His dogs urinated everywhere,
it resulted in a mold problem.
- All over the house. - They never peed inside, ever.
You don't know how horrific the situation is.
[laughs]
You call her some really nasty names.
Freaking imbecile, nincompoop, idiot.
You have this arrogant, pompous,
self-righteous attitude. Outrageous.
[announcer] Now on Tribunal Justice.
["Ride of the Valkyries" plays]
Today's case was filed in San Jose, California.
Judge, this is case number 2053 on the count in the matter
of Xu versus Bueno.
- Thank you, Byrd. - Uh-hmm. You're welcome.
Parties have been sworn in. You may be seated.
Ms. Xu, you rented your home to the defendant.
Yes.
[Judge Acker] And you say that his dogs urinated everywhere,
it resulted in a mold problem on your property
and you also had to replace the flooring.
Yes.
[Judge Acker] And you are suing him for $9,433.
- Yes. - [Judge Acker] Mr. Bueno,
you tell us that you had the home professionally cleaned,
you owe her nothing.
And in fact, this is just a big money grab on her part.
Ms. Xu, you rented the house to the defendant
on the same day that you closed the house.
- Uh-hmm. - [Judge Acker] Purchase price was 1.85
and what was your rent, sir?
5,200 a month, yes?
Uh, yes, Your Honor.
[Judge Acker] Now, you have two dogs.
Let's see the dogs.
They are very handsome animals.
You knew the dogs were going to be there, right?
- [Wendy] Yes. I was able to… - [Judge Acker] So in the beginning,
it works out well for everybody.
In fact, I noticed from the evidence, 'cause you did submit quite a lot of it,
both of you did, that there were times when you would email him 10,
15 days before the rent was due and say, "Are you gonna pay the rent?"
- Like on the 19th, one month. - She would demand the money from me
all the time early because supposedly her mortgage payment,
she wasn't able to make until I made, uh, the payment.
And she would consistently, every month, ask me and say,
"Kevin, have you sent the money? Kevin, have you sent the money?"
And I'm like, "Uh, could--check your account.
- There's no need to ask me." - Do you…
[Judge Acker] I got it. I got that. I got that.
- I never ask him every month. - [Judge Acker] No, no, no.
- [Kevin] Oh, there's text messages. - [Judge Acker] Okay.
Everybody's gonna stop right now because we have seen all of this evidence.
And you did, in fact, ma'am, often ask him for rent well before it was due.
I saw it. I saw the text messages.
So, I don't think that he's testifying untruthfully there.
Yes. One…
[Judge Acker] Let's get to what you claim is the basis of the damage.
Let's look at Exhibit 8.
And so these are the images of the dog urine
that remained on the property after the defendant moved out.
- Is that right, ma'am? - [Wendy] Yes.
- After he moved out? - After he did a professional clean,
I visit the home.
There's a really strong nauseous dog urine smell all over the house,
on the first floor and also on the second floor.
Tell me where were these pictures taken.
Where in your home are these rooms?
- [Wendy] Yes. - Where's the pee?
[Wendy] The first one is a family room.
So, family room, living room, master bedroom. Yes.
And now, where was the mold located in your home?
So, mold was located, uh, marked in
all these red outline in all these, uh, rooms.
So, the living room, dining room, family room,
and the master bedroom on the second floor.
- All the red outlines, the mold was… - [Judge Acker] Okay.
[Wendy] … uh, detected by the molding inspector company.
Got it. Mr. Bueno, is there any dispute that your dogs
maybe sometimes had a little accident in the house?
My dogs obviously are two big dogs.
Um, they were super well-trained and they are super obedient.
I walk 'em without a leash because they're so obedient.
They never peed inside ever.
And you could see on the second picture,
there's two lines from the-- where my couch was.
So, my--when I moved in, that couch never moved.
And there's no way my dogs would ever pee on the couch like that.
I am with you on dogs usually not peeing on furniture,
especially if it's furniture that they sit on.
I'm not with you, and I just gotta say, I don't believe you.
I've had well-trained dogs.
They have accidents sometimes inside.
And you know why I know that to be true is because there's some very good evidence
that you yourself presented,
because, Ms. Xu, your property had suffered
some pretty extensive damage to your fence.
