The physicist Haoyu Qi and his wife moved from New Brunswick to Toronto during the winter to work, but before being able to recover a safety deposit of $ 2,000 that he had paid in his Apartment in Moncton, he was told that his lessor was making a $ 500 claim about money for cleaning and damage costs.
That surprised Qi, especially when he was shown images presented by the owner to justify the position.
An image seemed to show land and painted paint on a shelf next to a window, but who said there was no shelf like that in his unit.
“I feel that none of the photos was from our apartment,” he said in an interview.
A second photo showed a dozen holes in plaster panels in what Qi assumed that it was an old television installation mounted on the wall, but said that he and his wife did not possess a TV during their two -year stay.
A third image showed a disaster in a closet that he said that he could not have been his because his wife, whom he describes as “germ phobic”, would not have tolerated him.
“That is not our apartment,” Qi said. “My wife did a cleanliness before we left, and in reality she did a lot of constant cleaning of the entire apartment. We kept it in quite good condition.”
Last year, New Brunswick handled 489 challenges about the return of security deposits, with the owners who made claims against the tenants who come out of damage, cleanliness and other costs. A tenant who prevailed in his case has thoughts on how to avoid disagreements.
Qi’s apartment was in the new Coise Residences of Moncton, a development of the center of the local businessman Trevor Ritchie.
In an email to the office of relations with the tenant and the owners, Kate Marecki, who made the claim on behalf of the owner, cited the gloomy photos of apartments that he presented as proof that the request of $ 500 of the QI security deposit was reasonable.
“In this case, the tenant has left the unit in extremely dirty conditions,” Marecki wrote, who also presented a receipt for the cost of 28 hours of cleanliness after Qi and his wife moved.
Qi was offended by that.
“It hurt a little. I lived there for two years I could have finished in a very friendly way, but not,” he said.
Qi, who works in the field of quantum computing, had originally offered to liquidate the dispute for $ 100, but after seeing the photos and reading the description of the disorder he was accused of leaving behind, he rescinded that offer.
In an email on March 18, he told the office of relations with the tenant and the owners, who has confidence security deposits and was mediating the dispute, who believed that at least three photos were false.
Qi wrote that “false evidence has been presented in this case” and sent a video that his wife had taken inside the apartment the day they moved that they seemed to show differences between their unit and the images presented by the owner.
According to that, he lowered his offer to solve the matter to $ 50 and agreed a complete hearing if the amount was not accepted.
Coore Residences did not respond directly to the accusation of Qi, but the next day, as of March 19, the company retreated.
“The owner wishes to launch the claim,” wrote Marie-Josée Corbin, the provincial agent who deals with the matter.
In an interview, Kate Marecki said she believes that the images she presented in the case of Qi accurately described her department, but she did not take them herself and cannot say that with certainty.
Several tenants moved at the same time and it is not clear if you could have made an error because of that, he said.
“I sent myself the photos provided,” Marecki said. “I don’t know if the images mixed.”
She said that a final joint inspection of the apartment should have been carried out with the participation of QI and, because it was not, a decision was made to withdraw the claim against her security deposit.
“Communication is the best,” Marecki said by recognizing that the case of Qi should have been handled differently. “I would like to take a walk.”
The disputes between owners and tenants about the return of security deposits are common in New Brunswick. According to the province, the case of QI was one of 489 that required mediation in the last year.
New Brunswick has more than $ 52 million in tenant safety deposits in trust. When a tenant moves, the owners have seven days to claim damage, excessive cleaning costs or unpaid invoices, including unpaid income. Otherwise, the deposit is fully returned to the tenant.
The claims of the owners often succeed, with 28 percent of the security deposit refunds issued by the province last year going to the owners of apartments, worth $ 3.5 million.
The tenant’s relations office and the owners will not specifically comment on the case of QI, but on its website the agency recommends that the owners and tenants jointly inspect an apartment before a move and try to agree, if they can, in their condition and if any cleaning or repair must be performed.
Qi and Marecki agree that it is a good suggestion. However, Qi also recommends that tenants take their own detailed photos of an apartment when they leave in case a dispute arises.
