One day out of the blue an old landlord of mine (who I had some difficult experiences with and with whom I certainly didn’t see eye to eye) called me to say that I still had my bond sitting with the government department that holds bonds in NZ. She said she would send me a form to which we both sign and then mail to the government department to have it released into my account.
When I received the form, she had deducted $300.00 for cleaning costs and damage to the vinyl flooring in the kitchen (which were not caused by me but the new tenants who occupied the property following my departure).
I was quite upset about this considering she was too busy holidaying to even complete an exit inspection for me when I left. I had found new tenants for her and had cleaned the apartment immaculately. As her son had signed up the new tenants, they were now in contract with her for cleanliness etc, not me. She was fully aware of these circumstances too.
So I rang her and explained that I was not prepared to pay this for the reasons stated above. I quoted my rights through various Law Acts regarding renting etc and explained that her failure to carry out the appropriate inspections were not my responsibility.
After much arguing, she said “Fine then, you can have the whole bond back. Are you happy?” I said ”“Well, of course, thank you.” She then said “You are a hard little lady, you know that!?” ... I was VERY flattered and was about to thank her for her kind compliment when she hung up on me! LOL
Epic win.