Deposit Dilemma: I’m now $136 richer!

The end of August I moved out of my dream apartment to move closer to my new job and spend less money. My original move out date was August 25^th (a Saturday), but about a week and a half prior to this date the leasing office asked for a favor. Apparently the new tenet wanted to move in on the 25^th and wanted to see if I could move out earlier. I called my new complex to see if they could accommodate an earlier move in date and they said they could move me in on the 21^st (did I lose you yet??). Soooo, I told my original apartment complex I could move out of the 21^st which would allow them 4 days to clean and prepare for their new tenet. The assistant manager wrote down my new prorated rent amount and everything was good to go!

August 21^st around 4 p.m. I turned in my keys, filled out forwarding address information, and said sayonara to my dream apartment (and also saying adios to the higher monthly payments…).

2 weeks later as I’m finally getting settled into my new place I receive a Deposit Receipt that nicely outlines how my deposit ($250) was allocated. I looked all the way down to the bottom of the page and saw $0 as a reimbursement amount. I’m shaking my head as I skim through the details and stop where I see 4 days of short payment for August rent. Wait a minute! Did they not remember asking me to move out 4 days early??

The next morning I get on the phone with the apartment manager to remind her of their proposal to me. She says there is no record of such and that the assistant manager, who “allegedly” asked me to move early, is no longer with the company. Great! Not only do I have no written proof (shame on me!), but apparently the former manager didn’t write anything down in my file. To top it off, the new tenant didn’t move in early at all!

I can’t believe what I’m hearing as you can imagine. The leasing manager says she wants to do more research and get back with me. Cool- in my mind there’s not much I can argue being I neglected to get something in writing. Nevertheless, I wanted to see what they would come up with.

2 weeks go by…I hear nothing…

Finally, I call back and leave a message for the manager to return my call with an update.

2 more weeks go by…I hear nothing…

At this point I’m thinking even if nothing can be done for me, why haven’t I at least had an update/returned phone call???

So I looked up the complex management contact information online, found the email of the upper manager and sent her an email, cc’ing the manager of my complex. I explained the situation and ended stating I hope I could get this resolved as soon as possible. The message was sent around 7 p.m. last night. I received a phone call from the apartment manager (the one who wouldn’t return my calls) at 9:28 this morning!! After the apologies and confessing how incredibly busy she was, she ensured me that a check in the amount of $136 would go in the mail by the end of the week!

Did she think I would just let this go away??? Unfortunately I had to pull the big guns and email her boss, but you know what, sometimes you have to speak up in order to make things happen.

I’m now $136 richer which will go straight to my student loan debt…lol!