So we just moved out of a rental house. It was managed by a property management company. We took great care of the place, paid 2 weeks early every month, etc. I had the house professionally cleaned. Lastly, I asked for the paint colors so I could do touch ups. They sent them to me. Our lease specifies that we could make small nail holes for hanging pictures. I thought I would go the extra mile and fill those in and touch up paint. Now the property manager is telling me the paint doesn't look right and full walls will be to be repainted and I'm liable for those charges. Is that right? It's not considered normal wear and tear?

Assuming the paint is actually the same color and they didn't tell you the wrong ones, he's an idiot. There is no reason they would need to repaint the whole walls if there were just some little nail holes and you filled them in.

the joys of dealing with property management companies

Welp, just got our security deposit. They charged $740 for paint, but "graciously" split it between myself and the homeowner. $370 for touching up paint.... time to go fight "the man."

DO NOT cash the check unless you absolutely have to! From my understanding, cashing the check is basically saying that you accept it.

I own and manage 6 houses here in Aggieland and this story ---ses me off. I hear this so very many times. Do not get me wrong. If a tenant tears something up I will charge them for the damage. But I take great pleasure in writing deposit refund checks for 100% of the deposit. It means that I have had a win / win relationship with my tenant. And I will not have alot of work to do on the home.
Next time you might consider finding a Mom and Pop to rent from instead of a leasing co.

Management companies and apartment complexes are generally like that.

Individual landlords are usually better than companies, but lots of local places seem to be handled by management companies. Also, there are some differences in individual landlords; while some are great, others can be a pain. Perhaps that's also the case with management companies, but I have heard more bad stories than good ones from people who've had to deal with management companies.

UPDATE:
Sent them a certified letter explaining that we went above and beyond and that I used the paint colors they told me. I asked for the remaining deposit back.

They responded and said that it is considered damages since it didn't match and required re-painting. They said if I make it a legal matter they will counter sue for the full $740 in painting.

I took pictures and have the email where they told me the paint colors to do touch ups.

I'm very tempted to go ahead and file in small claims.

Did the touch up not blend well or something? What did you think about the new paint vs. the rest of the wall?

This situation pisses me off.

It looked slightly different, but the paint was also wet. I turned the keys in right after.

As a landlord myself, this irritates the hell out of me. You shouldn't be held liable for the mistake of them if you bought the paint they told you to.

We don't even require our tenants to touch up anything unless their is damage or screw holes (which aren't allowed). We consider all of that normal wear and touch up and fill in nail holes ourselves.

I wish it didn't come down to that, and pursuing it could be a royal pain, but over $700 dollars seems a bit excessive to me in my opinion, granted we paint ourselves and don't hire it out...

I hate this for you..

Some pics are worse than others, but here is an example of the difference:


[This message has been edited by jakester03 (edited 7/8/2013 1:16p).]

To me (and I don't know much) it looks like it's the wrong color and I would be mad if I moved into a place with patches of paint like that on the wall.

But you asked for the paint color and they gave it to you, therefore, in my opinion, it's on them to fix. I still don't see over $700 of damage though, can't they just paint over those spots?

Agreed it doesn't look right. However, I just touched it up and left figuring it would blend once dry.

That sucks. I don't allow my tenants to do ANY painting and this is one of the reasons.

For small claims court should I list the landlord or the property management company as the defendant?

i would put both...the landlord may tell the mgmt co. to piss off and give you back the money so they don't have to deal with it...

btw, how many walls are they painting for $740?

I had the same problem with our landlord in CS when we were there. A bit of advice....just walk away. A couple hundred bucks isn't worth your time (well, maybe it is). If it's on principle alone, just ask yourself if it's TRULY worth your time. There have been a ton of threads about this kind of stuff, and it seems that the only true way to police this would be a walkthrough after moving out.

They are claiming they had to entirely re-paint roughly 15 walls. All of them had small touch ups like the picture above.

agreed with piag. Just walk away. I know it sucks but it ain't worth your time. I lived in 3 different apartments in my time at CS and they were all super shady when it came to management. They always had insane charges that ate up our security deposit. Tried to fight it a couple of times, gave up. They want every last dollar they can squeeze out of ya. I now just factor in a security deposit as extra rent now.

Also I have learned to make extra copies of EVERYTHING and before you move in, no joke take like a 100 pictures with time stamps of every angle of the place. That was the majority of my problems. Management trying to charge me for damage already there at move in time. And these were lower cost apartments so there is damage everywhere and to document it all would be to write a small novel. Document the big things, (what will fit in the lines on the check in sheet) they try to get you on the little things...*******s.

So again, it's usually not worth it. My opinion of course.

just a thought but I wonder if you used the right color but a different paint or a different gloss. You can get the same color in different levels of paint. Have a house where the correct color was used but they used semi gloss instead of flat and it looked totally different.

its a tough situation because you were actually trying to help, but the truth is you probably made it worse (no your intention I know). Seems like it could have just been retouched with the right color but maybe not. If not it would have to be repainted because no one wants to move into a house with spotted walls. It seems like splitting it was pretty fair since you were trying to help but the work still had to be done.

You're absolutely right. I bought paint samples since I didn't need that much and it absolutely could have been a different sheen.

After taking everything into consideration and really delving into the amount of time it would take for legal recourse, I've decided to just move on and use it as a lesson learned.

Probably the right decision to move on. Still, blast them on review sites.