Student Documents His Apartment Before Moving In, and the Photos Later Clear Him of Costly Damage
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If you ever rent an apartment, condo, house, office space, anything, take pictures. Maybe even take a video where you talk through any damage or imperfections you see. You need evidence of what the place looked like before you moved in and after you move out so that the landlord can’t claim that you’re responsible for damage that you didn’t actually do.
Landlords have a bad habit of trying to keep tenants’ security deposits when they move out, but the student in this story knew enough to take pictures. He also knew enough to refuse to pay the last month’s rent or sign a new lease.
Actually, for a first time renter, he did everything right. Thankfully, because otherwise this story would’ve ended quite differently.
Keep reading to find out all the drama that happens when he moves out.
I have to sign a year-long lease or leave my apartment? Okay. But don’t blame me when things go wrong.
About 10 yrs ago I rented a room in a student apartment along with my then best friend.
He was the first to sign on, so got the biggest room. The second was already claimed by a stranger, and I was stuck with a tiny shoebox adjacent to my best friend’s room, but also adjacent to the living room, where the one and only internet cable jack was.
A bargain was struck where my AV equipment would sit in the living room and anyone could use it, so long as they signed off when I got home and let me use my stuff, since I couldn’t fit a TV in my little shoebox.
There were a few, shall we say, imperfections.
During the walkthrough the superintendent noted that the previous tenants had punched a hole in the far corners of my walls about the size of a pop can so they could run ethernet cable through the walls of my room to get to the corner office (now my friend’s bedroom).
I didn’t care, and my friend and I agreed to leave it as-is, so we both had wired internet and would run wires from the jack in the main room rather than working wirelessly.
Another thing I noted was that the door handles to the rooms were on the wrong way – so the tongue of the latch had the curved side facing out into the hall, making it really easy to break into with a credit card.
Please note – I took pictures of the holes, doorknob and the room as soon as I saw it. I may have been a renting noob, but I knew at least a little.
Things changed.
So I signed my 12 month lease, and accordingly paid my first and last months’ rent as the security deposit. It was $400 a month for this little shoe box, but it was freedom.
Everything was okay for the first 4 months, aside from learning my friend was a slob and I’d be doing most of the cleaning, but I dealt with it.
Unfortunately, my friend eventually also got a girlfriend, and I’m sure you see where this is going – she moved in without actually moving in and things went bad fast.
The rotating tenant had also gotten caught doing some illegal stuff, and lastly my contract had ended, putting me out of a job. There were other prospects though, and I wasn’t quite ready to ask my parents if I could move back in for a bit.
Here’s some more context about the rotating tenant.
The landlord knew the rotating tenant had broken the law a couple times in the apartment, we’d complained, and they’d done fat diddly squat about it, despite actually having the legal right to evict this guy.
We were expecting he’d leave at the end of the year anyways, as he was a student, so we didn’t push too hard, but they knew what they had, and so long as he paid rent, they didn’t care what laws he broke in the building.
Now, where’s the malicious compliance? – I hear you ask.
Here’s some context about what happens when a lease ends.
Well, in Ontario a residential tenancy automatically renews on a month-to-month basis after the defined period (in my case, a year) ends, unless either the landlord or tenant gives a notice of termination.
A tenant must provide 60 days notice of intent to leave, and the landlord can kick you out only if you’ve violated specific guidelines, which I had not. Always paid on time, no complaints, and I’d caused no damage to my room they were aware of.
I had put up some pictures, but they’d not been by once to inspect in the time I’d been there.
Anyhow, instead of receiving a notice of termination, I received a demand about 70 days from the end of my lease from my landlord to sign a new year-long lease starting at the end of my current period.
But OP didn’t want to sign another lease.
When I told them I intended to continue month-to-month (as I may still be able to find a job and needed that extra flexibility), they told me I couldn’t, and that I needed to sign the new contract or they’d evict me.
