Real Estate

Locked: former landlord threatening letter

  • Last Updated:
  • Jul 9th, 2021 9:11 pm
[OP]
Newbie
Mar 16, 2019
68 posts
9 upvotes

former landlord threatening letter

I wanted to move out earlier than two months. My landlord agreed that I could move out 30 days before as long as he kept the 2000 dollar deposit. What happened was I couldn’t find a mover at the exact date and moved out 5 days earlier. I also had a scheduled junk removal service at 2pm which would have carried out about 40 bags of junk. No food waste. Already deposed of that earlier. But what happened was the junk removal service was late and they were delayed until 6pm but because I was leaving the province, I had to get going. I also left a 4 month old treadmill, nest thermostat, nest protect units, 2 google wifi units. The rest of the place was clean but the master bedroom had a desk, power bars, dressers, needed dusting. I mistimed the move. How much could the landlord charge me if no damage to the property occurred. Thanks for any info.

The dude is a character and a half, he is demanding compensation. This is what he sent me:

I am advised by the Estate agents that I am already late and it is important to utilize weekend to start showing in order to secure lease for some time in August.
If you think your stuff is worthwhile, I still give you one day to have this arrange and remove by Thursday July 8, 2021 by someone you know and get the place cleaned as acceptable as it was given to you in the beginning of the lease.
In the contrary I will hire some cleaning company to have the garbage removed, to clean the place to an acceptable condition and you are obliged to compensate for my losses for
1.Garbage removal, labor and bin rental,
2.Cleaning the place;
3.Loss of future rent as I am not able to advertise and start showings for the property for rental so far
4.Mental distress and loss of time I have spent dealing all this unpleasant situations.
44 replies
[OP]
Newbie
Mar 16, 2019
68 posts
9 upvotes
If its worth anything, I have never been late with rent, paying on time or a few days before the due date for 2.5 years. One of the reasons which made me move was his demand that he get more money since the other side of the semi detached home was getting 2300 but he was only getting 2000. I advised him that the 2021 rate increase was 0%. He called me on Jan 2021 for a feb 2021 increase. At that point, I knew I had to leave ASAP since he was totally unpredictable.
Deal Addict
Nov 13, 2013
4367 posts
2966 upvotes
Ottawa
Are you now 8 days late cleaning out the unit?. So you agreed to move out by July 1? If so he does have a point. You should provide it clean and empty to be considered vacated. If it only needs dusting that's not dirty. Can you get someone to go and clear it out. The stuff is probably worth enough to be worthwhile paying someone or find a student who will go and take the stuff for free.

Can he charge you for mental anguish definitely not. His loss of rent is your biggest risk. Of course really it's almost hopeless for him as he needs to go through a lot of hoops to get a judgement against you.
[OP]
Newbie
Mar 16, 2019
68 posts
9 upvotes
We agreed to move out July 9th. . But I couldn't find a truck on that date, so I moved out July 5th, 2021. I gave back 35 days, I paid for June's rent and obviously he kept 2000 last months rent. if I was there(in the same city), I would have taken the stuff and sold it. Initially, he agreed to sell the stuff to cover the removal costs. His greed knows no bounds.
Deal Expert
Feb 29, 2008
19928 posts
18635 upvotes
Tarrana & The Ri…
So you leave a bunch of stuff back and the place is left uncleared and you blame the landlord?

Sounds like you’re trying to take advantage. Understand that your issues are not the landlord’s problem and vide versa.

