I loved living at Southside on Lamar... it was great, the people were great, the amenities great, never had a problem with maintenance... that being said, when I moved in the walls were all painted a funny shade of brown with designs and things all over them. I was told that I could keep them as they were, or have the guys paint them back to white, and I said it wasnt a big deal, just keep them as they were. When I moved out they tried to charge me a lot of money to paint them back to white. They never told me that they would do that, or why in the world would I have kept them the same as before when it would have cost me nothing to have them painted white' In the end they charged me for something that would have been free on move in, and reported it to a credit bureau while I argued with them over the price of re-painting. Luckily the new tennants were ok with part of the painting, and didnt ask for it to be painted back to white, or I would have been out even more money.

User Responses
From: frqntrenter	Date: 05/25/2006
I hope you check this soon. You could get your money back from the management as what they did is illegal. Check the Texas State Attorney website for a brochure called Tenant's Rights. Also, go to www.tenants.net and navigate to Texas tenants advisor. They cannot charge you for repairs that fall under "normal wear and tear." If the place was in the same condition, with the exception of normal wear and tear, as when you moved in, they cannot charge you. Therefore, since the walls were in that condition when you moved in, then they cannot charge you to paint them back to white. Basically, they pocketed whatever security deposit the previous rentor gave to them, and are charging you also for the work. It would be most helpful if you had filled out a move-in condition form at move-in and noted the walls were painted. If not, go to the manager, calmly inform them of your rights, know the lease terms and work something out. They also have to remove the negative comment on your credit report if this is resolved. If there is any retaliaition on the part of management, read up on the Texas Property Code available online. I think there are fines up to 3x the monthly rent for such actions if proven in court.

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