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June 19, 2004

Be the Bomb You Throw

When we moved out of the house in Berkeley, our landlady didn't return our pre-paid rent. She claimed that it was not her problem that we hadn't stayed in the house (this despite the fact that she'd moved things in to the house before we returned it to her, and in fact had come to the house and thrown some of our things out before we were done moving (I rescued them from the trash)).

We sent her a number of letters, explained the consequences of not returning the money to us, and yesterday, more than a year and a half since she was supposed to return the money to us, I filed suit in small claims court and had the San Francisco sheriff serve her with papers.

I hate having to sue somebody to get them to do what is right. But in this case, I don't feel so bad. This is the landlady who turned the house over to us with actual dirt piled up on the floor, claiming that it was our fault for wanting to move in on the lease date -- and was so terrific at ignoring our notices that the house needed fixing, who left us with a giant hole in the back door for months before we were able to badger her into fixing it. This is the landlady who said in the rental papers that she would provide gardening services, but failed to pay the gardeners so often that they came five times in the two years we lived there. This is the landlady who told us she was going to sell the house (prompting us to buy our own house) then changed her mind while we were in contract and instead boosted the rent by 25 percent. Then got angry when we gave notice because we would not be supporting her in the manner to which she had grown accustomed.

I could go on forever with her many faults.

Instead, I'm going to have my moment. We won't get everything she owes us, but we'll get our deposit and the damages we're entitled to (treble damages, under California Civil Code, and yes, I am going to demand all of that). It was a bit annoying to try to deal with government people on this (they seem to get really upset if you've never sued anybody before and therefore don't know what the forms are called, precisely, and refer to them by the title written on the top), but I walked out the door of the San Francisco Sheriff's office feeling a million times better.

Our court date is in August. We'll see what the nutcase pulls out to try to delay it or put it off. (And yes, I am willing to settle out of court, but only for the full amount I'm asking for in court, because of the extended delay and the avoidance tactics she's been using on us.)

Posted by ayse on 06/19/04 at 8:57 AM