Landlord Goes After Tenant After Being Called Out

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  • 01
    Text - r/ProRevenge +JOIN u/cloudubious 1d S 1 just wanted my deposit back. So about 10 years ago, my wife (then girlfriend) and I decided to move in together. She was sick of living in a dorm and my lease was up, and we had a family friend that was looking for someone to move into a little granny flat under their house I say under because they lived on a steep hill where the flat was below the house with an entrance on the back side, so we had this incredible view out back, a pool (we'll get to
  • 02
    Text - Everything was great for a couple months. Then Mary and her wife started fighting. Screaming matches, stomping above us, throwing things, I didn't understand how people could be that mad at each other that often and still be together. T eventually sent them an email saying we were not comfortable with the fighting and we wanted to make sure they were ok, etc. They replied to that with, "you're lucky you have a place this nice." Mary began to scrutinize the yard and poolwork I was doing, t
  • 03
    Text - At that point, she went insane. Tried to do daily inspections of the granny flat, would call and email daily with chores around the property she'd insist we do, and would pound on her floor (our ceiling) every time she heard so much as a whisper. Daily inspections would require 24 hours notice (she never gave that). Then she tried to bring potential renters over to see the flat (we flat out told her to go away when that happened) with no notice. Finally, 2 weeks before move out, she had a
  • 04
    Text - The last couple days before moveout, Mary was out of town, and we were able to get it completely finished a day early. We'd even patched nail holes, painted, cleaned the carpet, my mom came and helped us get it ready for the next tenants. It was immaculate, and we took photos and video of everything. When Mary did the checkout with us, we said we weren't confortable being there without filming (legal to do), and she did a short walkthrough efire stating it was fine but that her copier was
  • 05
    Text - Two days later, we got that copy, with $1400 in damages claimed above our deposit, including a number of charges like, "my wife had to replace a screw in a cabinet, $1 for screw, $15 labor." I was livid. The place was spotless, my mother (a landlord who does all her own prep work in rentals) helped us, and we'd been very nonconfrontational except for filming the walkthrough. I had kept every email, text and letter from them, and started to put together a small claims case. I figured she w
  • 06
    Text - etc., in emails and she'd reply to them. Finally, I called the exterminator. The conversation went like this: "Hi, you sprayed in my flat without my permission because my landlord ordered it with no notice to me, with my cat inside, and used every chemical on your receipt." "We most certainly did not. Here's a copy of the work order, we only put out ant traps on the outside." "Oh, I'm sorry, thank you for your clarification."
  • 07
    Text - Armed with that last little piece, I countersued, asking for a Bad Faith penalty as well as our deposit. Bad Faith was 3x deposit, so I was asking for a total of 4x what we'd given Mary on move in. The big day came in court, I showed up early, had everything in order and ready, and she swaggers in huffed up and clearly ready to put me in my place. We sit outside the courtroom for about 20 min, until a courtroom worker asks the waiting room if anyone would be willing to go to mediation ins
  • 08
    Text - civil and answer any legal queations they could while staying neutral. Mary lays out her case, it takes about 4 min. The arbitrator looked very neutral still. Then I present my case, bringing up each violation, each lie, and end it with the work order from the exterminator, both copies. At this point the arbitrator looks visibly upset and I can tell they're just trying to stay neutral. Mary then asks them, "why is he asking for 4x the deposit?" The arbitrator then explains the bad faith p

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