Legionnaire gets litigious
That's the title for today's journal entry. In general I'm not much of a fan of the overly litigious nature of the American public, which seems to only be worsening. The notion of "jackpot justice" seems to be poorly conceived, as I believe that the role of the civil court system should be to address wrongs rather than to dispense rewards to those who point out those wrongs. That being said..... I'm suing my ex-landlord. I had complained about my ex-landlord a bunch of times a while ago, as they seemed hell bent on trying to screw over me and my roommates. In February they "lost" two out of the three checks that we mailed in for our rent (despite finding and cashing the third, which was in the same envelope as the other two.) One day after the rent was overdue we received a totally illegal eviction notice from them. A phone call to the landlord's bookkeeping department (incidentally the only word in the English language with three consecutive pairs of letters) got an abrasive accusation that we were "trying to defraud the landlord." We had paid every single rent early every month for almost two years. This did not endear me to the bookkeeper.
The same situation occurred at our last month in the apartment, whose rent we had prepaid when we initially signed the lease. This fact was conveniently forgotten by our landlord and they complained bitterly about our not having paid for the last month. After five separate phone calls I finally got someone in the office to take a look at the lease, which clearly stated "Landlord acknowledges that tenant has prepaid the first and last month's rent." That shut them up.
Now we're trying to get our security deposit back. The lease was up on May 30th, and as of today, August 18th, it has still not been returned. New york city tenant law requires that a landlord refund the deposit within a "reasonable time," defined by the NYC attorney general's office as "around 30 days." It's been almost 80. I've called them six times, written two letters and gone to the office to demand that they return it. While they have never said "No, we won't" I've been hung up on, left multiple messages that were never returned and ignored. My last letter threatened a lawsuit if they didn't not refund the deposit. Last Friday I was going to go to the courthouse and decided I would go to the office one more time to see if I could avoid litigation, which would be time consuming and annoying. I went to the office, where I had to wait for three hours before someone would talk to me. They assured me that I would have a check ready to pick up on Tuesday morning. Yesterday I called the office before going over there to make sure that the check was available. After being diverted to someone's voicemail three times, I finally got ahold of someone who told me that "I would have to wait until next week for Harriet [the owner's wife] to return and approve the check."
I lost it. I rarely lose it, but I lost it with her. I told her "this is bullshit, that's my money, you said it would be ready, I want it now." She replied that there was nothing she could do, that Harriet was out of town and had to approve refunding my deposit. I said "That's 'my money, give me back my money or I'll sue you." She said "you'll have to talk to Harriet about that." I screamed into the phone "Fuck Harriet. I'll talk to her in court."
So I guess my path has been decided. I'm not looking forward to dealing with the courts, but now I'm hoping to at least get some additional punitive damages from the landlord in addition to my full deposit. They manage literally dozens of buildings with hundreds of tenants, do they make them all go through this bullshit to get their own money back? Fucking landlords.
That's the title for today's journal entry. In general I'm not much of a fan of the overly litigious nature of the American public, which seems to only be worsening. The notion of "jackpot justice" seems to be poorly conceived, as I believe that the role of the civil court system should be to address wrongs rather than to dispense rewards to those who point out those wrongs. That being said..... I'm suing my ex-landlord. I had complained about my ex-landlord a bunch of times a while ago, as they seemed hell bent on trying to screw over me and my roommates. In February they "lost" two out of the three checks that we mailed in for our rent (despite finding and cashing the third, which was in the same envelope as the other two.) One day after the rent was overdue we received a totally illegal eviction notice from them. A phone call to the landlord's bookkeeping department (incidentally the only word in the English language with three consecutive pairs of letters) got an abrasive accusation that we were "trying to defraud the landlord." We had paid every single rent early every month for almost two years. This did not endear me to the bookkeeper.
The same situation occurred at our last month in the apartment, whose rent we had prepaid when we initially signed the lease. This fact was conveniently forgotten by our landlord and they complained bitterly about our not having paid for the last month. After five separate phone calls I finally got someone in the office to take a look at the lease, which clearly stated "Landlord acknowledges that tenant has prepaid the first and last month's rent." That shut them up.
Now we're trying to get our security deposit back. The lease was up on May 30th, and as of today, August 18th, it has still not been returned. New york city tenant law requires that a landlord refund the deposit within a "reasonable time," defined by the NYC attorney general's office as "around 30 days." It's been almost 80. I've called them six times, written two letters and gone to the office to demand that they return it. While they have never said "No, we won't" I've been hung up on, left multiple messages that were never returned and ignored. My last letter threatened a lawsuit if they didn't not refund the deposit. Last Friday I was going to go to the courthouse and decided I would go to the office one more time to see if I could avoid litigation, which would be time consuming and annoying. I went to the office, where I had to wait for three hours before someone would talk to me. They assured me that I would have a check ready to pick up on Tuesday morning. Yesterday I called the office before going over there to make sure that the check was available. After being diverted to someone's voicemail three times, I finally got ahold of someone who told me that "I would have to wait until next week for Harriet [the owner's wife] to return and approve the check."
I lost it. I rarely lose it, but I lost it with her. I told her "this is bullshit, that's my money, you said it would be ready, I want it now." She replied that there was nothing she could do, that Harriet was out of town and had to approve refunding my deposit. I said "That's 'my money, give me back my money or I'll sue you." She said "you'll have to talk to Harriet about that." I screamed into the phone "Fuck Harriet. I'll talk to her in court."
So I guess my path has been decided. I'm not looking forward to dealing with the courts, but now I'm hoping to at least get some additional punitive damages from the landlord in addition to my full deposit. They manage literally dozens of buildings with hundreds of tenants, do they make them all go through this bullshit to get their own money back? Fucking landlords.
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Sorry about the landlord troubles. I have been very very fortunate in NYC with my apartments and have never had a nasty landlord experience. But then again, I always rent from individuals and families, never rental companies. Good luck.
I was not around too much last week, due to my life taking off with me, and may not be around too much this week as well. But soon.