract), and another highlighted section of the contract stating that furniture is not allowed to damage flooring. Their lease agreement is 5-6 pages long detailing all of this and they signed.

The total for ALL estimates would total about $1200 above their security deposit. We only provided estimates for the appliances, wood damage, and siding. And of all things they are disputing the stove.

We were only asking $365 above their security deposit. The JAG Lawyer I consulted said they should look at it as a gift given the damage they caused.

But stating in the letter that if they'll accept the $365, we'll call it done. If not & we have to take it to small claims court, we will pursue ALL damage estimates and associated court fees.

He said that obviously I wasn't feeling good just leaving the deposit as is when I knowingly could seek more & I felt I was being reasonable in the first letter.

My hope is that after sending the letter with the damages, they'll come to their senses that $365 to avoid a small claims suit of $1200 makes better sense. It would probably just be better for me to file a suit, but I don't want that.

He did say that aside from all this, in future contracts I may want to write in that in the event of a dispute we will seek arbitration/mediation resources prior to court. I thought that was a pretty good idea.

0 Responses to “Its nice to be connected at just the right time”

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]