Physicist Haoyu Qi and his wife moved from New Brunswick to Toronto over the winter for work, but before he could retrieve a $2,000 security deposit he had paid on his Moncton apartment, he was told his landlord was making a $500 claim on the money for cleaning and damage costs.
That surprised Qi, especially when he was shown pictures submitted by the landlord to justify the charge.
One picture appeared to show dirt and chipped paint on a ledge by a window but Qi said there was no ledge like that in his unit.
“I feel like none of the pictures were from our apartment,” he said in an interview.
A second photo showed a dozen holes in drywall in what Qi guessed was from an old wall-mounted television installation, but he said he and his wife did not own a television during their two-year stay.
A third picture showed a mess in a cupboard that Qi said could not have been his because his wife, who he describes as “germ-phobic,” would not have tolerated it.
“That’s definitely not our apartment,” said Qi. “My wife did a cleaning before we left, and she actually did a lot of constant cleaning of the whole apartment. We maintained it in pretty good condition.”
Disputes between tenants and landlords over security deposits are frequent. But do they need to be?
Qi’s apartment was in Moncton’s new Encore Residences, a downtown development by local businessman Trevor Ritchie.
In an email to the Tenant and Landlord Relations Office, Kate Marecki, who made the claim on behalf of the landlord, cited the grimy apartment pictures she submitted as proof the request for $500 of Qi’s security deposit was reasonable.
“In this case the tenant has left the unit in exceedingly soiled condition,” wrote Marecki, who also submitted a receipt for the cost of 28 hours of cleaning after Qi and his wife moved out.
Qi was offended by that.
“It hurt a little bit. I lived there for two years It could have ended in a very friendly way, not like this,” he said.
Qi, who works in the field of quantum computing, had originally offered to settle the dispute for $100 but after seeing the photos and reading the description of the mess he was accused of leaving behind, he rescinded that offer.
In an email on March 18, he told the Tenant and Landlord Relations Office, which holds security deposits in trust and was mediating the dispute, that he believed at least three pictures were phony.
Qi wrote that “false evidence has been presented in this case” and forwarded a video his wife had taken inside the apartment the day they moved out that appeared to show differences between his unit and pictures submitted by the landlord.
Based on that, he lowered his offer to settle the matter to $50 and agreed to a full hearing if the amount wasn’t accepted.
Encore Residences did not directly respond to Qi’s accusation, but the following day, on March 19, the company backed down.
“The landlord wishes to drop the claim,” wrote Marie-Josée Corbin, the provincial agent dealing with the matter.
In an interview, Kate Marecki said she believes the pictures she submitted in Qi’s case accurately depicted his apartment but did not take them herself and cannot say that with certainty.
Several tenants were moving at the same time and it is not clear if a mistake might have been made because of that, she said.
“I submitted the pictures supplied to me,” said Marecki. “I don’t know if the pictures got mixed up.”
She said a final joint inspection of the apartment should have been conducted with Qi’s involvement and because it wasn’t, a decision was made to drop the claim against his security deposit.
“Communication is best,” said Marecki in acknowledging Qi’s case should have been handled differently. “I would want to do a walk through.”
Disputes between landlords and tenants over the return of security deposits are common in New Brunswick. According to the province, Qi’s case was one of 489 that required mediation in the last year.
New Brunswick holds more than $52 million in tenant security deposits in trust. When a tenant moves, landlords have seven days to make a claim for damage, excessive cleaning costs or unpaid bills, including unpaid rent. Otherwise, the deposit is returned in full to the tenant.
Landlord claims are often successful, with 28 per cent of security deposit refunds issued by the province last year going to apartment owners, amounting to $3.5 million.
The Tenant and Landlord Relations Office will not comment on Qi’s case specifically, but on its website the agency does recommend landlords and tenants jointly inspect an apartment prior to a move and try to agree, if they can, on its condition and whether any cleaning or repairs should be done.
Qi and Marecki both agree that is a good suggestion. However, Qi also recommends tenants take their own detailed photos of an apartment as they leave in case a dispute does arise.
