My lease was up in July of 07". In May I found this dog had it living in the apartment for less than a month. Started getting letters on my door saying they were going to charge 20 a day for the dog being there. So I kept the dog at my girlfriends house. Still keep getting letters. So finally they send me a letter from an attorney stating that I no longer can pay them my rent as I normally do I must pay the attorney the full amount with was and outragous amount that was completely untrue. I call the attorney numerous amount of times on his answering machine he says do not call me back leave a message and ill call you back.. He never call me back. I left a couple of messages and called several times still to hear nothing from him. Then I got down the leasing office, the ladies in there tell me they had no idea what was going on with the account. Then they say well just pay the twenty dollars a day for the month of May and your rent that is owed. Then still getting letters on my door to get the dog out after I have already. Letter after letter annoying me like crazy. Still adding the amount up 20 a day for a dog that was no longer there. So I state looking for a house to live in because my girlfriends lease was up soon and we just found out we are pregnant. We pack everything up in June since my lease was up in July anyway and clean the apartment. The carpet did have some wear and tear and a few stains on it. That's understandable. So in August I get this letter saying That I owe 3,817.88 to Canyon creek apts. These charges are 20.00 to sweep and mop the floor in the bathroom , mircowave dirty 20.00, dirty tub 60.00, 792.00 to replace the carpet, 225.00 Stain seal floors urine found, pet Probe carpets 792.00, Charges for the pictures they took of the apartment 15.00, 10.00 to take a bath curtain down, and so on with the cleaning charges which in the lease they state that there are RESONABLE charges for cleaning charged. And I never did a walk through with them like I was supposed to because they never tried to contact me. They say that there was no forwarding address left. I have a copy of my change of address from the postoffice stating when I changed it so they can't say they sent me a letter. Also they could have called me. As far as the pictures they took how do they prove that this is my apartment. They all look the same. The charge for rent they say I own is 1,750.00 my rent was 580.00 a month I didn't pay June and July. That would come out to 1160.00. Also a final ista fill for 109.00. What is ista? I am trying to work it out with these people and pay my two months rent but they want all this money that I don't owe. Ive called and went up to the apts. What else can I do. Please help.. They say that this will go on my credit score. I currently have a great score. These charges are just outragouse and they don't want to talk about them.. They say the charges are as is.

Unfortunately, it looks like they got you.
It happened to me with the first apartment I rented.
I admit, I left it a mess and got crazy charges like you are describing.
It went to collections and I had to pay it off or it would have hit my credit.
There was nothing I could do... a clean apartment means that you are leaving it exactly the way that you got it.
Usually water and sewer is included in the rent. If you didn't pay the last 2 months of rent,
The ista could be the water and sewer company billing you.

Is this Canyon Creek apts in Canyon, TX? I own rental property in Canyon and have had several tenants with very similar stories to yours who came from Canyon Creek.

I don't suppose you took any pictures of the unit when you vacated it?

Are they taking you to small claims court for the rent/damages? Or just stating that you owe it? So has the attorney stopped contacting you? Did they send you the tiemized letter within 30 days?

I would recommend writing them a letter with an itemized list of exactly what you're willing to pay in rent and damages. State in the letter exactly what day the pet was removed and that you have witnesses to this fact. Get a money order or cashier's check for that amount and take it into the office to give to them. Keep a copy of the letter for yourself, by the way. If they refuse your payment I'd keep copies of everything, including the cashier's check, and consider the matter closed. If they do try to turn your account over to a collection agency you would at least have some written proof to dispute the claim. If they try to get a judgement against you, you'd have some good evidence to show the judge that they were being unreasonable. If they didn't send you the letter about not returning your deposit within 30 days you can counter sue them for twice the amount of the deposit (I'm still assumming you're in Texas.) And there's always the chance that they won't do anything and it won't ever show up on your credit.

If you do have very good credit and continue to, this one negative thing won't really affect you that much. It would look bad to prospective landlords, but you'd at least have written proof that you tried to deal with them.

Good luck,
Karla in TX