First off, I’m not asking for legal advice here; I’m going to talk to my legal people tomorrow morning.
Anyway, I’ve given my 30 days notice and I’m going to be moving out of my apartment soon. I have a feeling that it may not be straightforward to get my security deposit back.
What are your experiences getting security deposits back from difficult landlords?
I have had three good experiences and one bad one.
The bad one was when we left New Zealand - we had to break our lease but our landlady seemed very nice about it and said she understood the circumstances. We went to the effort of finding replacement tenants so that she wouldn’t be financially inconvenienced.
There wasn’t time to get the deposit sorted before we left, so we pursued it after arriving in the UK. Nothing happened and we had to go the official route of contacting whatever department it is that holds the money in trust (I forget the name of it) and the way it works is that if the landlord doesn’t contest within a certain timeframe, you get all the deposit back.
Suddenly she got in touch and said that we had left the flat in a state and wanted to hold back half the deposit for cleaning. We hadn’t left the flat in a state, we had only been there three months, the flat hadn’t been cleaned before our initial arrival because the landlady misunderstood our moving date as provided by the estate agent, and we left it in a cleaner state than we found it. But given the difficulties of contesting it from the other side of the world, we decided to just let the money go and agreed to get half our deposit back.
I wouldn’t pay my last month’s rent.
I’ve moved out of five apartments. Four of them, I got my whole deposit back, and one of them kept $30 for carpet stain removal (there was light-colored carpet in the dining room and I had a toddler, so it was fair).
I always worry they won’t be fair about returning the deposit, but in my experience they always have been.
I wrote a letter to the landlord company stating that I would like my deposit back + interest and cited Minnesota law regarding those terms. Got the full deposit and interest back.
So, be professional, know your local law, and treat this as a business transaction.
I got screwed out of my deposit due entirely to it being my first place and me not knowing how it worked. I took possession without benefit of a walk-thru of an apartment that hadn’t been cleaned. I didn’t care - I wanted the place. It was cute and it suited my needs, so I cleaned it myself and lived there 16 months.
When it was time to leave, the landlord came over, immediately displayed and ol rusty stain on the mattress (it was a furnished unit) and claimed it was my fault, so I didn’t get my deposit back. As I think back on it now, I suspect that was his usual routine, the bastard.
In my youth once I lost my security deposit after naively believing the landlord when he told me I could break the lease, “no problem.” I gave him plenty of notice, paid the last month’s rent, cleaned the bezeesus out of the apartment, but stupidly never got that promise in writing. When I moved out he simply refused to refund the money. I took him to small claims court and was laughed out of there.
GET IT IN WRITING.
When I moved out of my flat a while ago, I asked when I would get the deposit. The agency said they were not sure as their accounting team is based out of india.
I wasn’t happy with this so I investigated the law in the UK. Turns out the landlord must protect the deposit with one of 3 approved deposit protection services and must provide evidence of this to the tennant. If the landlord does not protect the deposit, the tennant is entitled to 3 times the deposit back in compensation. I asked for evidence that my deposit was protected and within 5 minutes it was back in my account. That didn’t stop me from taking them to the magistrates court for the compensation portion. They didn’t contest it and so lost by default. The bailiffs ordered them to pay so in the end I scored with 3 times my deposit back.
This, this, and this. If in good faith, you didn’t damage the apartment, just tell the landlord that the last month’s rent is your security deposit. Make them take action against you to get the money back for their fake damages.
Bad landlords are notorious for keeping security deposits. Plus, it can’t hit your credit because the payment won’t be thirty days late, and by the time eviction proceedings come to trial, you will be out anyways making the issue moot. I would tell the landlord what you are doing, though. Let him bitch and gripe, and invite him in to look if he doesn’t believe you, but keep that money in your pocket.
The only time I didn’t get my $$ back was when I rented from a sweet little old lady. I assumed it had slipped her mind, so I called to remind her. “Want your money? SUE ME!”. I couldn’t believe it. But she was right; I was too busy to take legal action.
Missed the edit window. I didn’t notice that you are in NZ. Laws may be different. And I notice that you didn’t say that this particular landlord was shady. I would at a minimum ask for a walk through before you leave with you there.
If you can find a polite non-challenging way to write such a letter, good - I’d also suggest (based on my worst experience) notifying the landlord that you are leaving the dwelling in excellent shape and requesting something in writing regarding what cleaning you are obligated to do.
I had a hefty chunk of my security deposit withheld once even though we cleaned the apartment meticulously - one of the absurdities they dinged us for was not moving the oven out from the wall and cleaning behind it.
If you aren’t going to be present when the landlord does the inspection, take pictures. A sleazy landlord can and will charge for repairs and cleaning that isn’t required.
:eek: Wow, did not know that! I’ll be looking in to that then! Currently talking to the CAB about my last landlord: held back the deposit for a whole bunch of random lies. It’s just the same as always: we got the house in a filthy state, gave it back clean as can be and left them a beautiful Ikea table, a tv, a doorbell and a garden. We were actually clever enough to get them to sign off on the house being dirty when we moved in and they verbally agreed to us leaving them the stuff. They charged us for repairing the washing machine (which we rented, and the contract said maintenance was their responsibility, and on top of that it wasn’t even repaired!), for cleaning (of course), and for leaving rubbish (blatant lie). :rolleyes:
It’s just so tedious, and they’re always so rude to me. They don’t even return calls or emails, I have to actually go to their office if I want to see them. It’s all such a joke. If I could get back three times the deposit, it would make up for a lot of effort!
