急问一个deposit的问题

前不久上来问过一个房东扣deposit的问题，在这里：

http://bbs.wenxuecity.com/tzlc/375178.html

基本就是我们去年6月底退的租，房东11月返的deposit，扣了400多块的修理费，版上同学的意见很统一的都是这些repair是normal wear,不应该扣。我后来给房东写了个email说这些根据Texas law应该是normal wear and tear。然后他们长篇大论的回了一封email，一项项说为什么不是normal,然后根据lease "This is not normal wear and tear.  This was caused by negligence of the tenant and not by the Landlord." 这些细节就先不贴在这里了。

然后evil的来了，他们说现在要收最后一个月(11年6月)的late fee，一共$795。我LG在那里从05年到11年住了差不多6年，我是11年4月搬进去的，我们6月底搬走。房租平时都是银行自动转账的，最后一个月大概因为我LG改付房租的 payment period弄错了，迟了半个月。房东附上的email记录显示我LG 6月15号 email里说银行转账了。另外他们还说2008年有迟过waive掉了。我LG不记得什么原因了，他印象中都是设好自动转账的，其他时候应该没有迟过了。

我真是气的要命。请教大家我现在应该如何回复。我让我LG把lease找出来看，发现他其实就签了2005到2007两年的lease，貌似后面都是口头延的，没有重新签过lease。这样有什么影响吗？

如果和房东打官司的话，如果找律师，需要我们自己出庭吗？还是律师出庭就可以？或者跟法庭要求书面来回答辩行吗？因为我们现在不在美国。

谢谢大家！

”I believe I did make an error in calculating the refund of your deposit as I did not take into consideration the late fees due to the late payment of the June 2011 rental payment which was your last month of rental.  The prior instance that this occurred was in October 2008.  At that time the September 2008 and October 2008 payments were not received until October 09 2008.  I waived the late fees which would have resulted in 38 days for the late September 2008 payment and 8 days for the late October 2008 payment as a gesture of 'good will'.

As stated in attached email from you dated June 15,2011, the rent did not arrive in my account until 20 June.  This resulted in a 19 day late payment which calculates to be:  1 day * $75.00 = $75.00 + 18 days * $40.00 = $720.00 for a total of $795.00.  Please deposit this amount into my account within 10 business days.  The late fee was not waived and is currently an outstanding debt.  This should have been deducted from your deposit.

Lease Section 5 "Rent" A states: "... Tenant will pay the monthly rent on or before the first day of each month during this Lease.  Weekends and holidays do not delay or excuse Tenant's obligation to timely pay rent."

Lease Section 6 "Late Charges" states:  "If Tenant fails to timely pay any month's rent, Tenant will pay landlord an initial late charge of $75.00, plus additional late charges of $40.00 per day thereafter until rent is paid in full.  If Landlord receives the monthly rent by the 5th day of the month, Landlord will waive the late charges for that month.  Any waiver of late charges under this paragraph will not affect or diminish any other right or remedy Landlord may exercise for Tenant's failure to timey pay rent."

Lease Section 8 "Application of Funds" states:  "Landlord will apply all funds received from Tenant first to any non-rent obligations of Tenant including late charges, returned check charges, charge-backs for repairs, brokerage fees, and periodic utilities, then to rent."

According to the above Sections of your lease, the late fee is due and should have been taken into consideration.  This would have resulted in no refund.  Please send payment within 10 business days of your receipt of this email or this will be considered delinquent and subject to report to consumer reporting agencies.

所有跟帖： 

• 回复：急问一个deposit的问题 -滚雪球- ♀ (65 bytes) () 01/09/2012 postreply 12:17:32

• $40 per day, $75 for the late. -wooddiy- ♂ (0 bytes) () 01/09/2012 postreply 12:27:05

• Seems you need to learn the lesson. -wooddiy- ♂ (411 bytes) () 01/09/2012 postreply 12:30:45

• 回复：Seems you need to learn the lesson. -lvla- ♀ (155 bytes) () 01/09/2012 postreply 12:55:55

• no worry. -planotx- ♂ (0 bytes) () 01/09/2012 postreply 12:39:31

• they did not charge you the late fee at the time. No base for c -planotx- ♂ (315 bytes) () 01/09/2012 postreply 12:42:37

• 回复：they did not charge you the late fee at the time. No base fo -tiansan- ♀ (448 bytes) () 01/09/2012 postreply 12:52:22

• 回复：they did not charge you the late fee at the time. No base fo -lvla- ♀ (2296 bytes) () 01/09/2012 postreply 13:03:24

• I am not worried about the late fee. -planotx- ♂ (489 bytes) () 01/09/2012 postreply 14:15:24