Edit: Gave them a couple days to respond; they didn’t. Thus, this is going online.
You’d think that more than half a year after moving out of a place, you’d stop getting (dead-wood) mail from your previous landlord, right? Well, Dan-Ejendomme as still contacts me. Basically, when I moved out, they erroneously paid my security deposit and prepaid rent back twice. This is an error that in principle could happen to anyone, and the problem is more understandable considering the fact that during the period, I moved out, the party responsible for handling the property, Kuben ejendomadministration, was taken over by Dan-Ejendomme as. The way it was handled subsequently was very unprofessional, however.
I first received a letter informing me of the error and a request to pay back the additional money:
Three things from this letter is of interest: it was sent on December 2nd 2010, the amount owed is 17572, and the time allowed for payment is December 9, 2010. A rather short notice, considering that the letter has to cross a couple borders to reach me, but I’ll let that slide, especially since, IIRC, they sent a copy by e-mail.
Some time later, I receive this dunning letter from Dan-Ejendomme as (dead-wood only):
Here we notice a couple things. First, this letter is dated December 7, 2010, i.e., 2 days before the time allowed for payment. Second, the owed amount on the front page is now 17772. Finally, they threaten me with hiring a debt collection agency, despite the fact that for 9 or 10 years (I don’t remember which is right) I’ve paid my rent on time every month.
This morning, I sent of a response notifying them of their wrong-doings. Like a real fairy-tale, the number 3 plays a prominent role, namely in the number of screw-ups on the part of Dan-Ejendomme: wrongly paying my deposit and pre-paid rent twice, confusing how causality works with how it doesn’t work, and adding a handling fee twice. The mail below is a translated version, the real version is at the end of this post. Also, I must admit, I lied in the mail; their incompetency does in fact make me doubt their ability to handle rent for thousands of people each month.
I have received a reminder regarding the settlement concerning Vestervang 32, 4. mf.
Before I continue, I will affirm the notice concerns an amount, you erroneously overpaid – in other words, this is solely concerned with an error on your part.
Subsequently, I would like to draw attention to the fact that the time allowed for payment is December 9, 2010 and that your reminder is dated December 7, 2010. Assuming time solely flows forward, this fact has non-negligible causality problems.
Finally, I would like to draw attention to the fact that your reminder contains a miscalculation (indicates the amount is 17772, where the original amount is 17572 + your late fee of 100; you are not allowed to just add a late fee twice). This, of course, does not bring my trust in your ability to administer larger amounts for many people into question.
With that said, I can inform that I have paid the amount, on time, and I would very much like a confirmation of this fact.
Attached, please find your original letter and reminder for reference.
Yeah, I think I handled it in a mature way. And then I posted it on the internet.
My original e-mail in Danish:
Jeg har modtaget en rykker angående afregning omkring Vestervang 32, 4. mf.
Før jeg går videre, vil jeg lige slå fast, rykkeren omhandler et beløb, I fejlagtigt har udbetalt for meget – der er altså udelukkende tale om en fejl fra jeres side.
Dernæst vil jeg gøre opmærksom på, beløbet har rettidig indbetalingsdato 9. december 2010 samt at jeres rykkerskrivelse er dateret 7. december 2010. Antager vi, tiden udelukkende løber fremad, er der ikke-ubetydelige kausalitetsproblemer i dette faktum.
Slutteligt vil jeg lige gøre opmærksom på, jeres rykkerskrivelse indeholder regnefejl (angiver beløbet som 17772, hvor det oprindelige beløb er 17572 + jeres rykkergebyr på 100; man må ikke bare lægge et rykkergebyr til mere end en gang). Det bringer selvfølgelig ikke min tiltro til jeres evne til at administrere større beløb for mange mennesker til fald.
Når det er sagt, kan jeg oplyse om, jeg har indbetalt beløbet, rettidigt, og at jeg meget gerne vil have en bekræftelse på det.
Vedhæftet er jeres oprindelige skrivelse samt rykker til reference.
They kept my entire deposit, all 31000dk of it, you know, to cover the costs of repainting an 80sq/m apartment.. Copenhagen must have the highest paid painters of any city. Also, I just received a letter asking for an additional 2700dk; somehow they must have miscalculated the amounts by which they were ripping me off.