Collecting on damages above/beyond deposit amount

[Dennis O'Quinn]

Hi, I have a large (5 bed/3.5 bath) house located in Tucker/Atlanta, GA and a property management company.  It was rented 9/2015 with a $1300 deposit paid.  Lease clearly states Lawn Maintenance to be performed by tenant (Quote): Lawn mowed and edged (trash and clippings picked up), beds free of weeds, shrubs trimmed.

Tenant has moved out early on the current renewed lease on May 31, 2019 and paid the required early termination fee of $2300.

The house was left in a very dirty condition with some damages (broken oven door on nice ($2k) double oven, separated door frame (from slamming?), broken window, punched in cabinet door, etc.) all adding up to $1400 for repairs, cleaning, carpet cleaning, etc.

The lawn was left in even worse condition with one area so overgrown that 3 estimates I have to clean only that area out were $1100, $1200, and $1800 respectively.

My problem is that my management company is telling me that I would have to sue to get the extra money back and that I would *never* get a judge to approve so much even for landscaping (He is saying that I should only hope for a couple of hundred).  Consequently, the management company is applying the $2300 early termination fee towards my claims against the deposit and then saying that if I want the net difference ($600+) but, that I will never get it.

So, 2 questions...

(1) aren't the term fee and the deposit different things and thus the term fee should not be considered as 'part of the deposit' for purposes of recovering damages?  and...

(2), can anyone speak to the feedback from the mgmt company that I should (basically) just write off the landscaping and eat the cost to get it back into something near to the original condition?  For a couple of hundred, I would be a lot more open to that philosophy, but, at over $2k for the entire yard (it's a 1 acre property), that's a little much to swallow...

Thanks in advance for any feedback...  Dennis

[Hubert Kim]

I'm not sure why I don't understand. And I'm in California (that can't why I don't understand, right?) so GA may have different regulations.

You have received a $1,300 security deposit at the beginning of tenancy and an early termination fee of $2,300 to terminate the lease, correct? If so, then under normal circumstances, from the $1,300 security deposit, you would deduct your stated damages of $1,400 (for repairs, cleaning, etc.) + $1,100 (the estimate for the lawn) for a remaining balance of negative $1,200 and send the tenant a bill.

So (1), yes the termination fee and deposit are different things.

Regarding (2), what do you mean they are applying the termination fee towards your claims against the deposit? Are they planning to use that money to complete the repairs? Are the estimates for the damages, lawn and everything else coming from the property management company?