Need help on rental laws.. not sure where it goes

[cbear70]

I recently bought a house after renting a place for six years. My husband was a transfer from Pa to Ia...we needed a place quickly and this "nice old lady" came through.. all along we have paid our rent on time, when we had a problem and called she yelled at us to fix it ourselves.. so we stopped calling and when the paint chipped in the bathroom and kitchen we painted it white.. when the thermostat broke we installed a new one, when we wanted a dog we called and asked her permission, we mowed the lawn, weeded.. took great care of the place. The place is over 50 years old and in need of a great deal... the rug was old when we moved in, the place was very drafty and gas heat, the paint was chipping in all the windows, kitchen cabinets, the bathroom was literally falling apart and the basement flooded everytime it rained.

We told her we would be out by the 5th.We moved into our new house and on sunday night she called us and told us we had to be out by monday morning leaving us virtually no time to get anything done. We were there until midnight cleaning the place up, scrubbing the kitchen and bathroom etc.

She called us yelling because I did not clean out the chips of paint from the windows, she claims we never talked to her about the dog, she was pissed we painted and get this.. extremely mad we chose to cover the windows with plastic because "the house was never drafty when I lived there" which was over twenty years ago. She was also pissed the carpet had no padding but the carpet was old when we moved in.

She is refusing to give us back our security deposit. Between her and her nephew I swear they are running a scam. The things they are saying are ludicrous.. my husband and I have been renters for over 15 years and have never had a problem before. I don't know what to do. Do I have any recourse. There is no lease which sucks so I am not sure if I have any action I can even take.

I have this to say. I am very proud that we bought a house and don't have to worry about this shit again. I realize it took us awhile but paying off debt was first and working our way back up the ladder is what kept us renters.. I still can't believe she is doing this.

Thanks for any help you can provide.. I really need some advice.

[Blue Gardener]

1. Contact your local city hall

Ask them what the regulations are in your town. I don't think they're the same everywhere. Are you in a college town? These issues come up all the time in the Iowa City area.

[Debi]

2. Why not call around for attorneys in your area

There is usually a free consultation or a small fee consultation and they would know your rights and remedies. :shrug:

[Broke Dad]

3. Iowa has the Uniform Landlord-Tenant law

Look up Iowa Chapter 562A on the Iowa Legislature website. Section 562A.12 deals specifically with deposits and return of deposits to tenants.

How much was the deposit? One strongly worded letter from a lawyer may do it. Or simply take her to small claims (for a $25 filing fee) and if she did not comply with 562A.12, the magistrate judge will likely rule in your favor.

I am a lawyer, but this is not a solicitation of your case.

Good luck!

[Debi]

4. I am not a lawyer...but I think the filing fee for small claims is $50.00

w/an additional $15-25.00 for service of the papers by the Sheriff. (At least here in Black Hawk, maybe the fee is different in different counties? :shrug:)

[haroldgiowa]

5. Threaten to take to small claims

A year ago we had the same problem with a landlord. Again we had not signed a lease, so nothing was spelled out. We threaten to take her to small claims requesting full deposit plus any expenses. We received our deposit back in full.

[cbear70]

6. Update

We followed the law exactly and wrote the letter explained in the iowa tenants section.. we received a letter from her attorney explaining that we were not getting a dime back. What sucks is that she has pictures from the previous tenants damage and is using that on us. I am so pissed right now but according to the tenants association we can do nothing. We can't prove what she is saying is a lie... we have a lawyer calling us tomorrow but this truly sucks.

She is charging us for drapery cleaning, new carpet, new kitchen tiles and cleaning which she says took 40 hours.. there is no way. We are good people and telling the truth doesn't always work out in your favor. She is filling this lawyer with lies and she will probably win. We heard that Iowa favors landlords over tenants..There was no damage to the carpet, the kitchen tile had a gash six years ago from the previous tenants and we didn't smoke. She is accusing us of locking our dog in the basement and destroying the doors but we have a lab.. she is kennel trained and has never spent five minutes in a basement, the previous owners did that... but we have no proof.

This sucks.