Esquire...

Every day I thank my lucky stars that I decided to go to law school.  For the obvious reason, of course - I'm crazy about my job.  It challenges me and frustrates me at times, but it's definitely what I'm meant to do.  

But it has also been useful in another way.  It gave me (1) a basic knowledge of the legal system such that, even if I don't know what the law is, I can usually figure it out, (2) negotiation skills that come in handy in the real world.

For example, last week Micah went to our old rent house to drop of a check for the guys who mow the lawn.  When he went around to the back of the house, he saw a car in the driveway.  This was odd because our lease isn't up until the end of September, and we're still paying rent and utilities, even though we don't live there anymore.  After talking to the landlord, Micah found out that they had found a new tenant.

Needless to say, I was livid.

Texas law doesn't permit a landlord to collect rent from a tenant after they have surrendered the premises and the landlord has found a new tenant.  It was especially frustrating since we were also still paying utilities and for the lawn service.  

So I sent a cordial, but firm, email to the landlord explaining that we would appreciate the return of (1) a prorated portion of the rent for August, (2) our security deposit, and (3) our pet deposit.

He responded that he wasn't sure if he could return the rent and that he'd be docking us the expenses to replace a dead bush in the yard.  After a bit more back-and-forth (wherein I informed him that we absolutely would not be paying for the bush, since it was dead when we moved in [I attached a facebook picture uploaded on the day we moved in as proof]), we received an email today informing us that he'd be returning everything we asked for.  Whoo hoo!

Maybe it was the signature block on the email, or my clever negotiating skills, or maybe it was the time-stamped facebook picture, but I'm just happy that we'll be saving a bundle of money!  Maybe we won't have to wait so long to buy those dining room chairs, after all! :)