- Yes? - [Wendy] Uh, yes.
[Judge Acker] And I believe you said, sir,
that it was harder for your dogs to do their business outside
because they had to go through like this apocalyptic nightmare.
- Correct? - [Kevin] Correct.
[Judge Acker] So, I'm gonna just say,
I think that there was probably a little pee in the house.
But, ma'am, I don't know that I'm convinced
that you have made the case that these remnants of urine
necessarily caused mold.
Where is your mold report?
Um, the inspection company asked me
to pay for the $1,000 for that report, even though they came.
- [Judge Acker] Well, I'm sorry… - And I have text messages.
… that it was going to be costly, which means we don't have anything
from you that would demonstrate the causal connection
between the urine and the mold.
Uh, we do, ourselves, however, have an expert on hand.
There we go.
Good afternoon, Mr. Andrade.
Could you tell us what you do for a living, please, sir?
Uh, I'm a property inspector and also a mold inspector as well.
[Judge Acker] And how long have you been a mold inspector?
Uh, about almost eight years.
Have you ever encountered a situation
where mold resulted from dog urine or dog waste?
Have you seen anything like that before?
No, I have not.
Have you had a chance to view the plaintiff's photographs
of the alleged mold that existed on her property?
Uh, I'm--I was looking at the pictures.
I know one of them, it looks like it was an exterior photo,
maybe, like, through a patio slider door.
Um, based on the location of where the possible mold growth is growing,
it seems like it's some kind of moisture intrusion
from the exterior or a possible roof leak.
I don't think it's pet urine.
Very unlikely.
[Judge Acker] Very unlikely is your expert opinion.
- Uh-hmm. - Based on your review of the photographs,
are you able to offer an opinion
as to how long the mold has existed on the property?
Mold takes a while. It has to be in the right conditions.
I'm looking at the photos right now,
um, and it seems like there's quite a bit of it throughout,
you know, these areas where the photos were taken.
Um, so, it didn't happen overnight.
Could it have happened within a year?
- Uh, yeah. Or even longer. - [Judge Acker] Or even longer.
- Or--yeah, or even longer. - [Judge Acker] Very good.
- Uh-hmm. - Thank you very much, sir.
So, Ms. Xu, you have a problem.
You cannot make the connection between the dog urine and the mold.
In fact, I wanna dig into a little bit of what the defendant suggests
may be your motives for this lawsuit.
He thinks you just can't afford the house and you need some money.
- No. - Uh-hmm.
[Judge Acker] And in fact, didn't you say that you thought that buying this house
was a huge mistake?
Due to this, uh, incident, I feel like that…
[Judge Acker] No, that's not quite what you said.
Your words were, "I regret this purchase."
In fact, ma'am, when he gave you the 30-day notice,
you didn't say, "Thank God, I gotta get you and your smelly dogs outta here."
You said, "No, no, no.
I want you to stay till the end of the month
until I can find another tenant."
So, the time when I visited her--his home,
you don't know how horrific the situation is.
[Judge Acker] I have to tell you--ma'am,
- I'm gonna stop… - The clothes…
[Judge Acker] Ma'am. Ma'am. If it smelled so overpoweringly of dog urine,
why were you asking him to please stay after he gave you the notice?
In fact, what you said was, "No, no, no.
I need you to stay because I don't have another tenant."
So, I don't find that entirely credible.
- Judge DiMango. - I think that there are two things…
- Okay. Let me pause you there. - [Wendy] Yeah.
Was this a brand new house
- that you bought? - Yes.
[Judge DiMango] It was brand new, newly built?
Oh, not a newly built, no.
The house was built at the 19, uh, I think '70, '78.
- I'm not too sure. - 19--so, it's not a new house?
- [Wendy] It's not a new house. - Do you know who lived there before you?
A homeowner.
- I think a--since the home was built. - [Judge DiMango] Since it was built?
- Yes. Homeowner. - Did that person have a family,
children, dogs?
Do you know who the people were that lived there before?
[announcer] Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
I'm gonna tell you what annoyed me.
I went through your papers. I marked off five different times
that your description of either her or yourself was outrageous.
[dramatic musical sting]
[theme music plays]
[announcer] Landlord Wendy Xu is suing former tenant Kevin Bueno
for over $9,000 in extensive mold damage
she claims was caused by his dogs' urine.
Kevin says Wendy is trying to squeeze every penny out of him
because she can't afford the rental property.
- It's not a new house? - [Wendy] It's not a new house.
- Do you know who lived there before you? - A homeowner.
- I think a--since the home was built. - [Judge DiMango] Since it was built?
Yes. Homeowner.
Did that person have a family, children, dogs?
Do you know who the people were that lived there before?
Uh, I'm not entirely sure, but it…
- Well, what part are you sure of? - [Wendy] It's a senior couple.
Only thing I'm very sure is, uh, the four week
before the, uh, seller put the house on the market,
she did a complete, uh, renovation for the house
that, uh, she installed a complete new flooring,
new carpet, and she paid through the escrow
- with the seller agent. - Okay.
- So… - Which I have email.
[Judge DiMango] … I will take a copy of that.
This doesn't necessarily support your position
because she might have changed the floors
because there was urine and things from her pets.
We don't know that for sure.
- But go on. I'm gonna let you go. - But the mold was exposed,
uh, when we take out the baseboards.
So, the baseboards and flooring are all newly installed.
- Okay. - [Wendy] Right?
So, let's talk about the area which far away from the sliding door,
in the family room, for example here.
This is where this vent is at.
- [Judge DiMango] Okay. - This vent is right at here.
So, there's no way the swimming pool or anything can go to that corner.
That's where it turned up. So, uh, it sucks in air into the…
- [Judge DiMango] Yes. Okay. - … HVAC system.
And right behind that wall is the furnace and the water heater
- and the washing machine room. - [Judge DiMango] All right.
I'm gonna wanna speak to you, Mr. Andrade.
Yes.
[Judge DiMango] Has anything that she said here
change your opinion as to whether or not the dog urine,
which is nowhere near outdoor area
and moisture would have caused that mold
to be caused by anything but something like dog urine?
I'm still sticking to my original story. I don't think it's a pet.
I think it's moisture intrusion.
And based on what the other gentleman said about where the water's coming in,
I'm looking at that exact picture right now,
um, where the return for the AC's at.
I know he mentioned that the water heater's on the other side of that wall…
- [Judge DiMango] Just that it… - [Jose] … it could be some kind of leak
- where the--it turned up. - So, you're telling me
that if a dog urinated in that area
for a period of three months, that that would not cause mold.
- Two dogs for instance. - Male or female?
One's a male, one's a female.
- [Judge DiMango] One of each. - Okay. What do the male do when they pee?
They pick up their leg.
You would see a remnant of urine through the wall coming down.
Um, you would have that mold or mildew growth everywhere,
not just exactly at the baseboards.
[Judge DiMango] Okay. Thank you, sir.
Now, Ms. Xu,
have you ever had any confrontations with the defendant in any way?
So, there are times I wanted to visit home, um,
like, uh, I have mails or those things.
He would not let me basically visit home.
[Judge DiMango] Okay. 'Cause I'm gonna tell you what annoyed me very much.
I went through your papers.
I marked off five different times
that your description of either her or yourself was outrageous.
First one, "Wendy is a freaking imbecile."
- Your words. - Uh-hmm.
"She's a nincompoop.
She's not the sharpest tool in the shed.
She's an idiot."
Fifth time, and this might be your biggest mistake,
you say, "I'm not a dick."
Who do you think you are referring to another individual
in a lawsuit like that?
Now, you lied. Where did you lie?
- When Judge Acker said to you… - Uh-hmm.
… "Did your dog ever pee in the house?"
You know what you said?
"No, never ever."
And so I'm gonna read to you what you wrote in your answer.
"Wendy wants me to pay for upgrades to her home.
Yes, my dogs may have peed and pooped in the house,
but that's because Wendy's fence came down due to high winds.
My dogs weren't able to use their doggy door at night.
We took them out in the daytime,
but they were used to being able to go when they needed to at night."
So, your position is your dogs were used to going at night,
but since they couldn't go through the doggy door,
they decided to utilize the home as their new indoor toilet.
And you have this arrogant, pompous, self-righteous attitude,
and demean her and put her down
when meanwhile, the person in here who's blatantly lying is you.
Okay.
- [Judge DiMango] Judge Levy? - [Judge Levy] All right.