What am I missing here?
[OP]
Newbie
Mar 16, 2019
68 posts
9 upvotes
I am not trying to take advantage. Take over 1000 dollars worth of nest products, resell and recover cleaning costs. I am out of province and can't come back now. Its easy, lets move on with our lives.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Nov 2, 2020
1438 posts
2075 upvotes
windowsormac wrote: If its worth anything, I have never been late with rent, paying on time or a few days before the due date for 2.5 years. One of the reasons which made me move was his demand that he get more money since the other side of the semi detached home was getting 2300 but he was only getting 2000. I advised him that the 2021 rate increase was 0%. He called me on Jan 2021 for a feb 2021 increase. At that point, I knew I had to leave ASAP since he was totally unpredictable.
I understand you were in a rush and needed to move but your lack of insight into your own actions needs addressing. I would suggest you reflect on this situation and see what you could have done differently. It is an opportunity for you to learn what not to do in the future. Firstly you were able to leave earlier and you chose to leave even earlier and you ended up leaving things behind. He’s actually giving you time to pick the stuff up. It’s not his job to dispose of it. Furthermore it really illustrates character. It sounds like you paid your rent on time, and from what you say no previous issues so why would you think this behaviour is acceptable? Would you treat anyone else like this in your life? If you were the landlord and needed to rent out a place and it was left with a previous tenants stuff how would you feel? You act like he’s a character and he has flaws. Reflect on yourself and don’t repeat this. You still have an opportunity to make this better. Get rid of the stuff and clean the place up. Leave it as it was given to you, that is what a person with good character does otherwise you are just being a jerk. Email him and tell him you will do it and apologize for the inconveniences caused.
Deal Addict
Nov 13, 2013
4367 posts
2966 upvotes
Ottawa
windowsormac wrote: I am not trying to take advantage. Take over 1000 dollars worth of nest products, resell and recover cleaning costs. I am out of province and can't come back now. Its easy, lets move on with our lives.
Do you know anybody in the old city? If it is only dusting and clearing out the stuff I am sure somebody would help. It's not his job to sell your stuff to pay for costs he is owed. I see your logic but you need to be less emotional. His acting irrationally doesn't mean you can do the same.

If you paid for July rent and he can rent for August he is out nothing so will have no claim except cleaning costs. Your other option is stop answering him. He might get a small claims court judgement especially if he trys for this higher rent and ends up empty also for August. You would get blamed for that. I left lots of nest items isn't going to mean anything to a judge. Most likely though he realizes it's pointless and goes away.
[OP]
Newbie
Mar 16, 2019
68 posts
9 upvotes
Because its in Bradford West Gwillimbury, its not so close to any of my relatives or friends. Look, I understand I made mistakes. But rent for is paid until august 10 is already paid! So he's gone too far with his antics, asking for an illegal increase in rent since the market went up. If he would settle on the disposal of the garage and return of the items, then I would do it. But he keeps asking for more and more. He's absolutely insane.
Deal Addict
Oct 13, 2014
2774 posts
2081 upvotes
Just Moved To Somewh…
windowsormac wrote: We agreed to move out July 9th. . But I couldn't find a truck on that date, so I moved out July 5th, 2021. I gave back 35 days, I paid for June's rent and obviously he kept 2000 last months rent. if I was there(in the same city), I would have taken the stuff and sold it. Initially, he agreed to sell the stuff to cover the removal costs. His greed knows no bounds.
Two things - What province are we talking about here, I will assume Ontario.
#2 - Please clarify, you paid June rent on time and he is using your $2000.00 deposit as payment for the month of July. If that is the case then the unit is still being rented by you until the end of July and he has no claim until after July 31st. That would give you lots of time to find someone to clean out the place.

EDIT - My questions answered in previous post, did not see as I was typing my response.
Last edited by rcmpvet on Jul 8th, 2021 8:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
#1 - “Don’t irritate old people. The older they get, the less “Life in prison” is a deterrent."
#2 - Are you a Sexual Intellect? /S - What you post in this thread may determine that.
Deal Addict
Nov 13, 2013
4367 posts
2966 upvotes
Ottawa
windowsormac wrote: Because its in Bradford West Gwillimbury, its not so close to any of my relatives or friends. Look, I understand I made mistakes. But rent for is paid until august 10 is already paid! So he's gone too far with his antics, asking for an illegal increase in rent since the market went up. If he would settle on the disposal of the garage and return of the items, then I would do it. But he keeps asking for more and more. He's absolutely insane.
Yes I know you are frustrated and feel like he is being unfair. But if these items are so valuable a friend should be willing to drive there to get them and sell. You expect him to do it so why not a friend?

