With a moral dilemma.

Our move went... all right.

We are having problems with our old landlords. If you recall, our moving out was rather sudden.

Without going into a lot of detail, the nitty-gritty of the situation is this:

We put down a deposit when we moved in.

Our landlady had some sort of episode after we had moved out, which involved a lot of yelling and cursing, in the driveway before she had even seen the inside of the house. The 'episode' was intense enough that our neighbors came over to tell us about it the next day, when we went to the old house to mop, vacuum, etc. I'm pretty sure she never intended to give our deposit back.

Later, her husband called us to report that the kitchen wasn't swept, there was trash in the yard, and the garage also needed to be swept out. We were also told that the city trash department had spilled some when they picked up the garbage, and we needed to come and pick it up, as well. (Interesting note here: not only were the garbage cans full when we moved in, we were told that trash pickup was included. Turns out that the account was in collections and we had to arrange for our own account to get the garbage picked up).

The garage has never been swept, even before we moved in, because it has been full of her furniture and an old TV. Supposedly they were going to come get their stuff, but they never did. We also left a few items of furniture in the house, that came with the house and were there when we moved in. Also upon move-in, there were two large trash piles in the yard. One we burned off at the beginning of spring, so we wouldn't get rodents and such. The other we left in the backyard, where it has always been. I did salvage some bricks from the junk pile to make a flower bed.

Now, the carpets in the house are dirty. They've been well used by 16 feet coming and going everyday. In our lease, there is a clause stating we would arrange to have the rugs professionally cleaned upon move out. (Didn't expect move out to be nine months after move in, but that's another story.)

I'm of two minds - tell them to arrange for the carpet cleaning themselves, and take it out of the deposit, which they won't be giving back anyway. (Mind you, they have not officially told us they won't refund the deposit. It's just a feeling I get... when a woman calls you up to tell you to come back and resweep the kitchen, since they need to show the house...)

Or, arrange for the professional carpet cleaning, fulfilling our obligation - no matter what their particular wrongs are for us.

I consider their keeping the full deposit to be theft. I want to just wash my hands of the whole thing. Telling them to clean their own carpets is, in my mind, one way to ameliorate the theft our deposit. On the other hand, we said we would clean the carpets when we signed the lease.

You know, one reason I like this blog is that it helps me clarify my thoughts. I think I'll tell them to get the carpets cleaned and take it out of the deposit. After all, it is our money that they are holding, so we will be paying for it. I'm done with that house.

Labels: Family Life, Mama Says