Rent Refund for Early Move-out at LL's Request?

It's worth a lot, so yes -- you should expect the prorated days refunded.

Technically, you probably should get a week back of rent. Why didn't you ask for it before you moved out?

Well, we did tell him that we would try to move early for him and that we wanted to talk about a rent refund but (as is typical with the guy) he never responded to that part of the conversation.
Then I told him in writing (albeit after we were gone) that I expected the refund.
First response he was rude about it and said he did not owe us.
I wrote him back and said that he did and we expected the refund.
No response.

Honestly,if I do hit him up again, and he again refuses, I think I'll mention several other monetary considerations that I will add to the bill since he is refusing to be a good guy about it - and take him to small claims court.

Thank you all for your comments!

Seems that if you have nothing in writing this might be a pointless exercise. Did he write back saying he didn't owe you? and if so what was his reasoning?

BrooklynNewbie: The point is to "get it all in writing" before, not after you moved out.

Sue in Ottawa, Ohio, Canada Small Claims Court.

fieldschester: Would think that even there in Ottawa,a Newbie can't show up with nothing in writing and expect
good results in Newbie's favor.

Pure genius! What would BrooklynNewbie do without you?

Apple pays 2.3% rents. But w67 gets 3%. Go figure.
Go team RE!

on the 67 condos you own?

Ottawa - he gave no reasoning. Just said no. When I wrote back he never bothered to reply.
I have had a couple more exchanged=s with him but he put me off because wife was in hospital.

I am on the fence between "move on for mental health' sake" and "want to press the issue for mental health' sake" if that makes sense.
What I am trying NOT to do is allow too much emotion in ("Grrr -that jerk oughtta pay me for the ruined comforter from the continual leaks/ Dr bills from mold-related infections/etc etc...!"
and remain focused on this one issue - getting this feedback really helps so much.

Thank you all.

FWIW, after the bad experience with that LL, I feel like I am not such a Brooklyn Newbie any more!
Perhaps a new name to reflect the trial by fire.
BackboneNewbiw?

I'd say that you need to very dispassionately consider what real proof you have of all you've told us. He said / she said isn't gonna make it in a court of law.

BrooklynNewbie, it would be worth clarifying if you view yourself as a NYer or a Canadian.
NY is an ever-changing city, and therefore NYers have new concerns every day about new issues in new places with new people, so dwelling on small past issues is rarely our style - it simply can't be.
Canadians on the other hand, their aggression is bounded by a 200 by 85 foot plexiglass oval and whether they zig zag, do a figure 8, or do loops around the edge, they are stuck reliving the same problems day after day.
So ask yourself BrooklynNewbie, is this issue so important that you are going to be stuck in it like a long Canadian winter, or are you going to act like a NYer and go take care of your wife, your family, your new apartment, etc.?

Do Canadians ask for advice after it's too late?

Why would a Canadian need advice? What would he do with it even if he got it on time?

NYC.
Did I say something that made you guys think I was Canadian or are you just making sport?

Oh -I get it - you are creatively asking whether I am a man or a mouse.

No, Canada has men too. Justin Bieber, etc.

Newbie, I am unclear why you would associate a Canadian with a mouse.

Others, you may have forgotten that two insidious attacks on American society in the last couple years have been bred in Canada. Careful, you don't know what might come next.

Newbie: He asked you to leave early. You agreed. He did not offer you anything to leave early. You did it out of your kindness. I would maybe try a certified letter laying out facts to make it ook serious, but in end you had no agreement that he would give you money to leave early. So out of luck.

Shoulda gotten something in writing BEFORE moving out. The time to make a deal was then, not now. At this point it is just he-said she-said. So you moved out early. Can you prove you did this at his request? Or was that agreement made verbally? Unless he specifically promised you (preferably in writing) a refund on the final week I don't see what recourse you really have here. He can just claim you moved out a few days early on your own accord. You blew it by moving before settling up to your satisfaction.

>>>("Grrr -that jerk oughtta pay me for the ruined comforter from the continual leaks/ Dr bills from mold-related infections/etc etc...!" <<<

By the way, unless you are joking here it sounds like you were a major PITA tenant (doc bills for mold-related infections--seriously??). If so, you will likely never hear back from this guy. Not trying to be mean here but for a couple hundred bucks it's probs really not worth continuing to pursue, even in small claims.

bramstar, you may be correct in this instance, but building-wide mold can wreck havoc on those who are allergic. Some mold is toxic, but I get extremely sick with even regular garden-variety household mold.

bramstar:
How true and that was my point. There's no written agreement between Newbie and that landlord, neither in the lease nor in a written agreement, pre move-out. Newbie could have told the landlord: "No,I'm not moving out of here until my lease is up." There was no agreement nor need to "hustle to move out a week early..."

Sorry, Newbie. You don't have a case and you can't use an appearance before a Small Claims Court Judge to suddenly air additional grievances.

trUth, if you read a little more and talk/type a LOT less, you'd see that OP never mentioned legal action of any sort, just appropriate follow-through from the landlord, and what should be expected.

In other words, you're yammering on about all kinds of crap but what was asked. As usual, trUth.

Newbie: ^^ The drunken comment posted by the se alkie should not be paid any attention.^^
He's drunk at 10:35pm and is here trolling for a fight.
I'm able to read your second comment, posted at the start of this discussion (1 day ago).
So is everybody else here, most recently: "bramstar" (5 hours ago).