You can easily ignore his illegal rent increase ask. Anyway that is in the past. Right now you have a choice. Solve it yourself and be done. Pay someone if you have to. Or live with the anxiety of him coming after you. There is no third choice: Make him agree to your side because people on RedFlag said he should. Because he keeps asking for more and more I would have someone take care of it. Pay someone you trust $200 to go up and do it. Sell the stuff and you should break even. After that tell him you consider the matter closed. You might also be able to hire a cleaning service and get them to ship the stuff to you for an extra free.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Nov 2, 2020
1438 posts
2075 upvotes
windowsormac wrote: Because its in Bradford West Gwillimbury, its not so close to any of my relatives or friends. Look, I understand I made mistakes. But rent for is paid until august 10 is already paid! So he's gone too far with his antics, asking for an illegal increase in rent since the market went up. If he would settle on the disposal of the garage and return of the items, then I would do it. But he keeps asking for more and more. He's absolutely insane.
. You didn’t specify how far you moved are you out of the province. If your in Ontario drive there and do it. I’m not sure what more he is asking of you. You have left him with your junk. You could easily pay a cleaning person basically he would let them in or if there is a smart lock they can get the code. Im guessing you need some of the stuff back but how were you planning to get that stuff or did you expect him to store it for you or ship it to you?
Deal Addict
User avatar
Nov 30, 2005
1884 posts
1459 upvotes
Ottawa, ON
OP send him back and email and apologize for the inconvenience and try to work out a deal. Most landlords are not trying to screw you over and from what you mentioned in this post alone, what he's asking you is pretty reasonable. Unless you left him bars of gold or something incredibly liquid, it's not worth his time to get into the buy/sell business.
Deal Fanatic
Jan 15, 2017
5433 posts
5627 upvotes
Ottawa
windowsormac wrote: Because its in Bradford West Gwillimbury, its not so close to any of my relatives or friends. Look, I understand I made mistakes. But rent for is paid until august 10 is already paid! So he's gone too far with his antics, asking for an illegal increase in rent since the market went up. If he would settle on the disposal of the garage and return of the items, then I would do it. But he keeps asking for more and more. He's absolutely insane.
I think your best solution at this point is to focus on the main situation at hand - that you did not leave the unit empty and in a condition that it could be easily rented. The rent increases and whatnot are in the past and do not have any weight in the current situation.

Surely you understand that with 40 bags of garbage and other household items that it will cost money to remove this items? You stated that you had arranged for a junk removal service but couldn't follow through with so you are aware of the magnitude of the costs of removing junk from the apartment. You also need to accept that as you have now abandoned these items for the landlord to take care of that the landlord is in a difficult situation. For instance, you may know what is in the 40 bags of refuse and that it is safe for a junk removal company to take - your landlord does not know what is in the bags. Any junk removal company that the landlord hires will want to know what is in the bags. So the removal of these items by the landlord is now a bigger issue than had you removed them.

If you cannot remove the items then it is fair for the landlord to expect you to pay reasonable costs that he incurred. He cannot settle at this point as he will need to actually have the items removed and the unit cleaned to determine costs. This will take time. I suggest that you request copies of all receipts for these costs so you can determine what is reasonable.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 3, 2011
6517 posts
3793 upvotes
Thornhill
Even if he were a despicable human being, it's not the landlord's job to clean out your mess!
He called me on Jan 2021 for a feb 2021 increase. At that point, I knew I had to leave ASAP since he was totally unpredictable.
So you hightailed it out of there because he had the audacity to ask for a rental increase above the guideline and that made him totally unpredictable? totally unpredictable to do what?

You had to hightail it out of there so quickly that you couldn't even pack away the small things underlined?

Your story isn't adding up sorry! I'm particularly struck by 40 bags of junk collected in 2.5 years - I suspect there's much more to your vamoosing out of there and all that junk.

The landlord needs to find you and sue you for his costs if you don't fix your own mess.
I also had a scheduled junk removal service at 2pm which would have carried out about 40 bags of junk. No food waste. Already deposed of that earlier. But what happened was the junk removal service was late and they were delayed until 6pm but because I was leaving the province, I had to get going. I also left a 4 month old treadmill, nest thermostat, nest protect units, 2 google wifi units. The rest of the place was clean but the master bedroom had a desk, power bars, dressers, needed dusting. I mistimed the move.
Newbie
Sep 5, 2019
40 posts
68 upvotes
I can’t believe this guy is describing leaving a treadmill in his unit like he did the landlord a favour.
Member
User avatar
Jan 7, 2019
368 posts
374 upvotes
I'm a little confused on the timing.

If you are using last months rent to pay for July, then technically it is still your unit and leaving your belongings there isn't a problem.

At this point, just call a garbage removal service and get it done. Your landlord sounds like a really pain in the rear but he does have a valid point...

Take a breather and call him and work out a solution. I'm sure his home isnt that in demand that he's already lined up multiple tenant offers...
Remember to always Thumbs Up good responses! Spread positively.
Sr. Member
May 2, 2010
677 posts
600 upvotes
GTA
Just reading the first line and you are a tenant so no matter what you are in the right so I wouldn't worry.
Jr. Member
May 24, 2017
151 posts
216 upvotes
40 bags of garbage sounds like a lot. Some people lead busy lives and don’t have the time to sell junk to recoup costs.

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