Tenant Challenging Deposit Refund

[Greg Franck]

All,

 Thanks in advance for the assist with this.  Here is the detail.  We had a tenant which was a problem.  We bought her our of the lease basically by offering an early termination contract and paying her last months rent.  The 30 day mark has passed and from her 1250 deposit I deducted $50 for failure to remove trash and $210 for failure to maintain landscaping.  The detail around the landscaping is that she never maintained the flower beds.  We had a discussion with her about this in July of this year and spent 4 hours pulling weeds and correcting the issue then.  Afterward she never maintained through the end of her lease (Sept. 2017).  Once I recovered the property the bed were destroyed and I had to remove all of the plants and basically do rock over it.  I am only charging her for the labor at $35 for 6 hours to correct the issue.  The stone and other materials used that I redid the bed with has no part in this charge as it is my improvement on the land.  I provided her with the detail around the charges.  She sent a "formal request" for her money claiming that I didn't spend 6 hours.  At this point I believe that she will probably go through small claims (not sure what other means would be available for a $210 claim).  Before I put this out there keep in mind I have already paid this woman over $1200 to vacate the home and incurred holding costs because I did not show the property during her last month because of her volitility.  At some point I feel that a line needs to be drawn.  How would you handle this?  

[Amy Beth]

I would just pay her and then you will never have to deal with her again. You can then put it past you and move on. The problem with the deduction is that it seems like you did the work yourself. I believe security deposits can only be used for the parts you buy to replace damages and the labor of paid workers other than the landlord. So if you hired a landscaper for instance you could charge the tenant but if you did the work yourself you cannot charge the tenant. That is my understanding about security deposits.

In the future though I do not think it is realistic to expect tenants to maintain flower beds. Replacing it with rocks like you did should save you headaches in the future. I can’t imagine that many tenants would maintain flower beds.