^^^

It's quite obvious that OP discussed *threatening* LL with Small Claims -- not at all mentioning that he intends to follow through. Just TIT for tat.

Listen BKNB, if it's a material enough amount of money for you, if you are bored or want to be entertained by Night Court - and why not it was a good show, go and sue in Small Claims Court. I think you have a better case than others here think you do so long as you were *asked* to leave early - preferably in an email or otherwise with at least a smidge of evidence or you might document that it caused you harm to leave early such as in paying additional for the new place. I would be sure to show evidence that you paid for the few early days when you moved in as evidence of a reasonable expectation that your last month would be pro-rated given it was at the landlord's request.
Just don't throw in the kitchen sink. The judge or your arbitrator doesn't want to hear about your comforter or your mental health (if mental health were grounds to sue, some people here on streeteasy ...).
Seriously. But again, only if you are bored and this is entertaining and the amount if material enough.

>It's quite obvious that OP discussed *threatening* LL with Small Claims -- not at all mentioning that he intends to follow through. Just TIT for tat.

Oooh, a threat of small claims court. Perry Mason would be proud.

fiedschester:
What do you expect from an alkie, other than his drunken comments posted with no understanding that this discussion had been contributed to by various commenters making the same point as I did.
Newbie was "asked" not "forced".
Newbie wrote: "Honestly, if I do hit him up again, and he again refuses, I think I'll mention several other monetary considerations that I will add to the bill since he is refusing to be a good guy about it -
AND TAKE HIM TO SMALL CLAIMS COURT." (I added the caps.)

Newbie:"Your Honor: My former landlord refuses to be a good guy about it."
Small Claims Court: "Newbie: You did not have a written agreement with your landlord. If you moved-in a week early and paid him for that week -- you must have needed to move-in a week early. Your landlord did not force you to move-out a week early."

fieldschester: I left out the "l".

>If you moved-in a week early and paid him for that week -- you must have needed to move-in a week early. Your landlord did not force you to move-out a week early."

Speculation.

Why else pay to move-in a week early?
Why move-out a week early and then "expect" to be compensated by the landlord, without a written agreement before moving out?

Sorry Truth, I'm for the tenant on this one. The arrangement to move out was a short-term agreement, doesn't need to be in writing, and could quite sensibly be viewed within the parameters of a prior similar arrangement merely in the reverse entered into by these very two parties.

Judgment for the Plaintiff.

O.K.,Harvey. Whatever you say.

Clearly some people have never watched Judge Judy. Small claims court is a zoo, and many of you are talking about a level of proof that would be required for a much different legal venue. Does it help to have everything absolutely in order and in writing? Of course, but that hardly precludes general concepts of equity being applied by a small claims court.

Hmm, is Aboutready the same as Huntersburg?

No

Hmm, could have fooled me, you said nearly the same thing, only you did this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNCrMEOqHpc

You're obviously easily fooled. Or.just a fool.

Weak response AR.

No more or less than you warrant, hb.

Weak response AR.

Weak for the weak. You seem agitated, hb/gb/fc/hsf. Is the SE board not providing the necessary stimulation and self-gratification you need?

Well, you got me there, AR, you manage to both agitate me and stimulate me simultaneously.

Newbie: You've already moved out. You should have your new landlord write early move-out terms into your new lease. Unless you just like wasting your time in Small Claims Court fighting for five hundred dollars,
(Maybe it was a hundred more, or less.) every time you move in/out a week early.

Overruled.

I have not been back to this thread and am amazed/amused at the comments!
Who'da thunk this topic could be so much fun?

Anyway, we were not PitA tenants.
The kitchen sink stuff was venting, mostly.
The leaks were misrepresented from the git-go as "fixed" (there were plastered-over cracks in the ceiling of bedroom) . Turs out they were ongoing and had led to a mold problem which the guy would not deal with.
There were also several broken windows, one of which slammed down, broke my finger and made a fingernail fall off.
When he came in to look over the place toward the end of our time there he actually said he was not going to "spend one dime" on fixing the windows which were due to be replaced (2 years and counting, apparently).
I showed him several places the ceiling plaster was falling throughout the place - he said t always did that and he just stuck it back up there with glue.

There was plenty more like that the entire time we were there.
I decided to call HPD to find out what the deal was with filing maintenace complaints because I assumed the fcuker was going to be a dick about our deposit - turns out thy gave me a case number just from calling.
Two days later, unannounced an inspector showed up.

They issued the guy two complaints -of course he freaked out and begged us (in writing an verbally) to write a letter saying it had been a mistake in complaining and that he had made all repairs.

Which brings me back to the OP - this is why he wanted us to leave early - so he could get in there and make the needed repairs.

Part of why this became after the fact is that his wife became ill and was in ICU - I don't know if she died, but he said he didn't have time to deal with anything.

You know? Truth be told, I really want him to agree that I am in the right more than anything else.

Aboutready and I agreed, so go get the money (that is if you have sufficient time)

Thanks.

Newbie:
You don't need "to write a letter saying it had been a mistake in complaining and he had made all repairs."
The HPD will contact you to confirm that the repairs were completed.
The up side is that you are a renter and were able to move-out. You moved a week early but you weren't forced by your landlord. Your new lease should have an early-move-out agreement. You sign, your landlord signs.
Check the windows before you move-in.

And that's an order!

^^2:35pm on Halloween Thursday and the alkie troll is here, looking for a fight^^.

^

... just one caret, but really really big