I posted yesterday about my oversight in reading the lease, which said vacating notice must be “written and mailed.” I sent out vacating notice by email assuming it would be okay, but then got charged $2000 for the next month’s rent. Freaking out, I assumed I messed up royally and would have to just pay. I thought they must have actually wanted a paper in an envelope snail mailed from my apartment door to their office about 100 feet away.
Lots of people said to fight back yesterday. I was feeling hopeless about it. If the lease says X and I do Y, of course I’m guilty and should be held liable. But I’m a broke graduate and couldn’t easily afford $2k, so I called this AM.
Leasing office confirmed that an email notice is OKAY. But, the property manager who I emailed didn’t enter it into the system. She called me profusely apologizing. I had her email me a confirmation afterward for the paper trail. The charge was canceled and I am officially on the books to move out.
All set! Thanks everyone for the support. Learned a bit about property law and also the biggest lessons: 1) read the lease carefully, and 2) follow up if you don’t get a response.
TL;DR I didn’t FU, and I was able to resolve the problem.
Comments
Attack issues head on, never assume. Well done!!
Oh wow, I’ve been there, or at least close, once had a landlord insist on physical notice and we hashed it out over email.
It is a good lesson that communication solves so many problems. Silently fuming and getting consumed with worry doesn’t fix anything. Sometimes you just have to pick up the phone.
Win!
Glad you stood your ground wild how the real FU was them not logging your email. Always follow up and keep receipts
Glad to see a positive outcome for you!
It’s not as normal as it once was… but just talking to people, person to person, often gets the job done or a lot farther than any other method, I’ve come to realize.
Communication is key, in any relationship.
I emailed my leasing office and they said I needed to fill out a form online, which also happened to not let me send it unless I agreed to some conditions including agreeing to potential fees? I brought them notice on a piece of paper in person.
Awesome news! Glad you got it sorted and learned some lessons
So glad you were able to resolve it!
There’s an unfortunate dynamic I’ve noticed when it comes to dealing with industries that are known to be underhanded and unhelpful, like landlords, used car dealers, health insurance, etc. It goes something like this:
Tenant goes into the situation thinking they’re going to get screwed over -> Landlord asks for something unreasonable -> Tenant just assumes this is business as usual and doesn’t bother trying to push back.
In a different situation where there isn’t an expectation of bad behavior, we’d probably be more likely to push back. If you went to a restaurant and they accidentally overcharged you, you’d probably at least ask about it rather than assuming it was your mistake and you actually ordered something more expensive than you realized, right? But when it comes to transactions where we go in expecting to get swindled, we paradoxically tend to allow ourselves to be swindled more easily. Even in cases like this where there was no ill intent on the part of the landlord, just sloppiness.
The example I saw with a lot of friends, especially in our mid 20s when we were all inexperienced renters, was with security deposits. In the state where I was living at the time, there were actually very strict requirements for how security deposits could be used and a tight timeline to return them to the tenant after ending the lease. But so many people I knew would just assume they weren’t getting their deposit back, and therefore wouldn’t even bother trying to advocate for themselves.
I don’t want to sound like I’m blaming the victim here – it’s not fair that you should have to put up a fight just to avoid getting screwed over by a business, and the bad actors in the industry absolutely take advantage of the fact that the average person doesn’t know enough or just doesn’t have the time to push back. But it’s always worth at least one or two attempts to advocate for your interests, if you’re able to do so.
Woohoo! Yeah, emails can get missed, it happens. I’m glad they made it right. It’s a good lesson to follow up and it never hurts to ask.
A phone call worth 2000$, nice job OP
Glad you dodged that $2k bullet. Moral: leases are like cryptic puzzles, read every damn line and double-check the fine print. Also, always follow up, because assuming common sense in property management is a losing game.
A happy ending and I didn’t even pay extra!