LEGAL MATTERS: Moving Out This Spring? Protect Your Rights
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Standard apartment leases often runs from June 1st to May 31st. If yours is one of them, and you are moving, use this Checklist to protect your legal rights.
Change Your Address
Guard against identity theft by giving all your banks and credit card companies your new address at least two weeks before you move. Don’t overlook the ones who e-mail you statements or the ones you pay on-line. As a back-up, go online and complete a forwarding order with the Post Office but never rely on just the Post Office to protect your financial mail.
Create a Bill Due Calendar
Paying a bill late will hurt your credit – even if you pay late because the bill gets lost in the mail while you are moving. So to protect your credit, make a list of when your bills are due each month. Then refer to that list for the first few months at your new address to make sure they all get paid even if you do not get a bill.
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Do you heat with oil? Does your oil company automatically refill your tank and charge your credit card? I recently dealt with a case where the old tenants had that kind of arrangements but forgot about it until they studied their credit card bills and realized they had paid for winter’s worth of oil for the new tenants.
Cancel Cable, Electric & Gas
You are responsible for the utilities in your name until you cancel them. Do not wait for the landlord or new tenant to switch them out of your name. Call each company and tell them the date you want them shut off; if your landlord or the next tenant wants to keep them on, they can contact the companies and put them in their name starting on that date.
Clean
Your lease probably calls for you to leave the apartment in ‘broom-clean condition.’ That does not mean spotless but it does mean clean enough for someone else to move into. Don’t forget the inside of the oven; I have seen landlords charge tenants $50 for leaving them dirty.
Take Pictures
Not because you are proud of your cleaning job but because your landlord may claim you left a mess to keep your security deposit. In situations like that, a picture, or even a video, might be worth a $1,000.
Give the Landlord the Keys and Your Address
Your landlord has a limited amount of time to return your security deposit (30 days in Massachusetts; 20 days in Rhode Island). The clock starts running when the landlord has possession of the apartment and your new address; make sure you give both to your landlord and make sure you can prove it. You can ask for a receipt or you can get creative and videotape yourself delivering the keys and your new address to your landlord’s office.
Get Your Security Deposit
Within that time allowed by law, your landlord must either return your security deposit (with up to 5% interest in Massachusetts) or send you a letter explaining why they are keeping any part of it. If they keep it because of damage to the apartment, they must itemize the damages in the letter. If they do not, they may forfeit their right to keep any of your deposit.
Strategically, if you think your landlord is going to try to cheat you out of your security deposit, do not hound them for it. Instead, wait patiently until the 20 or 30 days has past then ask for it; at that point you can argue they lost the right to claim you trashed the apartment.
Change Your Voter Registration
You can change your voter registration by mailing a form to the election officials in the city or town you will be living in. In Massachusetts, you can get the form, and the address to send it to, here. In Rhode Island, you can get the form and information here.
For more information in Massachusetts, the Legal Assistance Corporation helped create this excellent web site full of useful information and forms. In Rhode Island, check out this RI Legal Services web site.
Next Week: Moving In Checklist
John Longo is a consumer rights attorney practicing law in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. He represents consumers who have disputes with businesses, employees cheated out of their wages or overtime, car buyers stuck with Lemons, and people in need of bankruptcy protection. He is a member of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, and the Rhode Island Association for Justice.
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