2449 Via Campesina    |    Double T Management, Robert Mullarkey    |    Palos Verdes Estates    ,    California 90274    Landlord Complaint 23-4067

We had lived in the apartment for 2 years with 2 house trained dogs prior to Double T buying the property. We improved the property by building a new fence, putting in wood floors in the kitchen, relplacing kitchen drawer knobs, and a light fixture. The old landlord had not re-imbursed us for these upgrades. After Double T took over they handed us a notice of rent increase on a Thursday and then 2 days later they handed us a notice of 60 day vacate. We found a place within 45 days and moved out. We had the rugs professionally cleaned and did touch up painting and a thorough cleaning. On the day of inspection for the exit, Robert Mullarkey of Double T did the walk through and told us quote; "We both don't know what existed under the carpet so, I will send you a signed clearance document and expect a full refund of deposit, because the apartment is clean." unquote. After three weeks with no letter or refund I got a hold of Mr. Mullarkey and he said he would see what the delay of sending our check was on their end but then sent an an email stating there was tremendous amount of damage from our dogs and he was keeping our full $1,800 deposit. He continued in the email stating that he was replacing the carpet with a $45 a Square yard carpet. The carpet that was in the apartment wasn't close to that amount and was closer to $6 a square yard. Our dogs were house trained and during the day kept in the master bath that had tile with pads and were they walked twice a day and we also had a dog walker. The amount of damage he claims our dogs caused couldn't have happened unless our dogs went to the bathroom 24 hours a day for 2 years on that carpet. We pointed out to him that there was a spring that ran underneath the property (well documented) and that moisture seeping up from the cellar into our first floor apartment caused the damage. We also pointed out the mold around the pipes in the crawl space of the bathroom. He ignored that issue and said everything was safe. He never sent a release letter to us (this was in July 2013), but did send a threatening email to us saying that if we contested the non-refund of our dposit he would charge us over $6,000 for repairs. I still have that email. I don't care now about the money. i do care that Robert Mullarkey treated us like lower class citizens with no regard of due process. Double T is trying to get rid of the rest of the tenants so they can raise the rent. Our unit went up a $1,000.