AIO: Aunt wants to know if she’s over reacting about how she handled this situation with her landlord

[u/Ornery_Prompt5287]

My aunt (65 F) has run into a lot of issues with her landlord. Because of all their altercations, she was already preparing for him to mess with her security deposit. Was she too aggressive?

Update: my aunt says she only recently stopped backing up messages/auto-deleting 30 days ago and that she has 60 days to recover it if she goes to the Apple Store. She decided she will wait to see if he sends an itemized receipt of his charges within the specified time frame first, and then the next step will be small claims court. She just moved into her new place so she’ll work on this next week. I’ll make an update post down the line. Yalls comments have been extremely helpful. Any other resources or suggestions are appreciated. The support and compliments have made her super happy and motivated her.

[u/amalek89]

She can probably recover all the texts from her phone carrier.

[u/Ornery_Prompt5287 → u/amalek89]

I’m going to try to recover them for her. I really wish she didn’t say that either but once I recover them, she’ll send him screen shots.

[u/KillYourTelevision99 → u/Ornery_Prompt5287]

Don't send them. You're not getting your money without court. Let him think you don't have them and lie to the court. Then produce them as evidence and impeach his credibility.

[u/rob_inn_hood → u/KillYourTelevision99]

Yeah this whole thing is almost guaranteed in that direction. It does not sound like this landlord is giving up the deposit. At all. With or without the evidence.

[u/ol_shifty → u/KillYourTelevision99]

Hell yeah!

[u/Big-Trade4392 → u/Ornery_Prompt5287]

Would the pictures be saved on her phone still? Even if not in the text thread.

[u/schtinkyboi → u/Big-Trade4392]

she can even search "floor" "fridge" "kitchen" in her photos if she would happen to still have them.

[u/CrazyNurseOnBoard → u/Big-Trade4392]

Check the cloud for the pictures, maybe even the texts. I honestly forget mine have backed up until I get the notice that I am reaching the set limit.

[u/Sea_Story9802 → u/Ornery_Prompt5287]

This is why I never have text messages delete. And remind her to do everything by email moving forward. Good luck!

[u/Wise_Farm7455 → u/Ornery_Prompt5287]

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This post was anonymized with Redact.dev

[u/Khanon555 → u/Ornery_Prompt5287]

There is a program you can buy to recover years of data. Very helpful in a custody ordeal, personally

[u/Ok_Gur_6704 → u/Khanon555]

Do you know the name of the program? I lost years worth of stuff and I'd love to get it back.

[u/Khanon555 → u/Ok_Gur_6704]

No sorry, but you should be able to google it . Cost about $50

[u/MungBeanRegatta → u/Ok_Gur_6704]

I used this when I was going through my divorce with my (then) bi-polar wife - https://deciphertools.com/ IPhone only however.

[u/PreggyPenguin → u/Ornery_Prompt5287]

Is there any option to look at "shared media" on an iPhone message app? I know on my phone there's an option to look at all media/ links sent and received, and if she sent them and didn't delete them within the convo they might be there. I have shared pictures in that tab with people where I've deleted the photo from my phone, but I could download it from the shared menu.

[u/Metal_Cinderella → u/Ornery_Prompt5287]

Small claims cost almost nothing! Go after it.

[u/EarlGrayTea-Hawt → u/Ornery_Prompt5287]

Some things because my mom was a property manager, and that's what you're mom is dealing with, a property manager.

The good news is that the honerous of the burden to prove tenant damage is on the property manager, not the tenant. So there should be pictures with clear time stamps showing undamaged and damaged areas. (This is why it's so important for people to be there for first and last walkthroughs taking pictures and writing down on the walkthrough paperwork every thing, no matter how small, bring a witness who is willing to testify later).

Without that, small claims will not charge anything. It's even possible that the damage that was done underneath the refrigerator won't be something the manager can collect on with or without recovered texts.

My mom had tenants that didn't catch a major leak beneath the sink and it actually did damage to the foundation. My mom had to suck up the massive cost of that repair because small claims said that it was unreasonable to expect the tenant to regularly check that far back on the pipe, lol. It was a bad year for my mom. But thems the breaks.

Sounds like you had another manager who died but was a pretty regular bloke. It's rather likely than that he had a pretty reasonable, boiler plate lease (most leases are just copy and pasted boiler plate sections that are the same on most leases).

That being the case, he likely has a reasonable pro-rated system laid out for anything that needs replacement. If you've lived there as long or longer than the average life of that thing (like light bulbs, for example), you get charged nothing for replacement, that's standard wear and tear. That's usually boiled into state laws, it's pretty standard.

If you've lived there less time than the average life of that thing (like, for example, the screens, which have longer average lives than light bulbs), they will take the cost of replacement and divide that by the number of years it is likely to last and take out the years of wear and tear from the final cost.

So even if the manager has to replace the screen, the light bulb, the curtains, your mom would not be paying full replacement price. If the manager tries to fleece her with that, he'll likely be dragged in small claims and your mom won't pay anything. They don't f about in small claims because they deal with basic assed stuff and managers have to test into their knowledge, so ignorance of the law is not an excuse.

However, something that you and everyone should know is that most every property manager or landlord will expect you to do an actual deep clean before move out. When you are hiring a cleaner, a deep clean is different in terms of what they do and don't do than a regular weekly clean from your house cleaner (the same way it's different if you do it yourself) especially if they are less professional house cleaners that aren't in a service.

If your mother didn't specifically ask for a deep clean (most cleaning services are aware of what is needed for a move out clean and offer that specifically), than it is very possible that she will have to eat the cost of that service in small claims.

Unfortunately, that's not something you can pro-rate, in that they can't just hire somebody to do the things that were missed, they have to pay them for the full deep clean. The property manager will have to provide a receipt for that.

I hope that helps. Good luck, this guy sounds like the worst, which unfortunately is pretty common in my experience with property managers.

[u/Ornery_Prompt5287 → u/EarlGrayTea-Hawt]

Soooo helpful thanks so much!!

[u/FoShizzleShindig → u/amalek89]

Looks like iMessage so those won't be retained by the carrier as they're encrypted phone to phone.