Landlord altered a signed pet agreement

I paid a $250 pet deposit when I moved into my previous apartment (in WA state). I signed a pet agreement noting this and agreeing to pay a $25 a month pet fee, which I did.

When I gave my notice to leave earlier than the lease term, I noted on my letter how much of the deposit I expected to have returned, since I planned to (and did) comply with all the cleaning requirements laid out in the lease. However, the manager told me I was not entitled to ANY deposit return since I broke the lease. The lease did not agree with her, but she insisted I wouldn't get anything back.

Believing her, I reluctantly chose to deduct the deposit money I was owed from the extra month's rent I was required to pay for breaking the lease. After one notice from them to pay an amount that was not itemized and did not track with the lease requirements and utility costs, I wrote several letters to the manager and the property owners explaining why I did what I did and asking for itemization. There was no response.

After eight months, I started to receive letters from a collection agency. I wrote them and then called to follow up on my letter. What came up while I was talking to the agent was a discrepancy between what my signed lease (in my hand) read and what she had been sent read. The agreement has been changed to indicate that I am entitled only to $125 of the $250 deposit.

The collections agency has never encountered this situation. I am amazed at the gall of the manager to change a signed lease (it's the same writing as my first documents, filled out by that manager). Isn't this fraud? What is my recourse?

Was the pet money listed as a "deposit" or a "fee"? This does matter. Deposits are refundable, fees are not. Can you find this written into the lease or on the receipt?

Next, you are always entitled to an accounting of your deposit deductions. No one can make you forfeit a deposit. Unless there was a termination fee written into your lease for the ability to terminate early, they cannot subtract a flat amount out of the deposit without an itemization.

A termination fee allows you to break a lease with no further obligation. Without this, you are still obligated under the lease that you are breaking. Just moving out does not end your obligations under a lease. You are liable to pay the rent until the unit is re-rented, advertising fees, agent fees to find a new tenant, unpaid utilities if they will be liened against the owner, and any other unreimbursed monies the LL has to pay because of your lease break. You could be sued for these monies if you fail to pay them. These fees can all be legally deducted from your security deposit, but they should be itemized and accounted for in a statement sent to you within 14 days of vacating (in WA). If you left no forwarding address, usually it is mailed to your rental address. This is standard. (Some states' laws say the LL has no obligation to forward this to you if you left no forwarding address.)

Please explain "the extra month's rent I was required to pay". Was this the rent for the notice period? Was this a termination fee? I don't understand what this month's rent was. But you are not entitled to deduct anything from the security deposit yourself. That money cannot be touched until after you move out. And then, deductions can only be made by the LL. That money is there to provide security to him for your performance under the obligation of your lease. You didn't meet the obligations of your lease since you broke it by moving early. He can make deductions for that, you can't. Not allowed. If you fail to pay rent and tried to deduct it from the deposit, he could have filed for eviction against you for non-payment of rent. Never do this. You put yourself at risk when you do.

Now what should you do? First, call the clerk of courts for the jurisdiction of the rental. See if a judgment has been rendered against you. If so, you have big problems. That means a court ruled against you in your absence. You would have to get the judgment vacated. If no judgment is listed, ask if any eviction was filed. (You want to know what records they have on you.) Then send a certified, return receipt requested letter to the LL demanding your deposit back or an itemization of the deductions. Keep a copy of it and the postcard that comes back. If he fails to send an itemization, you will have to file against him in small claims court in the rental's jurisdiction. You could show the altered lease to the judge then.

I'll answer your questions before I better state my reason for writing to this forum.

The Pet Agreement reads thus:
"Resident agrees to the following:
"1. To pay additional rent in the amount of $25 per month;
"2. Resident shall deposit with Owner/Agent an additional security deposit of $250.00 which shall be held as security for the faithful performance of this Agreement;"

The Pet Agreement was altered in writing to read:
"2. Resident shall deposit with Owner/Agent an additional security deposit of $125 Dep. ($250.00)/125 (TUR) which shall be held as security or the faithful performance of this Agreement."

"$125 Dep." was written above the original "250.00," which was put into parentheses. The agent at the collection agency, from whom I received this altered agreement, interpreted this as stating that $125.00 of the $250.00 deposit was nonrefundable. The writing for the alterations looks distinctively similar to the manager's writing on my Rental Deposit Receipt.

The extra month's rent was the fee for early termination.
"LEASE BREAK ADDENDUM
"3. On or before the intended vacate and termination date, Resident(s) will pay Landlord a non-refundable lease break fee equivalent to 1 month's rent. Resident(s) acknowledge that this lease break fee is a reasonable estimate of landlord's losses in accord with RCW 59.18.310 in the event that Resident(s) break the lease."

The only accounting I received had this information:
"Accelerated Rent Charges 1,360.00
Lease break - Deposit Forfeit 100.00
Deposit Received (225.00)
Utility 69.22
Total account balance due 1,304.22"

However, my true deposits were $100.00 security and damage deposit and $250.00 for the pet deposit. I paid a nonrefundable application fee of $35.00 and a nonrefundable cleaning fee of $250.00.

I know that I was supposed to give them the entire extra month's rent as the termination fee, but since the manager had told me I wasn't entitled to ANY of my deposit because I broke the lease early, which was contradicted by my Lease Break Addendum; had shown bad faith before in telling me how much a rent increase would be for a 9-month rather than 12-month lease and then denying the conversation (on which I took notes and dated them); had told me that I would be responsible for all of the months left on my lease if I broke it early (this was when I could have moved to low-income housing a year before), which contradicted the Lease Break Addendum; and other, less consequential things, I believed I would never see my deposit money if I paid the entire amount and left it up to her for the refund. So I deducted the deposit.

There hasn't been a judgment against me; they turned my account over to collections. The amount stated as principle on the collections notice was $203.55. I received no accounting from the former landlords after the one notice I quoted above, and no response to my two letters to the management trying to resolve the matter last August.

When she discovered that my pet agreement had been altered from the one I had signed, the collections agent deducted $125.00 from the amount due, and she put in a request for an itemized accounting of my utility charges. After more than a month, she has not received it from the landlords/management.

I am more than willing to pay what I fairly owe; I need to be sure that it is what I truly owe.

But my greater concern is that a contract that I signed in January 2006 was altered sometime afterward and sent as documentation to the collections agency as valid. This infuriates me and confirms my distrust of the manager of my former apartment. This is what I want to take action about.

Thank you for your expertise and attention.