Weeks before my lease ended and I asked my landlord for a walk through so we can fix anything she feels was damaged or dirty, which there wa...

Question

Weeks before my lease ended and I asked my landlord for a walk through so we can fix anything she feels was damaged or dirty, which there wasn't, but I still wanted to make sure. The three weekends following my moving she came down every Saturday to show the place for new tenants and I texted her every Friday asking her to do the walk through when she was finished. I was not in the house when she showed it off because I wanted to give her the time,but everytime I asked her when she was finished to call me she never did, and ended up leaving before we could walk through. Once I even headed home just to catch her in time and she already left saying she didn't have time (but my bathroom was painted) ? The day before I moved (Wednesday) I told her that I wanted to walk through the place when she came down, Friday, to show her all I have done, which was a deep cleaning, spit clean! I clean homes on the sides and I spent over 10 hours scrubbing along with 2 people... it was spotless. Anyway she quickly told me there is no reason for me to be there on Friday that my lease is up and she don't have time to do the walk through because she will be busy fixing up the place for new tenants that are moving in on Saturday. I told her it was my right as a tenant to inspect the place and go through the list with her and she said you had 365 days, one year lease, theres no need for me to be there just clean as it was when you moved in and it will be fine. Now, she is charging me for a broken sink, stove burner, CLEANING FEE $200!, stain on the rugs,(none) BULL! landscaping, and trash. WHat should I do? I asked her many time to go over the place and she refused and avoided me? If I take her to small claims court I can prove with many pictures and witnesses that I scrubbed that place and asked her for the walk through. Am I entitled to that?

Answer

The NJ law allows you to recover twice the amount of the security deposit that is wrongfully withheld plus attorney fees. The limit in Small Claims court is increased to $5,000 for this type of case.

I handle matters of this type. If I can be of further help to you, call or email.

See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm