The self-help clause in my landlord's lease actually makes sense to me now

I used to think boilerplate mediation clauses were just lawyer padding until a property manager in Oakland explained it over coffee. She said in court cases she's seen small disputes eat up $5,000 in fees that could have been fixed with a thirty minute sit down. That six month eviction fight I avoided last year ended up costing me zero extra after we just talked it out. Her exact words were 'the clause is there to save you from yourself'. Has anyone else had a mediation requirement actually work out in their favor?

3 comments

3 Comments

bennett.vera4d ago

Oh man, so the clause that looked like legal jargon actually works sometimes? I guess there's a first time for everything. My landlord tried to have a "sit down" with me about my cat once - turns out he just wanted to charge me an extra $50 a month for the privilege of having carpet stains. Real heartwarming. But hey, if it saved you from a six month fight, maybe I should stop complaining and start praying my own boilerplate never gets tested.

the_emery4d ago

Wait is this actually a big deal or are we overthinking some boilerplate, @bennett.vera?

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carter.gavin3d ago

Man, I hear you on the boilerplate thing. My last landlord tried to slip in a "reasonable maintenance fee" clause that I only caught because I had a lawyer buddy glance at it, turned out it let him charge me for any repair under $500. I pushed back hard and got it removed, and honestly it saved me a few hundred bucks over the year, so don't sleep on that fine print.