I asked what grounds they thought they had to evict me, and they just repeated the threat – sign or get kicked out.
This went round and round for a few days, getting nowhere, until the girlfriend left the door unlocked to the apartment for the hundredth time and I came home to find two tweaked out strangers that no-one knew sitting on the couch playing on my consoles, and I decided I needed out.
So I said ok, I’m leaving at the end of my lease (within the 60 day warning period), and since they demanded first and last months’ rent as the security deposit, I indicated that they wouldn’t be receiving a rent payment for the final month.
OP knew it would be a bad idea to pay another month’s rent.
They complained a bit, claiming I needed to pay an extra month because there needed to be a security deposit.
And I just reminded them I could always stay on month-to-month, which they again refused.
This is the second bit of clarification maybe I need to make – aside from the fact that them trying to force me into a lease is illegal, I wasn’t paying that last months rent because I saw something coming a mile away.
Within a week my family helped me move back home, and the apartment sat empty for two weeks, until the final month of my lease started. I also took a picture of the room when I left, and wouldn’t you know it – electronically, it’s a match. (you can’t see the pinholes from my pictures, but that’s fine)
Here’s what OP saw coming.
I didn’t return the key immediately because I wanted to patch the pinholes from my wall hangings before handing it in, as I wanted no other trouble.
Well, shoot, the day I came back to do this, I found out that the rotating tenant had broken into my room and dumped all his stuff in there, and was using the room for storage. Had caused a load of damage to the doorframe breaking in and cut deep gouges in the drywall by pushing a spare metal bed frame along one wall.
It frankly looked like a crack-house.
Oh… no… the criminal we’d warned them about, and who had access to an easily broken-into room, had broken into this room and trashed it. Whoever could have seen this coming.
OP showed the superintendent the damage.
I brought the super upstairs, showed her what he’d done, and told her in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t cleaning his stuff out of my room and handed over the key.
If they had any issues with the state of the room, they were to harass him, not me. And yes – I do realize as an adult I could’ve charged him for breaking and entering, but this whole experience had soured so badly I was just ready to be done.
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About a week later I get an email from the apartment owners sending me a bill for damages. They wanted a flat $500 to re-paint, and – get this – patch the damage done by the guy who broke into my room, as well as the holes in the walls the previous tenants had left, trying to blame all of it on me.
Oh, they want pictures do they?
Needless to say I was livid, and emailed them back that the superintendent was well aware of the holes the previous tenants left, and that the damage to the room they were noting currently was due to the break-in, not any action of my own.
They responded they didn’t care, and get this – if I didn’t want to be on the hook for the holes for the ethernet cable, I should’ve taken pictures when I first moved in.
Cue me sending them the pictures of the holes that I took before moving in, and the backwards door latch, with a heads up that the rotating tenant would never have been able to break into my room as easily as he did if they’d put the doorknob on the right way round.
They also got the before and after pics of the room.
But the response included more than just pictures.
I also quoted the specific passages that indicated that I had offered to go to month-to-month leasing rather than leaving now, and that if they hadn’t tried to push me into a lease, I’d still be there, and the damage would’ve never happened as the rotating tenant left at the end of this period anyways.
I also told them that even if I had been responsible for the damage, I wouldn’t have paid anything unless they could provide receipts indicating the repairs actually cost $500. And that if they really thought they had a case against me, they could serve me. But that I was well-prepared to provide the judge every instance I’d logged over the year of them violating tenant law, starting with trying to bully me into signing a lease.
Never heard anything back.
I’m glad they left him alone after that. Clearly, the damage wasn’t his fault.
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Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.
Taking pictures is vital!
Here’s how it works in Ontario.
Another person in Ontario weighs in.
Yes, indeed, good for him!
He did everything right! He handled this situation better than most people would’ve especially considering he’s young, and it sounds like it was his first experience renting.
This was a good story to share because it goes to show just how important it is to take pictures before moving in and after moving out.
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