- Facts: 12 month lease, that will be up in two months
- Money: 2 month orders were "missing". One came back in mail, other was cashed by landlord
- Landlord: House is owned by two or more people, we've been dealing mainly with one.
- Communication: Mostly through IM/phone. Sent all this information to landlord on Friday, no response back. Landlord is slow to respond by method that can be saved.
- Status: To cover ourselves, we paid the missing rent with direct deposit in January for both months to landlord's bank account. Got back one payment from the Post Office. Landlord still owes us one rent payment.
I've been paying my landlord, with money orders, sent in the mail. It was a bit archaic but has worked for 3 years. We had one money order show up missing about a year ago due to their address error(they came by and picked up when it was sent back), but otherwise smooth sailing.
In December, the landlord changed addresses, and did notify us, but I accidentally sent it the old address. I called them in early December, and they said not to worry the mail would be forwarded.
Fast forward to Christmas Eve, and the landlord sends a "representative". Didn't recognize the person so I didn't let them in. The "representative" banged on the door for over fifteen minutes, and wouldn't leave. We took a photo of them, sent it the landlord to see if they were connected and even though we spoke to her, there was no mention of the rent.
After our call, the person finally left, and we assumed they were supposed to just give us the new address, from the note they put on the door. On the phone, we mentioned it was Christmas Eve, repeated the new address with the landlord to verify, and hung up. We were confused, but decided to focus on Christmas, not understanding why this couldn't have been 'addressed' over the phone.
Fast forward to January, we send rent through the mail again to the new address, not aware that December's money order hadn't been received. In Mid January, we got a message that the landlord, "still hadn't received our rent" for either months.
We immediately asked if we could directly deposit the money in their account for both months and did so. The landlord was slow to admit they received the direct deposit, but finally did so via IM.
After that, we did a trace on both money orders through the post office, and received a check back for the December payment(and the money order envelope back in the mail), ....and then a letter with a photocopy of January's money order. It was signed, and cashed by our landlord.
I sent all of this information to the landlord with photos, and have yet to hear back.
Her signature is on the "missing" money order. She never got their mail "forwarded" in December, and she signed and cashed the check for January.
We don't want to move, but it looks like there's no way to reconcile this. To provide an "out", we asked if this cashed Money Order could be used for March's Rent.
Is this some sort of eviction tactic? What's the best recourse after something like this happens?
Submitted February 11, 2017 at 10:10AM by maybescummylandlord http://ift.tt/2lBVtUj
