Claimant says: "I occupied the refurbished 2-bedroom unit of Lynnewood Gardens at 1949-B, W.Cheltenham Avenue on 31 December, 2012. Later, I was advised by former residents and members of the local community that Lynnewood Apartments management does not refund most or all of the one-month???s deposit on occupation, using false, unjustified, or spurious reasons. On January 31, 2014 I vacated my 2-bedroom apartment after taking a week to thoroughly clean the apartment, its equipment and appurtenances, walls, and carpets. I also steam-cle”
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Claimant says: "I occupied the refurbished 2-bedroom unit of Lynnewood Gardens at 1949-B, W.Cheltenham Avenue on 31 December, 2012. Later, I was advised by former residents and members of the local community that Lynnewood Apartments management does not refund most or all of the one-month???s deposit on occupation, using false, unjustified, or spurious reasons. On January 31, 2014 I vacated my 2-bedroom apartment after taking a week to thoroughly clean the apartment, its equipment and appurtenances, walls, and carpets. I also steam-cleaned the 13-month-old light beige carpet, which was clean and well-maintained, except for a few light blue and brown spots near the edges of carpeting, covering about 1 square foot in each of three carpeted areas. I assumed this would be considered as ???normal wear.??? (Please see the attached explanatory booklet with details issued by the Office of Landlord-Tenant Affairs of Montgomery County: http://montgomerycountymd.gov/DHCA/housing/landlordtenant). Lynnewood Gardens did not conduct the customary joint inspection of the apartment on January 31, 2014 as required by law, even after due email notification by me.
Lynnewood Management charged me $700 for ???replacing??? the whole carpeting of over 800 square feet. When I protested and requested a refund of $600 (allowing for $100 to clean or replace specific carpet sections for the few spots described above), they refused, stating, ???We are sticking to our position??? (Email from Yitz Moller of Lynnewood Gardens management, dated 05/01/2014).
A charge of $49.44 was made for electricity by emails on January 29 & February 2, 2014, which I paid in full on February 3, 2014. Despite this, a spurious charge towards electricity of $30.31 was deducted from my deposit of $935, in addition to a deduction of $700 for ???new carpeting???. Thus, $730.31 was deducted from my deposit of $935, and a check for the remaining amount of $204.69 was sent to me. The deduction of $730.31 was made in a high-handed manner by Lynnewood Gardens management, without awaiting my request for clarification. Through email correspondence, Yitz Moller from Lynnewood Gardens management stated: ???The carpets are clearly damaged beyond repair while you were scrubbing them and some stains remain.??? He even threatened to hire a lawyer. Instead of repairing the three small areas with stains as above, the whole carpeting was replaced for the marketing convenience of Lynnewood Gardens [The apartment remained unoccupied until June 1, 2014]!
It is noteworthy that new carpets were laid in our apartment just before our occupying it around December 31, 2012. The leasing office advised us that such new carpeting is renewed only after several years of usage by tenants. We also understand from enquiry with other apartment complexes in the Montgomery district that carpets are rarely replaced in apartments before at least 5 years of usage by tenants. I requested an inspection of the new carpeting on April 28, 2014, and found that the whole apartment was re-carpeted with a darker shade to promote marketing of the apartment at my expense.
In view of the above facts in detail, I request that Lynnewood Gardens pay me the amount withheld for unnecessary apartment-wide new carpeting $600 ($700 - $100) + $30.31 (electricity) = $630.31.*” ...Show less »