Return of security deposit-- your experiences?

Sued for our deposit back, which the landlord claimed was withheld due to needing to repaint the apartment due to damage from scratches, posters, etc. This was after we had already hired repainters as part of a move-in agreement to repaint the apartment and deduct the costs from our rent.

When we went to small claims, and produced the agreement in writing plus the receipt for painting that had already occurred, the judge gave us our deposit and our entire last months rent in recompense. The landlord straight up lied to the judge and was caught by it :slight_smile:

My standard practice upon moving out of any rental is to drop a certified letter in the mail informing the landlord of the request for deposit within the 30-day period from moving out.

The last place I rented, I was given the option of $750 security deposit, refundable at the end of tenancy - minus any damages…or $133 non-refundable deposit. Seeing as I had 2 dogs that I knew would cause them to hold at least some portion of my deposit, and I was essentially broke (and would have trouble coming up with an additional $750), I took the $133 option and didn’t ever regret it.

In my first apartment, I didn’t get quite all of my security deposit back. The strange thing was, they gave as their reason that I’d broken the toilet seat, which I hadn’t. It was that way when I’d moved in. I would have protested, except that I had broken (accidentally) the mirror over the bathroom sink, and they didn’t charge me for that. It was about the same amount of money, so I let it slide.

Maybe. I kind of suspected the maintenance man, but it was clear it was an inside job because there were no signs of break-in and, as I said, there were at least a dozen people who’d had access to the keys and could have made a copy. Maybe it wasn’t the bug man, but maybe the bug man had some friends and needed some cash. I don’t think it was some random neighbor watching me move. It was someone who had a key. And access to maybe a van or a truck and a handtruck. There would have been plenty of time to get two big appliances out; that could have been done in the middle of the night and probably fairly quietly. There were three other units in the same building (it was a tiny four-plex with paper-thin walls) and nobody heard or saw a thing. I watched the cop knock on doors and ask everyone.

mrAru and i did that in one place down in Va Beach - we went in with the agent, he had a toolkit and I had a polaroid and a notepad. He inspected, teh agent got really bored, and we ended up with 2 legal pages of hits, and 3 boxes of polaroids [2 pictures of everything] and we gave a set of polaroids and the list to the agent, signed by us, and we got the agent to sign the list and pictures we kept.

That was one of the only rentals I ever had that didn’t manage to screw us out of the deposit.

Oddly, one place I rented I had a small accident that melted a 1 sq foot section of the carpet, and I didn’t get a hit on my deposit, the owner had a section of spare matching carpet and just patched it up. I really regret moving away from Rochester and leaving that place. sigh

My experience from the other side is at least in this State it’s really dumb to hold the deposit because one tenant fighting you on it puts you in a world of hurt. However, it is still routine/regular business for a ton of land lords I know of to always refuse to return security deposits just out of the theory that it costs them nothing to keep it and they can just cough it back to any tenants willing to take them to small claims.

(Of course they are actually stupid because there are damage provisions in statute that can lead to you being out a lot more than just the security deposit if you do this.)

In some states though tenant protections are much less (some much greater), I know in at least one surrounding state the land lord by statute is only required to provide a “timely return of the security deposit” and if deducting from it they must provide the deductions in a “timely” manner. In many states those windows are defined explicitly by statute, but in this particular state the courts are very lenient with the “timely” clause to the detriment of tenants. Further, the penalties for a land lord who just refuses to give a deposit back are virtually non-existent. If I owned properties in that state aside from the moral issues, it would actually make some degree of business sense to just always keep the deposit (if you assume word of mouth doesn’t ruin your reputation.)

Knowing your local law is vital. Landlords normally have strict guidelines for when they have to return a security deposit and under what circumstances they get to keep any of it. Generally, if they don’t follow the rules, you can get more than the amount of your deposit from them, and they get to keep nothing; in Texas, if they don’t get you either your deposit or an itemized list of deductions within 30 days of move-out and providing a forwarding address, you are entitled to three times the total amount of the security deposit plus $100, and they keep nothing. I’m 2 for 3 on collecting tardy security deposits and getting back more than the deposit amount.

Once again, check your local rules, but generally landlords may not deduct from a security deposit for normal wear and tear. So, if your carpet’s wearing thin but you’ve lived there for years, that’s not your responsibility. I would take photos of anything you deem questionable before you turn over the key.

That’s what I did. I heard from other tenants that it was damn near impossible to get the month-and-a-half deposit back. So I decided to sacrifice the last half month and not pay that last rent payment. The landlord’s collection agency, which wasn’t very organized, called me 2 months later and said that I owed them 1 month of rent. I said no, and that they actually owed me half a month security. They told me that they would pay me the entire security deposit back, but that I first had to fulfill my obligation of paying my final month’s rent. I said no problem, but first they had send me something official in writing. They agreed, but the letter never came.

Once, I got every penny back. I was there when we did the inspection and fixed all the minor things that were mentioned before dropping off the key.

Once, I justifiably paid a few hundred dollars for damage my roommate and I (mostly my roommate) had done to the carpet. It was new when we moved in and had done more than reasonable wear and tear to it by the time we moved out

Once, I paid probably too much for some damage to paint that had occurred when unsticking some things from the wall. My landlord in that case took too long to pay me the balance. By law, I was entitled to 3x the full deposit at that point, but since I did eventually get the money (less a not-totally reasonable, but not totally-unreasonable amount for damage I had caused), I let it go.

Once I was moving out of a rented house which was about to be demolished. And, of course, the rental agent required proof that I had had the carpets steam-cleaned. (This is a fairly common clause in leases in Australia.) Ten minutes with MS Word and I had a very nice “reciept” from the “ABC Steam Cleaning Company” and I got my whole deposit back - the agent didn’t even bother with a walk-through…

No, no, and NO. I don’t think there’s a single U.S. state where this practice is legal. If I had a tenant withhold the last month’s rent, I would immediately file for eviction (not something you want on your record). If your landlord is an especially sketchy P.O.S., then you could always try to go this route, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Large apartments often tack on excessive cleaning charges. If you don’t trust your landlord, the best thing is to do a walkthrough and get a sign-off. Barring that, just take lots of pictures showing the place is clean.

I’m not familiar with every state law, but is there a state where, in a 30 day time frame, you can give a tenant proper notice, schedule an eviction hearing, get a judgment, then get a writ of possession from the sheriff, all done within 30 days? How soon short of 30 days? 3 or 4 days shy? And you get to pay legal fees that you may never collect just to prove a point?

Because after the tenant moves out, you have setoff. Sue him for the last month’s rent, but he can countersue for the security deposit. All’s even, except for maybe a late fee. One that you might never collect. Why go to that trouble?

Take pictures, and video, especially of any problem areas and be prepared to answer for it. Thats how I beat my landlord in court.