from Hacker News

Letter I Used To Get Back 100% Of My Security Deposit From A Hostile Landlord

by programmernews on 8/9/14, 1:13 PM with 19 comments

  • by tptacek on 8/9/14, 3:10 PM

    I did this before and ended up in court. If you're renting from a property management company (not an uncommon situation), chances are they have counsel, or are perhaps themselves attorneys. They're willing to play chicken.

    (We ended up settling to recover the security deposit).

    Style note: it might not be the best idea to repeatedly threaten legal action. First, as I learned recently on HN, doing that can create a procedural opportunity for your adversary.

    Second, the law is in fact on your side in these cases, and, as I learned when we sued our landlord, the most effective way to win these cases is statutorily: you carefully establish the timeline and the basis for contesting the damage, and if they don't respond properly, they can auto-lose the case and be on the hook for treble damages.

    If I found myself in this situation again, I'd send a note emphatically but emotionlessly contesting the damages, noting dates carefully, and send that registered mail. I would not attempt to educate the landlord on landlord-tenant law.

  • by tzs on 8/9/14, 4:14 PM

    > 9 out of 10 lawsuits in the world are now filed in the United States, which is also home to over 80% of the world’s lawyers

    The source the article cites for this says the US has 1.2 million lawyers, so they are claiming the world has 1.5 million lawyers, and that there are only 300k lawyers outside the US. This is wrong:

       Germany: 139k lawyers [1]
   France:   46k [1]
   Greece:   36k [1]
   Italy:   121k [1]
   Spain:   114k [1]
   UK:      151k [1]
   Turkey:   55k [1]
   Brazil:  622k [2]
   Mexico:  215k [3]
   China:   200k [4]
   India:  1300k [5]
    [1] http://www.ccbe.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/NTCdocument/table_n...

    [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Brazil

    [3] http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/plp/pdf/Mexican_Legal_Pr...

    [4] http://www.china.org.cn/china/2011-12/26/content_24249504.ht...

    [5] http://www.legallyindia.com/201302183448/Bar-Bench-Litigatio...

  • by mindslight on 8/9/14, 3:31 PM

    Everyone in California should be aware of their ability to request a pre-moveout inspection. You do a walkthrough with your landlord a few weeks before moving where they list all defects, which (in theory) gets you on the same page and gives you a chance to fix the damage. They are unable to withhold for anything not on this list (damage obscured by your items and later-occurring damage excepted).

    California publishes an easy to read tenants handbook that outlines this as well as many other details of state law. It's well worth the twenty minutes it would take the average HNer to read it over. (also, depending on where you are there may be additional municipal laws covering things like causeless evictions, etc)

  • by larrys on 8/9/14, 3:31 PM

    Hey, tenants can be "assholes" as well.

    Here's a txt that I got two days ago from a tenant who hadn't deposited his rent (due on the 1st) by the 7th. (I waited two days before even saying it was late):

    [first he sends a picture of "the money"]

    Then this text:

    "Omg!!! I totally forgot to go to the bank on Friday and send it. I went to Boston over the weekend and it totally slipped my mind I was going to deposit it before I left for my flight. So sorry!! Don't worry I took a pic of the money so you know. Have it. I will bring it over to [bank name] as soon as I get a break at work. Again super sorry about that.".

    So that's the actual text. Sent 2 days ago.

    Today it's the 9th. Still no rent. Just texted him again before seeing this post.

  • by gregpilling on 8/9/14, 3:08 PM

    As a landlord with 6 rentals, I would say that this is a good letter.

    Videoing the apartment is a good idea too (one I think I will do myself!) to record the state it is before and when you move out.

    I usually don't have to claim anything out of a deposit when a tenant moves out, with the exception of the really crazy tenants. Crazy like poo smeared walls and leaving the living room filled with garbage all over the floor, etc. Careful tenant screening is the cure for this problem in the long run.

  • by midas on 8/9/14, 3:16 PM

    I've always been surprised that landlords routinely return security deposits in full. After a decade of renting in multiple cities, I've always received 100% of my deposit back, even in cases where it probably would've been fair to charge me for some minor things (holes in the wall from hanging things, some small stains, etc).

    There are penalties in some cases (the letter in this post says in Georgia if you get caught there's a 3x penalty), but I've never heard of those actually enforced.

    In other words, there's a lot of incentive for this to happen all the time, especially since landlords don't have much of an online reputation (like restaurants). The fact that it's rare in the US is a great sign for doing business here generally.