Physicist Haoyu Qi and his wife moved from New Brunswick to Toronto over the winter for work, but before he could retrieve a $2,000 security deposit he had paid on his Moncton apartment, he was told his landlord was making a $500 claim on the money for cleaning and damage costs.
That surprised Qi, especially when he was shown pictures submitted by the landlord to justify the charge.
One picture appeared to show dirt and chipped paint on a ledge by a window but Qi said there was no ledge like that in his unit.
“I feel like none of the pictures were from our apartment,” he said in an interview.
A second photo showed a dozen holes in drywall in what Qi guessed was from an old wall-mounted television installation, but he said he and his wife did not own a television during their two-year stay.