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madmadison85 · Sep 15, 2007, 01:55 PM

I live in an apartment in Odessa, Tx. I signed a lease agreement stating I would pay a $75.00 late fee, $50.00 return check fee, and $10.00/day from day rent was late, if I was ever late on rent. So on Aug.30th, I deposited my check into my account. On Sep. 5th, I wrote a check for rent. On Sep. 6th the apartments tried to deposit my check, but for some reason it came back as insufficient funds. This is because by Sep. 6th, the money I had deposited on 08/30 was still was not available. I was notified on 9/14 that the check did not go through and I now owe $277.00 in fees on top of my rent. I am disputing this with the bank, because on my bank balance for that day, it shows the money WAS in there and the check should have gone through. My apartment refuses to waive the fees even though they have seen a printout of my bank balance sheet for that day, and agree that this was the bank's fault. They said that we have to pay the fees or we will be evicted in 3 days. Can I do anything about this or do I just have to suck it up and pay them, even though it was the bank's fault?

glnutrition · Sep 15, 2007, 02:05 PM

Well, for one thing, your apartments cannot just simply evict you in 3 days. They have to take you to eviction court and get a judgement and eviction order from a judge and that process alone takes time.

Sounds to me like they are just trying to scare you into paying some excessive fees. If it is a mistake by your bank maybe you can convince them to cover the late fees. I got mine to cover a late fee for my house rent because they never sent the check to my landlord (online banking)... but then again, my late fee is only $50 and nothing excessive.

froggy7 · Sep 15, 2007, 04:00 PM

The lease says that they are entitled to that because the rent was late. The reason why doesn't really matter to them. If I were you, I'd be raising a ruckus with your bank, since this mess is their fault.

ScottGem · Sep 15, 2007, 04:37 PM

The landlord is within their rights to collect the fees. Your bank is responsible for any fees you incur due to their error.

However, if the landlord were to take you to court for eviction due to nonpayment of the fees, the court might not uphold it. So if you want to take your chances in court, don't pay.