Tenants security deposit

[Zachary Fisher]

Good afternoon guys, just discovered this a couple days ago and have been reading no stop! I guess you can say it's my new addiction! I have a question about tenants security deposit and haven't been able to find much on it. I have a currently have one home that I rent out. Current tenants lease was up Nov 1. I have not returned the security deposit. Contract says I have 30 days to return. After they left I inspected and the place is trashed. New fridge has 5 dents. Stove/cook top is disgusting with grease every where. Bathrooms nasty, 2 broken ceiling fans, broken closet doors, list goes on. My question is what can I charge them for? Like the stove is 2 years old and it wont lite! I have to use a lighter to get it to fire. Fridge is 8 months old and all dented up. So far I have 14 hours in cleaning with 2 rooms to go and that don't count painting or fixing the 147 nail holes through out the house. Can I charge for my time? New stove, fridge? I'm in up state NY if that even matters. Thanks in advance!

[Jennifer T.]

Just make sure you send them an itemized "Security Dispensation" Letter within whatever the allotted timeframe is for your area.  I usually add a line at the end that "receipts are available, upon request".  Because there is no use going to the extra trouble of providing all that, if the letter just comes back to you anyway or the tenant already knows they're not getting the SD back.

Send the letter certified, return receipt.  This is your proof it was mailed out, on time.  If you don't have the tenants forwarding address, send it to their last known address, ie the unit you were renting to them.  If you get the letter back in the mail because they didn't forward their mail, keep it and do not open it.  It's still your proof of what was sent, when.  JIC they take you to small claims for the SD back.

A lot of jurisdictions don't let you charge for your own time to clean/repair, but you can charge for any supplies used. 

In a nutshell, you can't charge for wear and tear or something that broke, just because it broke.  For example, the stove.  Did you hire a repair person to determine why it won't light?  If it won't light because there is something defective about the stove, that is not on the tenant.  But if it won't light because the tenant abused it and did not use it in a normal manner, then you can deduct the repair bill.  As long as it doesn't exceed the cost of a new one (of course).  5 major dents on a fridge in less than a year is not normal wear and tear.  I'd look up on Craig's List what a similar fridge would sell for, in that condition, and subtract the difference in what you just paid for a new one and what it is worth now.  If it were older, I would have also taken that into consideration.

Unfortunately, I just had my first experience with a tenant who was both a disgusting slob and a lots of frying, heavy grease/oil user.  All the cabinets were coated in a grease film.  I bought the gas oven she used brand new, only 2 years ago.  I'm not sure yet if it is salvageable.  There are grease clogs and standing grease build-up that may have corroded the stove.  Our plan is to soak what we can in a heavy duty cleaner and spray the rest and let it sit.  We're hoping when we remove the corrosion, it will just be on the surface and the stove will still be safe to use.  But that remains to be seen.  We've had other fish to fry (pardon the pun!) on this particular unit to worry about the stove right now.