Apartment charged me big move-out fee. What I should do?

Question

We moved out of the appartment we stayed for over 3 years recently. We always paid our rent on time and never caused any problem. The appartment didn't charge us security deposit/cleaning fee when we moved in. We were told that we would be charged cleaning fee when we move out. But tht bill ended up over $500 USD. The cleaning fee is only $75 and there are other fees like Carpet, Draperies/Blinds etc. We really don't understand how they came up thoes numbers. Everything works when we moved out. It says in the bill that if we don't pay it within 7 days, it will be reported to the credit agencies and sent to the collect agencies. Can somebody tell me what we should do in this case? Thanks

Answer 1

Send them a certified letter disputing the charges.  Let them know what you agree to ($75 cleaning fee?)  and if they feel that additional charges are necessary that you request legal arbitration.

Answer 2

they have to allow for normal wear and tear did you take pictures when you moved out to document how the place looked.  The landlord needs to include receipts for any purchases they made. as for the carpet they can only charge you a depreciated value IF YOU left it damaged to where it needed to be replaced.

I wouldn't pay the bill.