[US-CA] landlord charging bs move out fees, what can we do?
Hi, California renter here. My two roommates and I recently moved out of an apartment owned by a corporate landlord. There are a few things that we knew we were going to be charged for (namely, the carpet that my roommates dog destroyed and a cleaning fee) and we’re fine with that, but they’re also trying to charge us for replacing the toilets because they were “stained” and they’re charging us for our last months utility bills, which would be fine except the total is wayyyyyyyy more than we payed when we lived there, and we weren’t even living in the apartment the last week of our lease.
For the toilets, they’re arguing “heavy staining” but it’s really not? The toilets are both fully functional, they just don’t look brand new. Wouldn’t that be considered normal wear and tear?
And for the utilities, they’re saying that because they’re billed “in arrears” it’s correct but again we never paid that much when we were living there. For example, I can see on our itemized bill that we paid $70 for trash on April 1st (we pay rent and utilities on the 1st of the month, and then our lease was up on April 8th but we moved out and cut utilities on April 1st) and then on April 10th there’s a $100 charge for trash. Their argument is that it’s “in arrears” but did we not already pay that in April 1st? It’s the same with all the utilities billed through the property; we paid our normal rates on the 1st and then got charged again on the 10th at a higher rate.
We’ve tried speaking to the landlord and sending letters and emails but they keep doubling down and saying if we don’t pay by May 22nd they’ll send us to collections. I’m tempted to just let them send it to collections because this seems ridiculous? Am I just not understanding something?
Also, if it does go to collections, will that impact my ability to qualify for other apartments in the future?
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!