So I was in Virginia last weekend because we had a court date with our previous Virginia landlord. We did almost $6,000 worth of improvements to her house and she’s trying to squeeze another $4,000 out of us. Our argument was that we complied with everything in the lease, she didn’t contact us within the required amount of time (30 days after lease termination), so we’re entitled to our security deposit back. Her argument was that we were perfect tenants for 34 months and then trashed her house in the last 6 weeks out of spite.

Like a good movie, the trial had some very good lines…her attorney called Debbie to the stand and asked her, ‘Did you have a phone while you were living in the house?’ followed by, ‘and did the phone work?’. That was all. My favorite line though was this, after admitting that the lease had a 30 day contact or refund clause, and admitting that his client took at least 32 days to contact us, her attorney said…and I quote…wait for it…’Well within the legal limit!’ Not once, not twice, but three times he iterated that taking over 30 days to respond to a lease with a 30 day clause in it was ‘completely within the boundaries of the law!’ I honestly don’t believe that I was capable of keeping the shock off of my face. It was just amazing. My other favorite part was when they called their ‘expert witness’; a man who has been in the real estate business for 8 years, a man who has completely remodeled 13 houses, a man who, they claimed, would substantiate the horrors we visited upon our landlords house. Oh, I almost forgot, a man who is married to my landlord and might possibly have a vested interest in my landlord winning her case!

So, the judge gave us the judgment (full refund of our deposit minus the homeowners association dues that were owed). Woohoo, we win, right? Wrong, she’s now going to appeal the case potentially costing us thousands of dollars in legal fees, that we can’t recoup, to get back $1600 from her. So, hurray for us, we won but we’re still going to lose (not the appeal, just the money)…

I have to give kudos to the judge also; she was wonderful. After the landlords attorney made a point of showing the ‘reasonable attorney’s fees’ clause in the lease agreement (apparently, that was well within the law as well) and the judge made her pronouncement; he asked about the fees. She said he could submit a bill for reasonable fees for the award they won ($430 for the HOA dues). He submitted a bill for $3,000 to the court and the judge awarded him $250.

I’ve promised myself that I’m not going to publish the landlords’ name, at least until the cases are cleared up and out of the court system however, if you’re planning on buying a house in the Northern Virginia area, especially around Lorton, please call me first and I’ll give you the name of an ethical agent you can trust…Also, if you need an attorney in the Northern Virginia area, I’ll be more than happy to refer you to ours. He was great and understood the law (and more importantly the case) better than I ever would have believed.