4 ms·

No, the law is not good at its job. This is in a small college town, it's a large property administration company that looks after ~ 100 investment properties.

No, the law is not good at its job. This is in a small college town, it's a large property administration company that looks after ~ 100 investment properties. From what I hear, they habitually do not return the deposit. This shouldn't happen. How much are you willing to bet? The demand letter is in the mail, if the money doesn't show up next Friday the matter will end up at the qadi's.

tptacek 8y ago
All landlords habitually don't return deposits. I have rented cheap apartments and expensive apartments and houses and vacation rentals, in college towns (Ann Arbor) and all over Chicago and San Francisco --- all places with good tenants unions. In SF, I paid up front my whole year's rent. I have never, ever had a landlord return a security deposit. Not once. Landlords expect you to come at them for the deposit. If you don't, it's a 13th month rent. The serious renters just treat the deposit as their 12th month rent, but if you didn't do that, or care about your reference, you sue for it. IANAL let alone your L, but at this point, in my 42nd year of life, if I don't get my security deposit back, I drop a buck fifty and put a suit in process, fully expecting the landlord to whine at me and then start the actual negotiation.
- thrower123 8y ago
  As somebody who is a landlord, albeit far from the bay area, I've never seen any tenant that expected the security deposit back. Usually, they break the lease before the lease terms are up, and want to have the security deposit applied as last month's rent. I've had nondestructive tenants and am a generally over-nice guy, so I usually go with it...
  - tptacek 8y ago
    I rented a house for a week in Michigan this summer --- the whole rent was paid up front --- and the landlord illegally retained a substantial portion of the security deposit. They have the money. Why would they ever give it back if they didn't have to?
    - thrower123 8y ago
      I'm sure there are scummy ones that do that. The other shoe is that landlords have to deal with the shifty end of people a lot of the time. When I bought my current rental, the previous owner went to great lengths to educate me on what could be done with non-paying tenants and eviction procedures; it seemed that knowledge was hard earned.
- runako 8y ago
  Wait is this really a thing? I've rented in 5 cities across the US. I have never once had to even ask for my security deposit to be returned. It's just assumed that I would get it back, and I do. In the cities where I've lived, I've never heard of anyone not getting their security deposit back. I honestly had no idea we were so lucky!
  - tptacek 8y ago
    It is really a thing. You've been super lucky. After my first apartment, we started hiring cleaning services to do a pre-move-out clean, which, in retrospect, was pretty stupid, because the condition of the apartment's got nothing to do with anything.
    - rleigh 8y ago
      It is in most of the UK rental agreements I've had. If they have to hire a cleaning service to clean it up, they recover the cost from your deposit. You're supposed to leave it in the good condition it was when you moved in.
      - tptacek 8y ago
        Sorry, I can't speak to the UK, just the US.
  - FireBeyond 8y ago
    Really. I have busted my apartment complex having "pre-written" the move out report, complete with thousands of dollars of cleaning "required", before we had the inspection. They just made the mistake of leaving it on the PM's desk in sight of me.
rleigh 8y ago
This got so prevalent in England, that the law was changed UK-wide to require all deposits to go into a third-party deposit scheme so that the landlords didn't have possession of it themselves. Any repairs need to be justified and it can be contested. It is a drastic step to take, but when a significant minority of landlords were abusing their privilege, it was I think a reasonable solution.
- HarryHirsch 8y ago
  It was bad in England. In my university town there was a case where the owner of a property administration company simply disappeared with the deposits, he just left the country. Hundreds of students were affected, tens of thousands of pounds in damage. There was a spontaneous demonstration by the students who had lost money in front of the premises, which was obviously a fruitless endeavour. They should have staged a pogrom instead but the folks from the target community would have said "Dude, I've got more brothers than you have got friends", and if we follow the line of thought that incentives guide behaviour, that was the incentive for the students not to have a pogrom that day and for the agency owner to run away with the security deposits. Americans exhibit a fatalistic acceptance of the status quo. Perhaps we are spared the civil war because they are too slavishly obedient towards their superiors.

tptacek 8y ago

All landlords habitually don't return deposits. I have rented cheap apartments and expensive apartments and houses and vacation rentals, in college towns (Ann Arbor) and all over Chicago and San Francisco --- all places with good tenants unions. In SF, I paid up front my whole year's rent. I have never, ever had a landlord return a security deposit. Not once. Landlords expect you to come at them for the deposit. If you don't, it's a 13th month rent. The serious renters just treat the deposit as their 12th month rent, but if you didn't do that, or care about your reference, you sue for it. IANAL let alone your L, but at this point, in my 42nd year of life, if I don't get my security deposit back, I drop a buck fifty and put a suit in process, fully expecting the landlord to whine at me and then start the actual negotiation.

thrower123 8y ago
As somebody who is a landlord, albeit far from the bay area, I've never seen any tenant that expected the security deposit back. Usually, they break the lease before the lease terms are up, and want to have the security deposit applied as last month's rent. I've had nondestructive tenants and am a generally over-nice guy, so I usually go with it...
- tptacek 8y ago
  I rented a house for a week in Michigan this summer --- the whole rent was paid up front --- and the landlord illegally retained a substantial portion of the security deposit. They have the money. Why would they ever give it back if they didn't have to?
  - thrower123 8y ago
    I'm sure there are scummy ones that do that. The other shoe is that landlords have to deal with the shifty end of people a lot of the time. When I bought my current rental, the previous owner went to great lengths to educate me on what could be done with non-paying tenants and eviction procedures; it seemed that knowledge was hard earned.
runako 8y ago
Wait is this really a thing? I've rented in 5 cities across the US. I have never once had to even ask for my security deposit to be returned. It's just assumed that I would get it back, and I do. In the cities where I've lived, I've never heard of anyone not getting their security deposit back. I honestly had no idea we were so lucky!
- tptacek 8y ago
  It is really a thing. You've been super lucky. After my first apartment, we started hiring cleaning services to do a pre-move-out clean, which, in retrospect, was pretty stupid, because the condition of the apartment's got nothing to do with anything.
  - rleigh 8y ago
    It is in most of the UK rental agreements I've had. If they have to hire a cleaning service to clean it up, they recover the cost from your deposit. You're supposed to leave it in the good condition it was when you moved in.
    - tptacek 8y ago
      Sorry, I can't speak to the UK, just the US.
- FireBeyond 8y ago
  Really. I have busted my apartment complex having "pre-written" the move out report, complete with thousands of dollars of cleaning "required", before we had the inspection. They just made the mistake of leaving it on the PM's desk in sight of me.

rleigh 8y ago

This got so prevalent in England, that the law was changed UK-wide to require all deposits to go into a third-party deposit scheme so that the landlords didn't have possession of it themselves. Any repairs need to be justified and it can be contested. It is a drastic step to take, but when a significant minority of landlords were abusing their privilege, it was I think a reasonable solution.

HarryHirsch 8y ago
It was bad in England. In my university town there was a case where the owner of a property administration company simply disappeared with the deposits, he just left the country. Hundreds of students were affected, tens of thousands of pounds in damage. There was a spontaneous demonstration by the students who had lost money in front of the premises, which was obviously a fruitless endeavour. They should have staged a pogrom instead but the folks from the target community would have said "Dude, I've got more brothers than you have got friends", and if we follow the line of thought that incentives guide behaviour, that was the incentive for the students not to have a pogrom that day and for the agency owner to run away with the security deposits. Americans exhibit a fatalistic acceptance of the status quo. Perhaps we are spared the civil war because they are too slavishly obedient towards their superiors.