Ethics vs. Entitlement
2009-05-28 08:32:17
Ethics vs. EntitlementMany of us remember the days of renting an apartment, townhouse or home and the monies that were required. For some of us we had to pay an extra deposit for our "fur kids" along with the deposit for the rental itself and the pet deposit is NEVER refundable. I am sure we all remember being told that this was to cover any damages from the pet. With this important information stored for the future and eventual move out, you go on your merry way.
Now, it's time to move out. Here is where you should be hunting and finding your lease agreement to make sure you follow the "rules" that some but not all rental agencies graciously supply. Our previous rental agency supplied a list of what it cost them to have things cleaned by their cleaning crews. To my mind reading over this price list I could only surmise that this agency was getting screwed. But, alas and alack t'was not the rental agency who was to suffer!
I am not sure what the norm is for how long rental agencies have before they are supposed to inform you of what portion if any of the deposit will be reimbursed to you. The agency we had said 30 from occupancy, so with that milestone having come and gone we decided to call to find out what was going on. Our call was finally returned. When my husband received this call he was not overly surprised at the "laundry list" of things that the agency says had to be done to put the rental back in condition for future renters.
Don't get me wrong I am not saying that I had the rental professionally cleaned though in hindsight; I might not be writing this if I had. We cleaned for 3 days straight and we did have the living room/dining room/computer rooms' carpet professionally cleaned. Honestly, we felt that we had done a pretty good job of cleaning as we kept their list handy to make sure we cleaned everything they would charge to have done themselves upon our vacating the property. We did realize that we may have overlooked the pest control aspect but, recalled that the "pet deposit" was for just such an issue (so we thought)
Remember, I said they supplied us with a list of prices for costs - we were informed that the bedroom carpets had to be cleaned, the four ceiling fans had to be cleaned and the rental was sprayed for fleas even though there were "NO FLEAS IN EVIDENCE" (the agent's own words)! This is where my ramble meets my blog title Ethics vs. Entitlement.
Is it ethical for the agency to nitpick and use every loophole they find favorable to them, while using everyone they can to chip away at our hefty deposit so that we receive a mere fraction of it? It seems very much that they made every effort to get what they felt they were entitled to get by using the parts of the rental agreement to THEIR advantage.