Years ago I read Herbert Hoover's memoirs. In it, he writes about being a poor college student attached to a geological field team. Hoover was in charge of accounting for use of government property. Once they had a mule break its neck in the night. The mule was tethered and had tried using its hind leg to scratch its head. The leg got tangled in the tether and when the mule tried to jerk its leg free, it snapped its neck. Hoover had to write to some bureaucrat in Washington explaining why the expedition lost a mule. The bureaucrat wrote back that he didn't accept the explanation, that mules didn't do that, so Hoover had to reimburse the government for the cost of the mule. The head geologist told Hoover he would cover the cost, but it began a life-long obsession for Hoover with proving that mules scratch their heads with their hind legs. Anytime he would see a work of art showing the behavior, Hoover would buy it.
I start this post with that story because that's how I feel about our last landlords in Jacksonville, Florida. I would include their names here if I remembered them. All I remember is they had one of those Christian-adjacent LLC names, like Crossroads or Lighthouse or Abundance or whatever. They were a married couple. The husband was reasonable and the wife refused to spend any money at all. Evidently someone had told her being a rentier was passive income and she couldn't abide the idea of nonpassivity.
When we moved out after living in the house for three and a half years, she did not return our security deposit, telling us that the entire amount was needed to repaint. When I told her that Burley v. Mateo (2010) established that Florida law does not permit retaining a security deposit for ordinary wear and tear, including painting, she stopped replying to my letters.
Last month I was in the library and saw a book entitled Every Landlord's Legal Guide. I flipped to the index and within two minutes found this:
Typically, you may charge for any cleaning or repairs necessary to restore the rental unit to its condition at the beginning of the tenancy, but not the cost of repairing the results of ordinary wear and tear.... One landlord we know uses the following approach when tenants move out and repainting is necessary: ... No one who stays for two years or more is ever charged a painting fee. No matter how dirty the walls become, the landlord always repaints when it's been more than two years since the previous painting. (pp. 228-30)
A side-story about another terrible Floridian I met: I had a woman run a red light and crash into my car. She was very concerned that I not call the police because she was not a legal driver. Her husband arrived and agreed that she ran the red light. They told the insurance company that he was driving and that their light was green. I found two employees from nearby businesses who heard the crash and looked up to see that her light was green, but the insurance company wouldn't take their statements because they were not looking at the light AT THE MOMENT OF IMPACT, only immediately after hearing a noise. The husband of the driver never returned my calls or texts.
I will never forget what it is like to be poor and to have rich people take advantage of you.
