I received a letter from Gary today that had originally been sent to my father’s house in Indiana and forwarded to me here, so it’s actually from August 3rd.  It is an official invoice from Gary stipulating that I owe him $3.27.  I’ll try to scan in the actual letters, but can at least give a summary now:

Cover Letter:

Dear Mr. Dunn,

Per your request, I am mail (sic.) your deposit to the above address.

I am writing this note to document that your final invoice is enclosed.

Please mail your check, ASAP.

Invoice:

2 Days UNPAID July Rent               $33.34

14 Days (no notice*) July Rent        $233.38

June Utilities                                    $81.90

July Utilities                                     $85.10

Vacuum room & remove trash        $35.00

Clean tub, toilet, etc.                       $35.00

* Amazingly, Gary is in fact claiming that I moved out without giving him the two weeks notice we had agreed upon.

This letter is a true blessing in disguise.  For the past few weeks I have been a little troubled by Gary’s unwavering confidence and thought he might have come up with some truly clever defense strategy.  Luckily, this is not the case.

Email Follow-Up:

Dear Gary,

I just received your invoice regarding my security deposit.  You didn’t actually pay someone $70 to vacuum the room, take out the trash and clean the bathroom, did you?  You may have gotten ripped off.  In any event, for each of these kind of items, I believe you are supposed to supply a receipt.  A copy of the utilities bill would also be nice.  As for the moving out “without notice,” I am hoping that the signed and dated letters you left me on the morning of July 4th saying I was evicted, along with the police report from the night you got arrested (the July 3rd time) that attests to you telling me to “pack my shit up and get out” will go a long way in court.  I’m not sure it’s reasonable to expect tenants to give you two weeks notice of you drunkenly threatening and evicting them.  It will certainly be interesting to see which side a judge will be more sympathetic to.

All the best,
Gabe

Before anyone else points it out, landlords can only deduct from the security deposits damages that wouldn’t be considered normal wear and tear.  Hence the vacuuming, taking out trash, etc. probably won’t get him very far, but I would prefer he finds this out in court.