nomissnewo (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} nomissnewo) wrote,@ 2006-07-19 01:17:00 |
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Dan Carbaugh, terrible landlord in Shippensburg PA
So I had the cops called on me today.
Yes, yes it's true. This is the whole story: Back around July 4th, I was getting pretty irritated because my security deposit hadn't been returned to me. We had spent several days cleaning that house up and down until it was completely and utterly clean, so I had a keen sense that our new hick redneck landlord (the original landlords had recently sold the property to him) was trying to screw me out of my $250. So I finally call them up and leave a message asking where my security deposit is. They call me back the next day and try to claim they don't owe me one: Their reasoning is that my two roommates, Mike and Brandon, moved upstairs and so did their security deposit, so the full burden of the security deposit fell on the shoulders of me, who wasn't moving upstairs. I pointed out to them that this was incredibly unfair, and probably illegal, that they should put the entire burden of the security deposit on me, rather than equally taking away from each person. This is the beside the fact that barely anything should have been taken out of the deposit anyway, since we cleaned that house really well.
So I go and actually read the Pennsylvania Landlord-Tenant Act, and it clearly says that if they don't give me back my security deposit, along with a list of damages that they subtracted from it, within 30 days, then I get the full security deposit back in full, and not only that, but I CAN ACTUALLY SUE THEM for twice the amount of the security deposit. Not only had it been 40 days, but I had to be the one to contact them. The law was clearly in my favor.
So I call them back and read them the law, and Dan Carbaugh (the name of the landlord) gets all uppity with his red neck vernacular and starts cursing and using all kinds of profanity, until I finally say, "Look, if you don't pay me the money, I'm suing you for it in small claims court."
That was a little while ago. Today I get a phone call today, and I have a voice mail message waiting for me from his wife that basically boils down to: "Simon, I know you're living up in 230 East Orange. You're not on the lease, you better be out by tomorrow."
This is a lie, I'm not living there, I'm a guest at the house, my home address is in Midlothian Virginia. I stay there to hang out with friends over the summer because it's, you know, the summer, and college kids hang out during the summer. I looked up the law, and it says that the tenants can have guests there, and doesn't specify how long the guests can stay, and neither does the lease that the two tenants sign.
So I'm sitting at my laptop today in Mike and Brandon's guest room when all of a sudden, the landlord (Dan Carbaugh) and his wife burst through the door. They're like "OK Simon, you need to leave now" (as if I'm just going to pack up all my stuff and leave right there). Of course, I just look at them and say "No," and then they looked shocked, as if I would dare such a thing. They accuse me of trespassing and I say that no, I'm not trespassing, that I'm a guest of the tenants and that the law says I can stay with them and that you can't discriminate against any of their guests as long as they don't damage the property. They threaten to call the police, and I'm just like "Fine, call them, I don't care, they can't do anything." and they're like "Fine, we will!"
As I'm walking to the door, Dan Carbaugh turns to me and lies: "Yeah I already talked to the police about you. They say they have a whole record on you and that you've been giving them lots of trouble, they told me that you got into a lot of trouble two years ago."
This is, of course, an outright lie. I've never had so much as a speeding ticket in my entire life. I've never been to court either, except once when I was nine when my father adopted me. So I laugh and say, "Oh? I guess they told you about that guy I murdered two years ago." He says, "I never said that, don't put words in my mouth," and I'm like, "Well, you're obviously lying, since I've never had a run-in with a cop ever. C'mon, if you're so sure I have a police record, what did they say I did?" Since he was obviously lying, he starts to stutter, and says, "Well, they didn't tell me what you did."
I shut the door behind them and go back to my room and continue surfing the internet. After awhile, I walk out into the kitchen and look out to the driveway, and there's a cop car there, and both of them are talking to the cop. Knowing that they're probably telling the cop all kinds of lies, I walk down there instead of waiting for the cop to come up. The cop looks up at me and asks me why I'm not leaving like they asked. I explain to him that I'm a guest of the tenants and that there's a provision in the law allowing me to be there (I cite the actual section). The cop turns to both of them and says, "Well, he's got you there."
You should have seen the look on their faces. Anyway, it would have gone perfectly, except a second cop pulls up right then (I guess Ship cops don't have much to do) and he gets out, and after they've explained the whole situation, he starts blathering on about stuff that isn't even true. He claims that if they want, they can sue me for back rent, or some such bullshit. Not only is this not covered in the Landlord-tenant act (which I called the cop on, he stuttered when I cited the section), but there is no back rent to have. The lease only specifies that $540 be paid every month, it doesn't say who has to pay what. So even if I had originally signed the lease and had been living there, Dan Carbaugh would have gotten $540 regardless of whether or not I was living there. And the tenants pay all utilities, including water, sewer, and trash, so it's not like he had to pay any extra utilities either with me being there.
So the cops get back into their car and so do the Carbaugh's and they leave. Tomorrow I'm walking down to file the lawsuit for $500 against Dan Carbaugh since he didn't deliver the security deposit within 30 days. If he tries to take me to court for supposedly living there, I'll easily win since I'm a guest in the house and I'm not actually living there, and I could have several witnesses to back me up on that.
So if you've made it this far through the entry, might I ask you a favor? I have several websites, some of which have decent page rank. If I provide anchor link text like this: Dan Carbaugh, terrible landlord in Shippensburg PA, then the words "Dan Carbaugh" and "Shippensburg" will have high web rank in Google, and any future tenants who google him will hopefully find this entry. So if anybody else puts that same anchor link text to this entry in their own journal, I certainly wouldn't mind!