Ma'am, prior to closing on the house in September of 2022,
you had a home inspection done. Correct?
The home inspection report was done through the escrow.
Well, did you do a walkthrough of the home before you bought it?
Yes. I walked through the home.
Home is, uh, definitely a gorgeous home,
- which I'm--I can present… - [Judge Levy] Okay.
We're not gonna talk about pictures, we're not gonna talk about gorgeous home.
- Right. - We're talking about
the inspection report.
What do you claim that the home inspection report said about the home?
It was pristine. It was in great condition.
- Yes. - [Judge Levy] Right.
You're suing him for $10,000.
You know that you wanna prove that the house was in pristine condition
when you bought it,
and you know the best evidence of that would be the home inspection report.
Right?
So, where is it? Why didn't you bring it?
- You sure you wanna give it to me? - [Wendy] Yes.
All right. When was the last time you looked at it?
I look at it several times before I came to the court.
Most people who do this don't end up well.
[laughter]
[Judge Levy] Hold on.
Whoa. "The wood members under the crawl space
show evidence of water damage."
- I--and it… - [Judge Levy] So--hold on.
We're not done. I'm gonna have fun now,
'cause it's late in the day and I'm kind of bored.
[laughter]
- Keep in mind, we're not. - So--yeah.
- [laughter] - [Judge Levy] So--
and now, we know one of the reasons why you didn't give it to us
is because the home inspection report
indicated that there was already water infiltration.
Is that what you thought, Mr. Expert?
Water intrusion.
"Water damage, wood members under crawl space.
Roofing, leaks were noted in the downspouts
or gutters on the front."
There we go. "And are noted from the stains at the areas
where the leaks have occurred."
That's what you said, Mr. Expert, right?
- Ding, ding, ding. - Yes, sir.
[Judge Levy] Roofing, leaks.
I have a roofer report here. There's no leak.
Stop. This is what you didn't want me to see.
That's why I wanna see it.
That's where the good stuff is.
Missing downspouts at the front gutters.
You know what happens when you don't have downspouts?
Mr. Expert, where does the water go?
Everywhere.
- [Judge Levy] There we go. - [laughter]
So, now we know that you bought a moldy house.
[announcer] Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
She lied in order to get some extra money from the IRS, pretty much,
and stating that this is not a rental, that this is her primary residence.
[Judge Levy] Right. And you deny that?
[dramatic musical sting]
[theme music plays]
[announcer] Landlord Wendy Xu
is suing former tenant Kevin Bueno
for over $9,000 in extensive mold damage
she claims was caused by his dogs' urine.
Kevin says Wendy is trying to squeeze every penny out of him
because she can't afford the rental property.
[Judge Levy] Okay.
Family room is right there. Right?
All this area here is what you said was the mold, right?
- Yes. - [Judge Levy] And that according to you,
the only explanation from your mold people
was that that mold was caused by his animals, right?
- Yes. - [Judge Levy] Why don't you tell us, sir,
what is directly above that room?
Hall bath?
Uh, yes.
- [Judge Levy] Oh. - Uh, they're--right above that room
- is a hall and a master bathroom. - [Judge Levy] Oh. Hold on. A hall bath.
[Wendy] What? There's no bathroom like that. It…
- Hold on. - [Wendy] Okay.
So, this is the second floor, right?
This is the…
[Judge Levy] So, if you take the second floor
and put it over the first floor,
what is above the family room?
- [Wendy] Bathroom. -[Judge Levy] Thank you.
Now, do you remember the defendant sending you a text?
You say to him, "I have a house inspection report.
Everything was working when you took over."
And then he responds, "Luckily, you have a home warranty,
but yeah, oven is broken.
And the toilet in hall bathroom upstairs
won't stop running."
It never happened.
There's only a water tank that's--
- due to the lever. - [Judge Levy laughs]
- There's no… - [Judge Levy] That's what he said.
Here's the last thing that I'm gonna ask you.
You got insurance for the house, you got homeowner's insurance?
- Yes. - [Judge Levy] Right.
The homeowner's insurance wants to know
whether it's your primary residence
or whether or not it's a rental or a second home.
- Boom. - [Judge Levy] Right?
