Landlord Question and Answer Forum

I want someone legit that knows oregon laws to answer if so. We rented a house in 2009 under month to month agreement with landlord, paid security deposit of $475, in agreement LL wrote 150 is non refundable. we were on section 8, moved out after 1 yr lease with section8 as agreed upon with Housing and LL.Even though rental with LL was month to month, When we signed agreement in 2009 there is one questionable thing on rental agreement. Is if you sign the 2009 agreement inwhich this one statement says they can charge $20 an hour to cleanup and restoring premises, versus new Oregon law that started January 1st 2010,inwhich new law states LandLords can not charge us for clean up of unit. and have to give us written notice if they keep any part of deposit. Its under our agreement says quote""Lessee(which is me) shall maintain the premises in a clean and sanitary condition at all times, and upon the termination of the tenancy shall surrender same to lessor(LL) in as good condition as when recieved,ordinary wear and tear and damage by the elements excepted;fee is herewith paid,no part of which is (re)fundable,for cleaning up and restoring the premises in the amount of __$20 an hour__."" on our agreement the letters re before the word fundable is blurred so do not know if it says refundable or fundable. Then there is a different section that says about security deposit, under that it says how much we paid then says $150 non refundable. Our question is in the above quoted statement does that mean cleaning of unit $20 an hour or does it mean like maintence if there was a clogging of a toliet and they had to repair it, charging 20 an hour? The reason asking is because we are wondering if LL can charge us for cleaning the house after we moved out and use that against our deposit under the 2009 agreement vs 2010 law? The circumstances is my spouse had to move out of house before me and since Im partially disabled and could not clean the unit or remove trash in shed when I moved out, wanting to know if the signed month to month agreement in 2009 would be legit to charge us a cleaning fee when new law started January 2010 that they are not suppose to charge us or take off of our security deposit for cleaning house. Since we were on a month to month starting agreement in 2009, does the new 2010 law be in effect that they can`t charge us or take off cleaning fee from our security deposit? If we sign agreement in 2009 and no new rental agreement made but are month to month with LL, does new law come in effect making the 2009 agreement not stand? By the way, when I moved out I returned the keys via mail as I was disabled no car to return back to unit,so I mailed keys back called day after to make sure they got keys they said yes, no final walk thru but I wrote in letter send deposit back to me via p.o. box number,inwhich now my mail is forwarded to new address in next town. its been 35 days now of no return of deposit. So I do not know if they took off any fees off the security deposit, Next question since they did not return deposit back within 31 days after return of keys, are we entitled to full deposit back or minus $150 nonrefundable they put in agreement? Or does it make it void since they never wrote us or returned deposit back within 31 days? Under new Oregon law they required to return within 31 days with written note if any deposit is kept for any reasons and they have not done that. but I like answer to above question too on if they can charge us $20 an hour to clean on an agreement we signed in 2009, versus new 2010 law? inwhich says they can`t charge for cleaning. yet we signed agreement in 2009 yet we were on month to month.

Im a manger here in Oregon If the LL and u did not update the agreement u both have to go by the old agreement...The knew laws that started are for knew tenants NOT old tenants. Now the LL can go and update the old tenants that where liveing there when the knew laws took affct. If u do not get a letter with 31 days where your dep went then u need to right up a letter and send it to them stateing u have not got a letter yet where your dep went and that u plan to sue if i dont hear from u with then a week....I have never charged for cleaning and that 20 an hour seems to be a lot more the aloud by law..... I would seek an atty Hope this helps

Posted by Beverly M, OR on Sunday, November 7, 2010