It sooooo depends on local law. The worst experience we had was a landlord who, during the 30-day window to return our depost, declared bankcruptcy. So we got in line behind aaaa-haaa-haaaallllll his other creditors and, don’t be too shocked now, we lost our entire deposit. Despite cleaning the dwelling thoroughly and doing a walk-through with his wife. After that time, I learned that some other U.S. states require that the deposit be put into an interest-bearing account separate from the landlord’s account, and other states (like mine) have NO legislation in place to protect tenants in this kind of situation.
I think this one is my favorite story:
I lived in an apartment for two years. In that time, the ownership of the rental unit changed hands about four different times. I’d get a letter telling me where to send/drop off the checks and I’d just pay the rent to the new owner. Each new owner brought with it their own system/team/contractors for landscaping, pest control, air filter changing, maintenance, etc. So, over the two years, probably a dozen different people had access to my apartment (example: the bug spray guy would get a skeleton key from the rental office and key himself in to all the apartments to spray for bugs). This little tidbit is key to the story.
So I found a house to rent and completed the move with about one week left in my apartment lease. After I was completely moved out, I went back and scrubbed that place, top to bottom, going through the walk through checklist so I could get every last dime of my deposit back. The carpet was stained and worn when I moved in, and that had been noted on my lease (and in a couple other places) and the rental manager assured me I wouldn’t be dinged for it. I didn’t put those Kool Aid stains there; I didn’t have kids!
A friend came over to help me clean. She took the fridge and I took the stove and we scrubbed both appliances to sparkling shiny clean. I locked the apartment door and left. I vividly remember turning to my friend and laughing, saying, “Why am I locking an empty apartment? There’s nothing to steal in here!” We LOLd and I went to the new home.
Fast forward a week and I’m meeting the rental manager at the old apartment for a walk through and sign off on the deposit. I use the key to open the door (which was still locked) and, as we entered the kitchen, she said, “Where’s the fridge?” To which I responded, “Where’s the stove?” There was a slip of paper on the counter from the bug man saying he’d been in the apartment to spray. The water line to the icemaker in the fridge had been cut and both appliances were straight up GONE.
Cops were called, statements given. The best part was when the cop asked me, “Who knew you were moving?” “Um, anyone in the apartment complex who could see out their window, all my friends, the new landlady, the post office, the rental manager… and the bug man.” The landlady also answered for me, “Everybody. So?”
At least I wasn’t arrested as a suspect for stealing the fridge and stove, I’ll say that.
But the rental company not only withheld my deposit, they also charged me another $850 to replace the stove and fridge. I disputed that, pointing out that responsibility for appliances appeared nowhere on my lease and if the theft had happened while I was still living there, they would have simply replaced the units and made a claim on their property insurance. I even called my insurance company to see if my renter’s insurance would cover it and they would not because the appliances were considered part of the property and renter’s only covers my property.
I refused to pay them and demanded my deposit back. They reported me to collections and dinged my credit rating. I had legal insurance at the time, so I took their thieving asses to court. I sued for breach of contract, unfair business practices, slander & libel (my credit report was tarnished, which tarnished my financial reputation, and credit reports are published, so it fell under libel. I love lawyers. LOL). I accepted a settlement of: 100% of my deposit back, forgiveness of the $850 charges for the appliances, and court-ordered reinstatement of my credit report, plus attorney’s and court fees. I probably would have been SOL without a lawyer.
I don’t think this is legal in many places (I could totally be wrong about that, though).
It’s too late for this, but the best way to get your full security deposit back starts before you move in - an incredibly thorough walk-through with you and the landlord looking at everything and both of you signing off on every single little ding in the apartment and both of you keeping copies of it is the best way to cover your ass. Taking pictures is also an excellent idea. Then do a walk-through on the day you relinquish possession, taking pictures and both of you signing off again. If you do all these things, chances are you’ll get your damage deposit back because you’re dealing with a professional landlord, not a scam artist. If you don’t get your deposit back, you’re in a position of having lots of proof of why you should get it back.
I would start off with assuming that a clean, non-damaged apartment will produce your deposit back in full. If it doesn’t, then I would start with registered letters, etc.
I had a place in New York back in the early 90s. I was on a project with a bunch of other people from my company, and we were all instructed to request clauses that said “if move out, can transfer to another employee of same company”. Well, 6 months after renting my last place there, I moved, a colleague took it over, they had basically zero downtime (maybe a half hour of paperwork transferring the lease), and they tried to say “but you broke the lease early”. I pointed out that clause - and got my deposit back.
Dogzilla, that’s quite a story. Do you think that the bug guy did it?
You can’t use the deposit to pay the last month’s rent here in California. We’d be pretty aggressive if a tenant tried it (3-day pay or quit, etc.). However, we don’t screw people out of their deposit, and we hate that other, asshole landlords have given us all that reputation.