(no subject)
I just sent this to the landlord who was trying to shame and scare us about our cleaning costs
Hi [NAME],
Now that I'm back from taking care of things related to my father's
death in Wisconsin and have time to spare, and all expenses and otherbusiness matters are closed, I wanted to write you about our communication related to Miriam and I leaving the suite at [ADDRESS].
This is not the first rental home we have lived in and we are familiar with certain expected processes. In particular, when I leave a rented apartment, I expect to receive a bill (usually an itemized one) for
cleaning costs. If those costs are reasonable, I expect to pay them. I would not have been unhappy at all with an email or invoice stating our costs.
Rather than that, though, you sent an email expressing how "overwhelmed" you were, that it would take "hours and hours" to "get back", and that you would be following up with our insurance agent for"next steps." This email did not include any relevant information such as how much the cleaning would cost or how many hours you would spend on it. Instead, I can only see it as trying to incite shame and fear in us that we were horrible, irresponsible tenants.
I can't think of any reason you would open your first message about this by saying you need to contact [OUR INSURANCE AGENT] other than you believing that we would refuse to pay our incurred costs. The implication that Miriam and I are so irresponsible that you weren't even going to *try* asking us to pay our incurred costs and were immediately going to try to to recoup those costs from SMI is, frankly, insulting and completely unwarranted.
That first unprofessional and upsetting message changed my mindset from being happy to pay whatever costs were incurred to wanting to actively fight any expenses. I did *not* fight those expenses, because I, at least, tried to be professional about this situation.
In a later email, you did eventually provide a cost. In doing so, you again emphasized how much more work our suite was than a "typical" suite. Like your first message, I'm not sure why you felt this information was necessary to include. My only guess is that you were again trying to shame us by giving us information that is completely irrelevant to the business transaction about how much work was required to clean up our supposed mess.
This all could have gone so much more smoothly for both of us, been vastly less irritating for Miriam and I, and could have left us with a positive opinion about 2nd Home Suites, which has been wonderful to us in every other respect. Instead, I am left with the feeling that you assumed, without justification, that we were deadbeat tenants who you needed to scare and shame into paying our cleaning costs. Needless to say, this does not leave me with a positive impression of your business or you personally.
I just wanted to advise you of these issues so that you could potentially change the way you interact with other tenants in the future.
Thank you,
[MY NAME]