Landlord probably tried to string it along to force the tenant to settle due to costs.

I feel like there should be a circuit-breaker that stops the money flowing past a certain point. I don't care what accounting magic you use, a few hundred bucks should never balloon to 250k.

They should move for sanctions next.

Thats a nominal “get out of bed” kind of quote. You dont be a tradesman and drive to someone’s house for the $25 that it actually costs to do the job.

HVAC is where the money is. $1000+ for replacing a compressor coil.

You don't think the electrician doing the work got all that, do you? The company that signs his paycheck took the lion's share.

Depends on the judges. The county I grew up in was notorious for having republican leaning judges that almost always sided with the landlords.

County made a point to make sure landlords could evict as fast as legally possible.

Knew a few people that owned some apartments. The only credit I can give them is they bought raw land and built them themselves so they didn't just buy up existing housing supply. But yeah, I've heard their stories on the court's efficiency

Its a silly place

It's a $1.68 socket. No way the landlord didn't have a handyman replace that in 15 minutes. Handyman hourly rate ~ $50

If he called a real electrician, it would have been around $150, including a full hour of labor. Landlords who don't handle exterminators* or collect trash on the regular* don't call real electricians; he probably called his nephew, and they each take a cut.

So the guy is slumlording, which is why he got the 32k payout.

The $225k legal fee is because the renters' lawyer wants to fuck the landlord over for being a dirtbag. He'll go after him himself for the 225k, perhaps reach a lower settlement. But it sounds like the landlord wants to appeal the whole thing; he's likely going to lose, again.

The interesting part, the outlet got Hot AF on the neutral side

The alarm clock would not have been the culprit. That was a loose connection in the outlet, or its wiring, certainly not the tenant's fault.

"* FTA"

We have the same problem with Medical. You go to the hospital for an extreme migraine, they give you $200 OTC painkiller, a $300 bill each from the triage nurse, the doctor that sees you and the doctor associated with whatever tests they run. They charge the insurance company $1100, the insurance company already has an agreement with them to only pay 30%. If you don't have insurance, you can often (but not always) talk them down to a reasonable rate closer to what it actually costs them.

This could have been completely avoided if landlords didn't suck way more.

Its very expensive to become an attorney from all the initial education (aka, repaying student loans). Add on to that the malpractice insurance, the licensing fees (fee for test + new license + maintain license), the continuing education costs, fees related to document discovery (ever try going through 200k documents by yourself?), the researching fees (lexis/west law/bloomberg), the filing fees to submit filings to the court/regulating body, the fees to access the docketing portals, and the costs related to hiring employees to help (the secretary, the paralegal, the receptionist, etc), and the regular office supplies (paper, electricity, rent, binders, etc.), then it starts to make sense why attorneys fees add up.

Your boss.

The ~$35 you get for your time is your cut.

I'd unionize.

Drive to my house and I will pay you $4

A small job like that would charge a minimum of an hour, $4 for a receptacle, $30 for a gfi. We're looking at a $150 to $200 job.

The truck roll is the expensive part.

Truthfully I'm surprised they even hired out an electrician for that. General handyman can replace an outlet.

As a non-proffessional I've replaced outlets in my own house. It took me 20 minutes for the first one. Now it takes about 10, but that because I triple check everything and go slow

Honestly crazy that an old blown neutral ended up a $32k+ lawsuit.

A local mechanic wanted $25 for an oil change, after I bought the oil and filters. I ended up taking it to the other shop and getting a fully synthetic change for $7 less than the local guy, if I had purchased conventional oil, and that's not including disposal cost.

I like your version. More tenants should beat the shit out of their landlords. America would be a better place.

English is my native language, and I read it that way too

Won't stop them. They'll just raise the rent on other tenants to pay for it and go on being slumlords.