Question regarding multiple issues: No heat or hot water in winter and lack of state business licens

[SkiBunny1717]

Jurisdiction

Nevada

Hello there!

We recently moved out of an apartment on April 15, 2023. Our lease wasn't up until April 22, 2023 and we forwarded our mail on April 21, 2023. On May 1, 2023, we received a notice from a collection agency stating that we owed our previous apartment almost $1,200. There was no disposition of security deposit and no itemized receipt. When I emailed to ask why we did not receive a disposition, the property manager said he must have forgot to do that and emailed it to me. It had several erroneous charges and once I asked about them they said it was an "error" and removed the charges and stated they would send us a refund check.

Second issue, last November, from the 10th through the 17th, we were without heat or hot water. This had been an ongoing issue to which we had emailed, called, and sent in multiple maintenance requests to have the issue resolved. They would always put it off as if it wasn't a big deal and we were paying $2500 per month in rent so it wasn't really in the budget to stay in a hotel for 8 days. We also have 2 children who are 4 and 9. They would send their maintenance man who was unqualified to deal with heating and hot water systems and it would work for about 24 hours and then go out again. At one point I even asked if there was another unit we could shower in to which they did not respond. I finally threatened legal action against them and that's when they sent a professional heating company to temporarily fix the unit, but it was not replaced until December 22, 2022.

For the third issue, upon researching their business licenses to determine their DBA and entity name information so I could file in small claims court, I discovered that they did have an active business license in the city, but their state license under the same name had showed "Entity Status: Cancelled" as of 11/30/2022.

What are my legal rights? What should I do next? Are they operating illegally because they do not have a valid state license?

Thanks for any and all help!

 

[flyingron]

Tell the collection agency you do not wish to hear from them further. That should shut them up or they are in violation of federal law. If the landlord wants to pursue it further, he'll need to sue you.

First, you better check your lease to make sure it doesn't have an autorenew clause in it (and if you did that you gave proper notice).

If all that is valid, then you can go to small claims to recover the deposit. If that's all you're after, the rest of your comments are spurious. If you are trying to recover something for the unhabitable conditions, then you've got more issues and you've not presented enough information for us to give a read on .

Security Deposits - Civil Law Self-Help Center

 

[Zigner]

On May 1, 2023, we received a notice from a collection agency stating that we owed our previous apartment almost $1,200. There was no disposition of security deposit and no itemized receipt. When I emailed to ask why we did not receive a disposition, the property manager said he must have forgot to do that and emailed it to me. It had several erroneous charges and once I asked about them they said it was an "error" and removed the charges and stated they would send us a refund check.
...

Thanks for any and all help!

Help with what?

 

[zddoodah]

but their state license under the same name had showed "Entity Status: Cancelled" as of 11/30/2022.

State license to do what?

What are my legal rights?

Like every other person, you have dozens of legal rights. It would serve no useful purpose to try and list them all.

What should I do next?

What should you do about what? Your first issue seems to be in the process of resolving. Your second issue was something temporary that occurred six months ago and which won't repeat itself. Your third "issue" isn't something about which you need to be concerned.

Are they operating illegally because they do not have a valid state license?

Depends on what sort of license you're talking about. Business licenses are typically issued at the local level, and not every locality requires residential landlords to have a business license.