When the six month contract (alquiler temporario) on my apartment expired I decided to move out. We spent two days cleaning the apartment and left it cleaner than I found it. There were a few things: I left a bunch of beer and wine bottles in the kitchen and two dirty dishes in the sink, and I didn't wash some of the bedclothes, but the guy doing the checkout told me it was fine because they would charge me a few hundred pesos for the clean-up anyway. When I asked him about getting the deposit back, he told me to call the inmobilaria on Monday (it was Friday afternoon), and that it would take five days. Well I called them every day that week and they always had some sort of excuse (one time they just simply left me on the line waiting) until finally on Wednesday or Thursday they told me that the owner was in charge of returning the deposit. I knew I was screwed because when I first met her I knew she was a chanta de mierda. She made a bunch of BS claims about things I had to pay. For example, the paint was following off the ceiling because of the humidity from the plumbing; the water-heater tank had broken down because of poor maintenance (it had never been cleaned) and a plumber would come over sometimes to try and fix the pipes (he explained it to me but I didn't really get it). Anyway, she wanted to charge me for repainting the apartment and for the costs of fixing the plumbing.
When I told her the plumber had explained to me that this was her fault for not doing a good job maintaining the apartment, she changed her tactic and asked me to pay for the broken furniture that came with the apartment (it was amoblado). There were two broken chairs in the kitchen as well as an armchair and sofa that fold into beds that came broken. I wrote about the chairs as soon as I got into the apartment but the armchair and sofa I didn't notice until a month later when I had guests over and tried to fold them into beds (I didn't say anything to the inmobilaria because a month out on the contract they would have just claimed it was my fault). When we left the apartment we were able to refold them to their original shapes. In my email I had written that "las sillas estan en mala condicion (una tiene tres piernas, por ejemplo)" but I'm afraid it may have been too vague. I'm hoping to claim that I meant all of the furniture by "sillas" and that it was an error of language.
I forwarded her the email I had sent to the inmobilaria and then she changed her tactic to complaining that I left the apartment unclean. She took photos of the unmade bed, a table cloth that had fallen behind the table, and the bottles, as well as a scratch I left on the countertop I must have made while chopping vegetables. I explained to her that the guy who did the checkout told me I didn't need to leave it perfectly clean because I would be charged for cleaning service regardless, and that I was willing to pay a few hundred pesos for that but nothing more. After that she tried with the chairs again.
I went to the inmobilaria and they told me it was her decision and that there was nothing I can do. Does anyone have any advice? Or should I just forget about it (many have told me I don't have a chance but I'm not sure how much of this is their knowledge of real estate law and how much of it is them enjoying giving bad news).
I've attached the contract here, let me know if you can't read it (had to save .gif to keep the file size down).
When I told her the plumber had explained to me that this was her fault for not doing a good job maintaining the apartment, she changed her tactic and asked me to pay for the broken furniture that came with the apartment (it was amoblado). There were two broken chairs in the kitchen as well as an armchair and sofa that fold into beds that came broken. I wrote about the chairs as soon as I got into the apartment but the armchair and sofa I didn't notice until a month later when I had guests over and tried to fold them into beds (I didn't say anything to the inmobilaria because a month out on the contract they would have just claimed it was my fault). When we left the apartment we were able to refold them to their original shapes. In my email I had written that "las sillas estan en mala condicion (una tiene tres piernas, por ejemplo)" but I'm afraid it may have been too vague. I'm hoping to claim that I meant all of the furniture by "sillas" and that it was an error of language.
I forwarded her the email I had sent to the inmobilaria and then she changed her tactic to complaining that I left the apartment unclean. She took photos of the unmade bed, a table cloth that had fallen behind the table, and the bottles, as well as a scratch I left on the countertop I must have made while chopping vegetables. I explained to her that the guy who did the checkout told me I didn't need to leave it perfectly clean because I would be charged for cleaning service regardless, and that I was willing to pay a few hundred pesos for that but nothing more. After that she tried with the chairs again.
I went to the inmobilaria and they told me it was her decision and that there was nothing I can do. Does anyone have any advice? Or should I just forget about it (many have told me I don't have a chance but I'm not sure how much of this is their knowledge of real estate law and how much of it is them enjoying giving bad news).
I've attached the contract here, let me know if you can't read it (had to save .gif to keep the file size down).
