Thanks to Tori Marlan and the Reader for “The Path of Lease Resistance” [March 14]. I can’t say I enjoyed the article because it stirred up feelings of discouragement and disgust recently brought on by certain property owners who take the term landLORD all too literally. Still, the rights and responsibilities that underlie the landlord-tenant relationship are very important–and very easily overlooked.
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Even after the inane and illegal treatment that I endured, I am resistant to the idea that tenants should assume landlords are out to get them. But I now know this: Being on amiable terms with your landlord is good; being on amiable terms and being aware of your rights and responsibilities is better; assuming you’ll never have a disagreement or waiting until you do to learn the law is stupid.
Making an effort to protect yourself will be well worth it in case the owners of the property you rent
tell you they will consider the security deposit to be the last month’s rent, then claim you owe them rent and threaten you with late charges beyond the legal limit,
refuse to pay you the interest on your security deposit (which, according to Section 5-12-080 (c) of the landlord-tenant ordinance, is legally due to you within 30 days of the end of each 12-month rental period) until after you move out, and then deduct charges for cleaning and repair that are unsubstantiated and thus illegal.
