He Should Give Back the Security Deposit

[Brian Pleshek]

Ok, so my son has a situation where a lease was up and he went over to deliver a new lease to extend the tenant's term as he appeared to be a good tenant and found an interesting situation.  There was a woman in the property who identified herself as one of the persons on the lease.  Except that she wasn't.  My son rented to a man and a woman together and had their names.  Let's call the woman Amy Smith.  Well the woman who answered the door was Amy Smith.  Her brother, was in jail and I didn't get where his girlfriend/wife was but she apparently had said that she was Amy Smith on the application, which was not true.  When her brother went to jail(i'm not sure if it was related to the fraud or if it was unrelated) but he asked his sister to watch over his place and found out that they were using her name on the lease.  The sister paid up the lease, plus another month and cleaned the place up and moved out and left it in good condition.  My son said, that the only things that needed doing was to repaint over some holes that the sister had patched.  

So there is a question about the security deposit.  Since the holes had been patched and the wall returned to good condition and the property is in otherwise move-in condition, it seems to me that the security deposit should be returned.  No notice to vacate was given, nor a forwarding address given.  The sister said that she understood if the security deposit wouldn't be returned.  While her name was on the lease, she didn't sign the lease and I would think that she has no standing to offer to him to keep the deposit.  He hasn't been harmed by this misrepresentation, fortunately as it seems that normal wear and tear are all that occurred.

Should he escrow the deposit with the court?  I don't think he's entitled to keep it just due to a breach in contract(fraud) is he?  The property is in Maryland.

Any ideas?

Brian