I leased a space from DCL Property Management and was at the end of my 4 year contract when Covid hit, so I reached out to my landlord in April asking that if I signed another years contract, but was shut down due to Covid, would they work with me? I received a curt reply stating I had until the end of the month to submit my intent in writing, otherwise the lease automatically renewed for another year (with a 3% increase). That is when I made the difficult decision to submit in writing my intent to terminate my tenancy, last day being June 31st. The next day I received an email from management with a $4000.00 invoice attached, stating they had forgotten to bill me in CAM expenses for the past 4 years, but would work with me on payments if needed.

According to the contract, I was to receive overage invoices at the end of every year, which I did receive utility invoices at the end of each year.  This was the invoice I thought was their CAM expenses.  It was then I decided to request receipts for the expenses they were claiming I owed, as per the contract, I had the right to request them.  They responded with a warning that if they went through the expenses, they may find more discrepancies, thus me owing them more money.  Also per the contract, they were supposed to give me an annual itemized statement of the year’s expenses, which they never did, and still have not to this day, despite my repeated request. 

With that being said, I had two additional months remaining in the space, my last day being June 31st.  I paid May’s rent on May 1st, as I’ve done every month for the prior 4 years, (I’ve never been late on my rent or utilities), but when I received June’s rent invoice, it showed they had applied May’s rent to the CAM invoice, not towards the rent and then charged me a $100.00 late fee, stating May’s rent was past due.  THEN, on top of all of it, they added June’s rent to the invoice, which I had already prepaid before moving into the storefront (the contract required I pay last month’s rent and a substantial deposit before taking possession of the property).  To this day, I have not received an updated invoice, despite my requests they put May’s rent into the correct accounting column and remove any late fees. 

I have been in my home office now for 1.5 months and have not received a current invoice.  I am sure I will receive one though, probably with all kinds of bogus fees, etc.  I have searched for an audit attorney who specializes in things like this, but with Covid, I have not heard back from the 3 I have reached out to. 

Not sure where to go from here, just too busy trying to get my shop going and making sure all of my customers know where I have moved to.

So much for working with me.

Respectfully Blue Prints Plus