Because it's more money for homeowner's insurance…
- [Kevin] Uh-hmm. - … on a rental
and it's more money on a homeowner insurance on a second home.
- This is… - Where am I going with this, sir?
Why don't you tell us?
Upon, uh, me signing our lease agreement,
she made it very clear to me that I would not be moving into the property
unless I lied and said I was part of her family
- and it was a primary residence. - I never said that.
And she lied in order to get some extra money from the IRS, pretty much,
and stating that this is not a rental, that this is her primary residence.
[Judge Levy] Right. And you deny that?
- I deny that. - [Judge Levy] Great.
- So… - [Judge Levy] Page 10 of your text.
"Kevin, you screwed me.
I have told you not to mention you are tenants or renters."
- So, this is my… - Stop.
"But tell people you are part of the extended family,
my brother-in-law."
I got nothing further.
[Judge DiMango] Um, we are going to retire to deliberate at this time.
- Thank you both. - Court now stands in recess.
Parties are excused.
[dramatic musical sting]
What was the interesting about this case is that, initially, right,
it just seems like she's missing critical evidence,
like a mold report.
If you wanna prove mold,
you have to come to court with the mold report.
But it's even a little more insidious,
because she wasn't just missing evidence,
she actually tried to conceal evidence
that would point to other bases for her damage.
Um, this is such an easy dismissal.
I don't have anything else to say.
No. I mean, pretty clear.
I mean, as nasty as he was,
whether she deserved to be called anything or not,
he was really a very patient tenant with regard to all of the damages.
She knew nothing about this place.
She got it, rented it, had no idea.
So, the bottom line here is, she's not entitled to any money
for the carpet or the mold.
I don't want people to think that I was just too nasty with her…
- No. Who would think that? - … because I don't want people
to think that and to encourage them not to think that way.
I just wanna bring up one fact between us that I'm not gonna discuss,
we shouldn't discuss with her.
But she made it very clear that the roof did not have a leak in it.
The roof was not leaking
despite the fact that the home inspection report that I read
did, in fact, say leaking roof.
On page 27 and 29 of the text messages,
defendant sends her photographs of the broken backyard fence
where the tree limb fell down.
And he told the plaintiff that the neighbor wants that fence fixed.
And she responds, "No money. I have to repair my roof."
[laughs] She knew.
- I have to… - [Judge Levy] She knew.
I have to defend your vigor,
because I don't think that you were unnecessarily rude to her at all.
Look, she's bringing a lawsuit, as you pointed out,
- trying to get $10,000… - [Judge Levy] $10,000.
… that she knows she wasn't entitled to.
So, if a tongue lashing is what is needed to drive the point home, lash away.
No, I'm good. I'm good.
- I've had my point. - [Judge Acker laughs]
- Are we ready? - I'm ready.
We're unanimous.
[dramatic musical sting]
[Byrd] Court is back in session.
Parties are reminded you're still under oath.
- Thank you, Byrd. - Uh-hmm.
We have deliberated and we've reached a unanimous verdict.
Mr. Bueno, you said some unkind things in your answer.
But in the main, you were a very good tenant.
You paid your rent on time,
when your landlord, the plaintiff, didn't have money or funds
to complete certain repairs or do necessary maintenance,
you paid for them.
And you were lucky, ma'am, to find a tenant like this.
You know, it was not hard to decide your case.
It became clear that not only did you not have certain evidence,
you were, in fact, trying to conceal material facts
- that would be detrimental your case. - Uh…
[Judge Acker] And this was really unfair.
It's not a good use of court time and it's not a good use of his time.
Your case is dismissed.
That's the unanimous verdict of the court.
[gavel bangs]
[Byrd] This case is now concluded.
Parties are excused.
You may step out.
[theme music plays]
The home inspection only mentioned the one thing.
That's why I didn't get a chance to respond to that.
I think she got what she had going for her.
There's never a bathroom leak or a toilet leak.
Uh, I shouldn't fix other people's problems.
He damaged my carpet.
I ended up finding another property and I moved
and, yeah, I bought a property. [laughs]
I don't have any else, anything to say.
I'm just very disappointed.
[announcer] Did someone destroy your property?
Let Tribunal Justice decide your case.
Find us on social media at Tribunal Justice.
["Ride of the Valkyries" plays]