I live in an apartment complex on the 1st floor. Recently my patio moskito net screen door was stolen. Also the door handle to the glass sliding door to the patio cracked (probably due to temperature changes or something). I've reported this to my appartment management company I rent from. By the time they sent the technician out the door handle broke off.
Basically what they are saying is this: according to the technitian it is very difficult to take the screen door from the outside, and easier to take it from the inside. As far as the door handle they said, and I quote "It's a steel handle, they don't just break. You have to have applied serious preassure to it for it to break." And now they are billing me for the whole thing ($310).
I wold like to contest this in small claims court.
Do I have a good chance of winning?
Do I pay the fee first (They are saying that anything I pay will be applied against this balance first before it will be applied to my rent) to avoid late charges and then sue them for it? Or will me paying it be basically stating that I do not contest the charges, making it impossible for me to win in court?
Should I pay an independent 3rd party technician or carpenter to take a look at my door frame and maybe my neighbor's screen door and get a statement from him that it could have been taken out from the outside?
I did not think to file a police report at the time this happened (the theft of the door, I mean), which was about 2 weeks ago. But now that I'm asking around some people have suggested that this might have been helpful. Do I need to do that now? Or will that not help?
Thank you!
Basically what they are saying is this: according to the technitian it is very difficult to take the screen door from the outside, and easier to take it from the inside. As far as the door handle they said, and I quote "It's a steel handle, they don't just break. You have to have applied serious preassure to it for it to break." And now they are billing me for the whole thing ($310).
I wold like to contest this in small claims court.
Do I have a good chance of winning?
Do I pay the fee first (They are saying that anything I pay will be applied against this balance first before it will be applied to my rent) to avoid late charges and then sue them for it? Or will me paying it be basically stating that I do not contest the charges, making it impossible for me to win in court?
Should I pay an independent 3rd party technician or carpenter to take a look at my door frame and maybe my neighbor's screen door and get a statement from him that it could have been taken out from the outside?
I did not think to file a police report at the time this happened (the theft of the door, I mean), which was about 2 weeks ago. But now that I'm asking around some people have suggested that this might have been helpful. Do I need to do that now? Or will that not help?
Thank you!
