Landlord attempting to charge us for damages after another tenant has lived there,

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Akitoshi

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My girlfriend and I have recently moved out of a property in Gardnerville, NV. Our lease ended on May 1st of 2008, however we were leasing the property with her brother. When we announced that we were leaving at the time the lease ended her brother expressed his wish to stay. We and our landlords agreed that this would be fine. We opted to leave our portion of the $1400 dollar deposit with her brother, so he wouldn't have to make another security deposit as he could not afford to. This again was agreed upon by the landlords.

We assumed that this meant we were removed from the leasing agreement as our lease had ended. We were even told that our lease was over and we would not be on any agreement between the landlords and her brother. Her brother enterred into a month by month lease after that point because he did not know if he could afford the place or not.

Everything was fine until the landlords came and inspected the property, something they did not do until after we had moved out. They then told him about several things he needed to repair and clean. He did not do so and upon the next month after the first which he had paid for he informed them he would not be able to afford rent and so therefore would be moving out.

The landlords contacted us in what we thought was just a courtesy call informing us that he was leaving, which we had already heard from him and asked for our address to send us a security deposit itemization form to let us know why there would be no return of our deposit. At this time we told them that we knew we would not be getting a deposit back as we had left it with her brother as aforementioned. They said that they understood and were simply required by law to send us this form within three weeks after the property was vacated. Not knowing much about leasing agreements we thought this was a courtesy thing ( yeah, that was dumb ) and kindly gave them our new address.

Shortly there after July, 9 to be precise we recieved the aforementioned form. To our udder shock and dismay our names were attached to the listing of damages and the letter accompaning it requesting that we send them $2048 or they would start legal proceedings to collect it. This form included all sorts of damage that we had heard nothing about or had ever witnessed it also included rent owed for not having given a 30 day notice prior to the property being vacated.

We called them immediately after we recieved this form wanting to understand why our names were on this form as we had not been tenants for some time (2 months and 8 days to be precise ). We were informed that they didn't know if we were responsible or not for the damages since we had paid part of the security deposit. They threw around the word "legally" alot but never really said much except, we don't know. They also tried to guilt us by saying that they could not afford these damages because she ( one of the landlords ) was a school teacher and they didn't have much money.

I do not think that we are responsible for any of the damages or back-pay concerning unpaid rent. Her brother is simply unreliable concerning paying for things ( ie the rent ) so we think they are simply trying to attach us to this so they can ensure they get paid. Please help, I'm almost completely useless concerning legal matters.
 
You are going to need to to sue the brother for this. The Apartment had never really been vacated even though you had left. You not really change hands as your deposit was left. I see your point but I dont feel you can prevail against Landlord. Your reasonable action will be against Brother. However to be sure consult an Attorney familar with Tenant/Landlord disputes
 
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