Location: Marion County, IN
My fiancé and I just moved out of an apartment whose management has given us hell for the last few months. Yesterday, I got hit with a $926 “final account” bill for damages I owe on top of my entire deposit, which they’re retaining. For reference, we arrived to pick up the keys to this place last July and couldn’t even move our stuff in because they hadn’t cleaned it or repainted it, and the unit was missing a front door. I was pretty reasonable about this and only asked for abatement of rent for the few days we couldn’t move in. When we got there a week or so later, it wasn’t in much better condition. I’ve got photos of wall paint and spray paint on the carpet, torn carpet, a busted landlord special lock plate on the door, broken drywall around the bathtub, among other things dated around when we moved in. I believe I documented most of this stuff on the move-in check sheet, but we didn’t expect to need to write down every cosmetic defect we saw. I also filmed a walkthrough before I left (originally to show where my property was missing from, I’m getting there) so I’m pretty confident most of these charges are bullshit. They want to charge me for drywall repair by the tub, the lock plate, a “drywall hole” (see next paragraph for why this is weird), and a bunch of carpet-related stuff. Specifically, they want $125 in carpet cleaning money even though the lease never required it and I shampooed it myself, and they’re charging >$500 for carpet replacement and sealing. They also listed cabinet damage under a sink, which I never noticed or caused to my knowledge. I don’t have photos of that one from move-in, but I doubt they do either.
Now, for the theft:
In May, a bullet fired from (supposedly) the yard of the property went through a few walls in my unit, and I have a police report for that. The complex management didn’t do anything tangible, just said there might be an increase in police monitoring on the grounds. The police didn’t investigate much at all either, since the complex doesn’t have cameras facing the part of the yard it came from. I told management about it right away, but had them hold off on drywall repair initially incase the police decided to look at it again.
Pretty soon after, we decided to move for our safety, so I chose to put in a maintenance request after we were finished moving our essentials into a new apartment so we could stop living at the this one (I don’t like having maintenance there when I’m not home but my pets are). They entered the unit, but instead of fixing anything, they threw out a big metal plant stand with a pretty expensive grow-light setup that I hadn’t moved yet. It took over a month of pestering them to investigate the obvious, but they finally admitted in writing that they threw it out, claiming it was an honest mistake and they thought I had abandoned it (still had two weeks on the lease). They first offered to ship me a $77 replacement, which I refused. Now they’d like to either ship me a replacement or credit $170 (the actual value of the item). Given the bill I received yesterday, I’m not responding to this right now.
I already asked them to send me their proof of damages so I can compare the defects theyre claiming with my photos of the unit at move-in. They said they’d send everything within 48 hours, and it’s been 24, so no harm no foul there. I got a phone appointment with a landlord/tenant attorney through a local legal aid service, but it’s not for 8 days and I’m not sure if I have a case here or what to do in the meantime. Sorry for the long-winded post, but I wanted to give context because this is all very new to me. I’m a medical student on a very tight, fixed, student loan-funded living allowance and I can’t really afford to pay bullshit damages or lawyer fees, so I’m looking for some clarity wherever I can find it.