VA - Walkthru 2 wks after vacate???

[phylkth]

VA - I rented the lower floor of a house for 5 yrs. When I gave my 60 day notice, I was sent a letter stating I needed to vacate 3 business days prior to end of lease........this meant 4 days I paid rent and could not occupy + it was not in my original lease. The question today: I vacated as requested in the letter which was 2 wks ago; yesterday I received a message to set up a time for the vacating walkthru. This disturbs me..........VLTA states the inspection must be made within 72 hrs of delivery of possession. I know the property was in tip-top shape when I left 2 wks ago but know this landlord clearly is not operating on a fair playing field. Please advise. Thanks.

First, why 60 days notice? Was this a lease requirement? It's not state law.

Second, I am not familiar with that state inspection law, please post the statute number so I may read it. If no one has lived there during that time, does it really matter? The place should look exactly as you left it.

The 3 business days early is common. LLs do this so they can use the time to prep the unit for the next tenant, so they have no down-time of lost rent. It doesn't look as though they used the time for prepping the unit though, so it was a useless request. If your lease stated an end date, you did not need to vacate early.

[phylkth]

Now it is July 29. I changed my mailing address to a po box. I received a call today from the LL office stating I had some mail there - shall they forward or would I like to pick up? The mail was postmarked 6/26 - 7/7. The PO not forwarding to the POB is one issue. However, my issue w/ the LL is why would she be going thru the mailbox of the newly rented property, extract my mail, and take back to her office and hold for 22 days???? Needless to say, most of it was very time sensitive + did she really return all of it? It has always been my understanding that mail is very "legal" and if delivered to the incorrect address or the party has moved, simply write on envelope for mail carrier to handle. Otherwise, I feel taking my mail and holding for such a lengthy period of time is basically stealing!

Just a side note, this is the LL who did not disclose to me upon entering the lease that I would be paying for the utilities in the basement shared with the upstairs tenant. I know.....I put up with that for 5 yrs and need to let that go. However, the new, young tenants have discovered they will be paying for those utilities and it wasn't disclosed to them either! SURPRISE!!!!!! How on earth do these kinds of LLs get stopped when you say that judges tend to side with LLs????
Well, now it is 1 month later......just received a deposit refund + interest - LL kept $400.00 of the $650.00 - all for general "cleaning".  Apparently, I am being charged a large sum for any dust that accumulated in the 2 wks before LL did walkthru.  The message left for me to call and schedule a time for walkthru was 6/10 - I was away from the office and didn't receive the call until the next day when the "walkthru was done".  By the way, I had a former Mollie Maid tour the house before I vacated - she did not see any problem.  Any thoughts?One more thing, on the day before I vacated (house completely empty), the LL said I did not have to vacate 3 biz days prior to the end of lease since not in the original contract.  Nothing like being a day late and $ short!!!!!  So, not only do I want the rest of my deposit back, I also would like to have the days I paid rent and didn't vacate because of her erroneous request!

I doubt you can get the three days of rent back. You knew that your lease said nothing about having to vacate early and could have pushed the matter at any time during the 5 years you lived there. Further, you had 60 days to bring this matter up to the lL and show them your lease which did not state that, and the LL DID tell you prior to vacating that you didn't need to be out until the last day. Yes, it was the day before, but still you were told prior to vacating. I doubt a judge would award you that time. You had the option to stay those last few days, or to use them to clean, or even just take your time to move.

The deposit deduction is another matter. A statement that says "general cleaning" is not specific enough. Statements are supposed to be specific enough for you to tell what was deducted and specifically why. You have no idea what was cleaned, how long it took, or why it needed to be cleaned. That charge is bogus. Send them a challenge letter disputing this charge. Send it by certified mail, keep a copy, and request that they contact you within 10 days. If they do not, file a claim in small claims court and get a statement from Molly Maids to show the unit was clean at move out. A deposit statement is supposed to be itemized. "General Cleaning" is not an itemization.