God, this whole thing is so silly.
So I had the cops called on me today.
Yes, yes it's true. This is the whole story: Back around July 4th, I was getting pretty irritated because my security deposit hadn't been returned to me. We had spent several days cleaning that house up and down until it was completely and utterly clean, so I had a keen sense that our new hick redneck landlord (the original landlords had recently sold the property to him) was trying to screw me out of my $250. So I finally call them up and leave a message asking where my security deposit is. They call me back the next day and try to claim they don't owe me one: Their reasoning is that my two roommates, Mike and Brandon, moved upstairs and so did their security deposit, so the full burden of the security deposit fell on the shoulders of me, who wasn't moving upstairs. I pointed out to them that this was incredibly unfair, and probably illegal, that they should put the entire burden of the security deposit on me, rather than equally taking away from each person. This is the beside the fact that barely anything should have been taken out of the deposit anyway, since we cleaned that house really well.
So I go and actually read the Pennsylvania Landlord-Tenant Act, and it clearly says that if they don't give me back my security deposit, along with a list of damages that they subtracted from it, within 30 days, then I get the full security deposit back in full, and not only that, but I CAN ACTUALLY SUE THEM for twice the amount of the security deposit. Not only had it been 40 days, but I had to be the one to contact them. The law was clearly in my favor.
So I call them back and read them the law, and Dan Carbaugh (the name of the landlord) gets all uppity with his red neck vernacular and starts cursing and using all kinds of profanity, until I finally say, "Look, if you don't pay me the money, I'm suing you for it in small claims court."
That was a little while ago. Today I get a phone call today, and I have a voice mail message waiting for me from his wife that basically boils down to: "Simon, I know you're living up in 230 East Orange. You're not on the lease, you better be out by tomorrow."
This is a lie, I'm not living there, I'm a guest at the house, my home address is in Midlothian Virginia. I stay there to hang out with friends over the summer because it's, you know, the summer, and college kids hang out during the summer. I looked up the law, and it says that the tenants can have guests there, and doesn't specify how long the guests can stay, and neither does the lease that the two tenants sign.
So I'm sitting at my laptop today in Mike and Brandon's guest room when all of a sudden, the landlord (Dan Carbaugh) and his wife burst through the door. They're like "OK Simon, you need to leave now" (as if I'm just going to pack up all my stuff and leave right there). Of course, I just look at them and say "No," and then they looked shocked, as if I would dare such a thing. They accuse me of trespassing and I say that no, I'm not trespassing, that I'm a guest of the tenants and that the law says I can stay with them and that you can't discriminate against any of their guests as long as they don't damage the property. They threaten to call the police, and I'm just like "Fine, call them, I don't care, they can't do anything." and they're like "Fine, we will!"
As I'm walking to the door, Dan Carbaugh turns to me and lies: "Yeah I already talked to the police about you. They say they have a whole record on you and that you've been giving them lots of trouble, they told me that you got into a lot of trouble two years ago."
This is, of course, an outright lie. I've never had so much as a speeding ticket in my entire life. I've never been to court either, except once when I was nine when my father adopted me. So I laugh and say, "Oh? I guess they told you about that guy I murdered two years ago." He says, "I never said that, don't put words in my mouth," and I'm like, "Well, you're obviously lying, since I've never had a run-in with a cop ever. C'mon, if you're so sure I have a police record, what did they say I did?" Since he was obviously lying, he starts to stutter, and says, "Well, they didn't tell me what you did."
I shut the door behind them and go back to my room and continue surfing the internet. After awhile, I walk out into the kitchen and look out to the driveway, and there's a cop car there, and both of them are talking to the cop. Knowing that they're probably telling the cop all kinds of lies, I walk down there instead of waiting for the cop to come up. The cop looks up at me and asks me why I'm not leaving like they asked. I explain to him that I'm a guest of the tenants and that there's a provision in the law allowing me to be there (I cite the actual section). The cop turns to both of them and says, "Well, he's got you there."
You should have seen the look on their faces. Anyway, it would have gone perfectly, except a second cop pulls up right then (I guess Ship cops don't have much to do) and he gets out, and after they've explained the whole situation, he starts blathering on about stuff that isn't even true. He claims that if they want, they can sue me for back rent, or some such bullshit. Not only is this not covered in the Landlord-tenant act (which I called the cop on, he stuttered when I cited the section), but there is no back rent to have. The lease only specifies that $540 be paid every month, it doesn't say who has to pay what. So even if I had originally signed the lease and had been living there, Dan Carbaugh would have gotten $540 regardless of whether or not I was living there. And the tenants pay all utilities, including water, sewer, and trash, so it's not like he had to pay any extra utilities either with me being there.
So the cops get back into their car and so do the Carbaugh's and they leave. Tomorrow I'm walking down to file the lawsuit for $500 against Dan Carbaugh since he didn't deliver the security deposit within 30 days. If he tries to take me to court for supposedly living there, I'll easily win since I'm a guest in the house and I'm not actually living there, and I could have several witnesses to back me up on that.
So if you've made it this far through the entry, might I ask you a favor? I have several websites, some of which have decent page rank. If I provide anchor link text like this: Dan Carbaugh, terrible landlord in Shippensburg PA, then the words "Dan Carbaugh" and "Shippensburg" will have high web rank in Google, and any future tenants who google him will hopefully find this entry. So if anybody else puts that same anchor link text to this entry in their own journal, I certainly wouldn't mind!
God, this whole thing is so silly.
