paid for emergency expense - take out of rent?

I think it is ok from a moral POV, though there may be a clause in your lease that says otherwise.

However, its a poss-poor LL that would dispute this.

You ought to consult your own laywer.

paid for emergency expense - take out of rent?

Sure, if you like lawsuits and the blackball list that landlords keep. Is the $460 going to break you? Then be patient. You live in a small building, run by a small landlord. I cant imagine you won't get reimbursed, why make a federal case of it at this point?

im curious to answer as well... my contract with tenant read, tenant not responsible for "normal wear and tear of premises"

this happened to me and tenant 2 years ago and we decided to go 50/50 on bill considering nothing was wrong with lock when i last left it.. we both agreed since a) he was a good tenant and b) i knew i gave him a good deal on rent.. if antyhing we probly agreed to avoid any furhter awkwardness of the situation.. if i had to do it again i wouldve charged him 100%

ss400k
4 minutes ago
stop ignoring this person
report abuse im curious to answer as well... my contract with tenant read, tenant not responsible for "normal wear and tear of premises"

this happened to me and tenant 2 years ago and we decided to go 50/50 on bill considering nothing was wrong with lock when i last left it.. we both agreed since a) he was a good tenant and b) i knew i gave him a good deal on rent.. if antyhing we probly agreed to avoid any furhter awkwardness of the situation.. if i had to do it again i wouldve charged him 100%

4 comments

i don't think the tenant should have to actually pay for anything that goes wrong with the building. your lock you pay for it. I just think he should be patient about it.

My wife had a tenant who years ago after we replaced the pullman kitchen came home and smelled gas. Instead of contacting my wife she decided to check into a $200 a night hotel room and did not even give a chance for the situation to be checked by the Super or our contractor. There was no issue that leaving the window open for a little while longer would not have fixed. We wound up splitting the cost as she had been a tenant for a few years, however I was in favor of not reimbursing on the grounds that no notification was made.

You will always have issues if you take it out of rent. First they will not cash the check as it is not the correct amount and then they will hit you for late fees, which they would entitled to. You are better off sending the invoice and hope they cover you.

You're allowed access to your apartment, so the issue here is whether you jumped the gun by not waiting for a return call from PM, and either allowing him/her to correct the situation or possibly to send you a locksmith that they have a volume contract with ($460, seriously?)

I can't see your lease, and I don't know your property manager, so I can't assess those variables, but on the face of it, deducting the expense straight from rent instead of putting in a call to the landlord and then sending in the invoice does seem like an aggressive move.

I'd try to defuse the situation now, talk directly to the landlord and negotiate away from the lawyers and towards a 50/50 split.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

The landlord should have an emergency number/contact system. Your landlord is being a complete idiot, because this is the logical next step: next time the front door lock is broken, his tenant will break the door himself and not say a word. He'll then be on the hook to fix it, and bitch about his "bad" tenants, not ever realizing he created the monster. He has the good luck to have honest tenants, and he's ruining the relationship. Let it be a lesson to you: your landlord is a moron, it's only going down from here. I can't believe the advice you are getting is to pay 50% of the bill for the privilege of coming home.
That said, most LL will frown on deducting anything from the rent. Just call the office and ask them what they would rather do; chances are they'll want to see the bill and pay it on their own time. Make sure you write a time line just in case it ends in small claims court.

>jason10006
about 6 hours ago
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I think it is ok from a moral POV, though there may be a clause in your lease that says otherwise.
However, its a poss-poor LL that would dispute this.
You ought to consult your own laywer.

For $460 he's supposed to hire a lawyer? Let me guess, then get the lawyer to send a letter on the lawyer's letterhead.

I have had my lock die and I just ate the cost. If the fridge dies -- different story.

For 460 it is not worth the dispute -- you will pay for it in an increase next year. Offer 50/50; if not ok -- Pay it and move on. Then -- when renewal comes -- if the ask is above market -- push back. if you are a Pain in the A tenant -- they might jack you just to move forward with somebody else?

I presume you changes your lock when you moved in... any warranty?

I can't believe all the landlords on here telling people you should pay and "hope" to get reimbursesd. Get real! Brokers and landlords already have tenants by the balls. I wouldn't pay jack and I would continue to not pay jack until I had to move out or the landlord came to some agreement while his $460 gets eaten up in Small Claims.

update from dk09?

No and wrong. you may be entitled to the money, but taking it out of your rent is the issue. you cannot take it out of your rent. If you feel entitled, then ask for it. If they dont pay, file a small claims court claim (there are services that do it online for $20 plus around $25 to file) and you will easily prevail in small claims court if it is exactly what you said happened. No one, repeat no one, will think it is unreasonable of you to want to get in asap. it is unreasonable to expect you to sit around waiting for a return call. Do not get into a pissing match with the landlord. Landlords will resist this unless they are the rare breed of people with good childhoods. Ergo, ask once, then file claim. Simple. And be sure to add filing fees to the claim. By the way, if you sue them pro-se in state court (same thing but not online) you will likely get a call from one or several of the court shows like People's court. They will pay you around $1500 or so to be on their show. You can ask for more too.

but to reiterate, the issue is not whether you are owed the money, the issue is that your lease does not allow deducting from rent the way to solve such issues. the two are separate.

So Guywithcat, your solution is for him to appear 19 months later on The People's Cat?

Just deduct it from your rent. They won't sue you over $460. And if they do, they'd lose in court.

Guywithcat?

-You should have a super who should have been called. No property management company Ive ever heard of has a 24 hour call line. Most do have email though in this day and age. I get emergency emails form tenants ALL THE TIME, even though we do have supers with 24 hr responsibility, and most of them are far from emergencies. If they ONLY have a provided and telephone number and all are get is voiceless, I would say 1 hour would be a reasonable amount of time for you to wait before having a $500 job done.

-This May have been caused by negligence, may be caused by mis-use, may be caused by normal wear and tear. You will never know

-This is what locksmiths try to do ALL the time (Charge this much for 'emergency' repairs). You could have had then do it for MUCH less, as they do not have a 'cost' here, and there are 200+ locksmiths available. DO not expect the LL to pay the premium for "emergency' service.

-IF you deduct it from your rent, you will just not get it back from your security, not to mention have this balance until then, which will stick out every week when they go over who owes what. You do not want to be one of the people whose name sticks out at those meetings every week.

Your rent payment is a contractural obligation.

A broken lock is outside the realm of that agreed-upon contract. If you cannot wait for the landlord to take care of the issue, by all means take care of it yourself, then ask for reimbursement.

But one has nothing to do with the other, and the courts time and again have backed this up.