At the end of May, my SO and I moved out of an apartment. The landlord seemed more than a little ignorant about tenant law, which caused numerous problems during the time we lived there. It’s now be more than 30 days since we moved out and we haven’t gotten our security deposit back yet, nor any correspondence regarding uses of it. Has anyone ever taken their landlord to court over this? Is it worth it for less than 400 dollars? Will the fact that he lived in Philadelphia and the apartment was in Massachusetts make this more drawn out? Also, if anyone has done this, did you use a lawyer or represent yourself?
Court? Whoa, whoa. This is not legal advice, but try this:
Step one: Call your landlord and ask where your security deposit is. See what he says.
Step two: Write a letter asking for your security deposit back and documenting the fact that it’s been over a month since you moved out and you haven’t received the money or any sort of communication.
Step three: If all that fails, then you can think about suing.
And, for the record, I have been in the same situation. Landlord hadn’t sent the check after about 45 days. I started with Step One. Called my landlord and he explained that, “the receptionist quit and my dog died and these new people knocked a hole in the floor and my wife ran off with the spoon and… etc. etc.” Still don’t know if he just forgot, was deliberately keeping it, or all that stuff really happened. Point is - one call and I got my money. Good luck.
Depending on how the laws in your state(s) work, the landlord generally has a set time frame in which to fork over your deposit, or a letter/bill explaining why you aren’t getting it back. In Indiana, it’s 45 days. After that, the tenant can go to small claims court and force the landlord to pay up to three times the amount of the deposit, regardless of any damages done by the tenant.
Do a little research about the laws there, and then call and ask. If he starts to give you the run-around politely let him know that you are aware of the laws protecting your deposit. Being nice is much more likely to get you a positive result than being threatening and rude.
Avarie, former property management employee.
I was in a similar position, having not recieved my deposit for three months after they’d sent me a letter stating they’d finished the walk-through and cleaning, and I would be getting my entire deposit back. After calling the landlord the first two months and getting nowhere, I went above her and called the management company in Miami. I got the check within a week.
It helps to quote your state’s laws, so have it handy.
We had the same issue when we moved from Connecticut to California. Ivylad was in the Navy and got transferred. The landlord was very nice, but a bit naive, her idea of a final walkthrough was to stick her head in the door, say “Looks fine” and leave.
Anyway, after two months of repeated calls and no deposit, we paid $100 to a CT lawyer to write her a letter. We got our check fairly quickly after that.
Also I’m not sure what the rules are in the various states, but in British Columbia Canada, you should get interest on your Damage Deposit.
I rented from 3 land lords, 2 gave me interst 1 didn’t. But the one who didn’t my DD was only $375 and she had it for a year. I wasn’t going to make a stink over the $5 or $10 I didn’t get.
MtM
Same thing here in New Jersey, and no, just because on the lease it says he won’t be giving you interest, doesn’t mean you aren’t still protected. You can’t sign your rights away.
Is it worth it to take him to small claims court? Well, if the answer to that is yes, I think it would also be worth it to pick up the phone and just call the guy first.
Landlords tend to hold onto the security deposit until the last possible day allowed by law. Ditto others, check laws and then just call the guy.
Here’s the Massachusetts Tenant’s Rights brochure in PDF. He has to pay you 5% interest per year, (and should have been paying you every anniversary), and return your deposit with 30 days. The way I read it, if he hasn’t sent you an itemized bill for damages within the 30 days, he has to return the full deposit and has lost any chance to subtract for damages. I’d suggest printing this out and mailing it to him if he doesn’t return the full deposit ASAP.
MA is very tenant friendly. If he’s violating several tenant laws, as you say, he’s probably in for one hell of a shock sometime soon.
Right, one lease I’ve seen said that you needed to give 30 days notice before leaving, even if you weren’t going to renew the lease, in order to get your security deposit back. That is, I would think, obviously unenforceable.
In many major metropolitan areas, there is a special court just for housing disputes. These courts ONLY see housing disputes and it is expected that many people come in without any representation (you might see the latin term “pro se” used; it just means a person dealing with their problem without a lawyer).
Here is the site for the MA Housing COurt. As I expected it has a lot of helpful information:
http://www.mass.gov/courts/courtsandjudges/courts/housingcourt/index.html
Also their “Self Help Center”
http://www.mass.gov/courts/selfhelp/index.html
Best of luck to you. I agree with previous posters that if you apprise yourself of local laws and write a strongly worded letter pointed them out to your landlord, it hopefully won’t come to a court case.
If you send a letter, make a photocopy of the letter for your records, and send the letter registered mail with the “only he can sign to get it” option, ask for a return receipt as well. This way, you’ll get proof he signed for your letter if you do have to take him to court.
We’ve tried emailing, as we’ve refused to do business over the phone after he called and screamed at me at 7 am in the morning. In MA, he only had 30 days. We sent about 10 emails and he won’t respond. I’m going to send a registered letter tomorrow, but I’m not sure that will do anything.
Just wanted to point out that you can, of course, sign your “rights” away in this sense. Not *all *such contractual clauses are enforceable, but many are.
Missed the edit, but wanted to add that I wasn’t saying *this *right can be signed away. It wouldn’t surprise me if it couldn’t be. But I meet a lot of people with the mistaken impression that they can’t sign away their right to a jury trial in a consumer contract, for example. It just ain’t so.
Had this exact situation, except when I called I got a run-around, when I wrote letters I got no response. After about a month and a half (in California, the law states landlords have 21 days to return deposits) I filed a case with small claims. Had a friend serve her the documents, she didn’t show up to court and I got a default judgement against her PLUS punitive damages. I am in the process now of collecting that judgement.
Just wanted to add, something fun and exciting I did one time after a similar problem with a landlord and the security deposit - after it’s all been resolved (and you’ve cashed the check), put copies of the Tenant’s Rights pamphlet in the mailboxes of all his tenants.