This individual had an unusual situation. He pays for housing at the halfway house, and needed approval to move out into felon-friendly housing. In doing so, he signed a lease with a landlord (9 weeks), with the expectation that he would be allowed to move out of the halfway house and thus move into this new housing.

Unfortunately, the approval never went through. This fellow lost all the money he saved up paying double rent while hoping for approval.

The reason he paid double rent is because he had to have a place lined up before he could get approval to move out of the halfway house... so he took a gamble and paid the rent during the interim in the hopes that approval would go through. He also paid rent at the halfway house while waiting for approval.

This is a ridiculously tough finanical position for someone making a few bucks an hour and trying to get back on his feet, so I was working with him to help him get his security deposit back and see if the landlord could be generous and maybe get a little rent back as well.

I understand that this landlord is entitled to all the rent owed during the lease period. But, considering that our tenant never even moved in, I thought that I could at least get the security deposit back.

So, I called up the landlord to explain the situation to him, expecting him to be a little bit reasonable here. Turns out, the guy is playing hardball. He says he is not going to give the security deposit back because, "proper two week written notice" wasn't given (this is stated in the lease, but likely was ignored as the tenant never even got the chance to move into the property).

Here is the section of the lease on the security deposit:

10. Security Deposit:

A. The Tenant(s) has/have paid the Landlord a Security Deposit of $325.00

B. The Security Deposit is intended to pay some of the cost of damages, cleaning, excessive wear and tear, and unreturned keys once the Lease Agreement has ended and/or for any unpaid charges or attorney fees suffered by the Landlord by reason of Tenant's default of this Lease Agreement.

C. Tenant may be responsible for any unpaid charges or attorney fees, suffered by the Landlord by reason of Tenan't defaut of this Lease in accordance to state and local laws and regulations.

D. Under no circumstances can the Security Deposit be used as payment for rent and/or other charges due during the term of this Lease Agreement.

E. The Leased Premises must be left in good, clean condition with all trash, debris, and Tenant's personal property removed.

G. Provided the Tenant(s) fulfill all of the obligations of the Lease Agreement, the Landlord will return either an itemized accounting for charges with any balance of the security deposit or the entire security deposit to the Tenant within 60 days.

I feel that this guy was a) a jerk, and b) that he is out of his mind for taking my colleague's money, who never entered the premises, using this "two-week written notice" to vacate thing to his advantage, and not returning a security deposit.

I also believe that this landlord fears that he may have the city look into him for running a short-term rental operation.

I initially hoped that I could get at least some of the rent paid back by explaining the incredibly hard work that my colleague is putting in to become a member of society, but was very confident I could get the security deposit back!

Is there anything I can do, or does this guy have us dead to rights with that "two week written notice" thing?

Scott Trench

Podcast Guest on Show #223