Mechanic's lien?

[Anonymous]

I think, and this is just pure supposition (with a teeny bit of experience tossed in), you're boned on the carpet (which is only $600 + change). Only because, since you didn't pay him a pet deposit which would have "covered" the costs of cleaning the carpets and whatnot, it's kinda over and beyond. If that makes sense?

That being said, unless your pet got the munchies and actually ATE the carpet, I don't see why it can't just be cleaned?? Carpet cleaners nowadays can even get out cat pee (gross) -- the house we just bought had cat pee smell and they took care of it so well, you'd NEVER know the previous owner had a pet at ALL. Cleaning our 3 bedroom home (carpets in all bedrooms and in the immense living room) only cost us $200, with "pet stain and odor" removal.

My big ish would be with the paint. $2K to paint even every wall in the house is just frigging ridiculous. And I'd LOVE to know what damage your pet supposedly did to the wall that necessitates $2K worth of work. Unless your pooch or kitty (or both) clawed or peed on every single fricking wall of the house, I'd tell'em to go pound sand.

I ain't touching the horrible, amazingly sad spelling on what's supposed to be a legally binding document. I mean, misspellings in a forum or in personal life is 100% diff than misspellings on legal doc (which is, by law, what he sent you regarding the damages).

I hate to say this and sound like a jerk, but I really don't see a judge taking him seriously. He really sounds as though he was totally unprepared in the area of being a landlord, had no idea of the costs of being a landlord and is trying to ping you for his lack of knowledge.

Demand pictures.

Demand a more thorough breakdown of the costs.

AND demand, demand, DEMAND competitive quotes for the supposed damages. He is NOT allowed to get only one quote per incident and leave it at that. He HAS to get at least THREE. Then YOU get to choose the one he needs to go with, AKA, the cheapest.

If he doesn't have at least 3 quotes, AND documented pics and descriptions of the damage (simply saying "your dog peed" ain't good enough), he'd never, EVER win in court. Unless you just didn't show up.

[Anonymous]

Write him a letter, CMRRR (sounds silly, but you DO want a paper trail) stating that you would like to meet and do a walk-through of the home so he can show you the repairs needed.

(Take a camera and take LOTS of pictures -- NEXT time, take pics BEFORE you move out!!)

Add that you would like to see additional quotes for the allegedly needed repairs. He CAN refuse, but if it goes to court, that's a BIG mark against him.

Tell him that you would like more descriptive quotes/breakdowns. Instead of just "Labor and Materials," you expect to see something along the lines of "Labor to remove pee stain on bedroom wall" (as an example).

Tell him that you would like to see better descriptions on HIS end of the damages. Like I said, simply saying "Your dog peed and there's damages" ain't good enough, It sure as hell won't stand up in a court of law.

[Anonymous]

Well now we run into an interestng situation as I did not recieve this letter until 26 days after vacating and all the repairs have been done. I am going to call the local fair housing board today as well as a lawyer friend and get some advice, but as far as I know at this point the only pictures that exist are a couple of the carpet he took 2 months before we moved out. As I stated to him, I know some of the damage is our fault and am more than willing to give up the $1500 deposit and not a penny more, even though from my calculations he should only be abel to charge us about $706 total based on the 6 years we lived there vs. average life expectancy of paint/carpet as decided by the courts in the State of California.

[Anonymous]

Well after a Long conversation with the Fair housing board and my lawyer friend, it turns out that we were correct as what we should legally owe him.  On top of that I have several other violation to add to the list now.  I'm not a mean person and feel, even though I don't legally owe it to him, it would be fair to let him keep my deposit.  After he receives this letter I am sending him, if he still wants to push the issue and take it to court, I have more than enough to wipe the floor with him an may be entitled to my full deposit back plus damages up to $7500.  I still haven't decided yet if I will include a paragraph calling him out on his ignorance regarding the mechanic's lien or not though.  I will keep this updated for any who are interested

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Well after a Long conversation with the Fair housing board and my lawyer friend, it turns out that we were correct as what we should legally owe him.  On top of that I have several other violation to add to the list now.  I'm not a mean person and feel, even though I don't legally owe it to him, it would be fair to let him keep my deposit.  After he receives this letter I am sending him, if he still wants to push the issue and take it to court, I have more than enough to wipe the floor with him an may be entitled to my full deposit back plus damages up to $7500.  I still haven't decided yet if I will include a paragraph calling him out on his ignorance regarding the mechanic's lien or not though.  I will keep this updated for any who are interested

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Well, honestly, a gajillion congrats on getting it sorted out!! LL/Tenant laws/situations are NEVER easy -- and you just managed to cut through the bull-poop that often takes severe wrangling in court to resolve!!

For the mechanic's lien (forgive me, I really did just giggle at that), you could say

"Please note, as (insert state legal code here) states, a mechanic's lien can only be levied against real property in situations where unpaid repairs were made on the real property in question. As no repairs were ever made on the domicile at (your address), no mechanic's lien can legally be filed against that property. To attempt to do so would be in violation of (restate the legal code). Further, only contractors and vendors can levy such liens and as a landlord, you lack the status, legal ability and grounds to do so."

If you just want to spank him verbally for the crap and stress he just put you through (and for not taking the time to proof read or spellcheck a legal document), you could just ask him how in the HECK he planned to levy a ML against YOUR property when the repairs were made on HIS property.

[Anonymous]

Here is my responce to him. It's a bit long winded, however I feel I must explain everything in depth to this clown.  I also included your statement regarding the Mechanic's lien, but that was after I scanned in these copies. Sorry for the qaulity, I had to scan them and post an image in order to be able to post.

[Mark_in_Pasadena]

You've handled this very well.  You've been more than fair and reasonable. 

When I first read your posts I was a little on the side of the landlord due to my knowledge of the damage that pets can do to floors, especially carpeting.  I've been to some foreclosed homes where pets had lived before and the stench of urine was so bad that there was no way I could ever see it being removed by any means other than replacement.

I wonder how many mechanic's lien's he's been issued on his property.  I'm sure it's many since it was at the tip of his tongue as something that he believed he could place on you...just amazingly ridiculous.

Well done, and please keep us updated!