Return of renters security deposit

[Susan Thomas]

Under what circumstances do you keep full security deposits? Do you spell out those terms in your lease? Do you tell your renters who have acted according to your lease terms what you expect when they move out ?

I’ve just moved out of a very expensive rental home in order to start house hacking. The landlord does not seem organized or have have any operational procedures. We followed all lease terms and left the place clean. It was furnished and upon my request when we signed the lease the realtor who assisted in the transaction added a clause for normal wear and tear on the furniture.

We stayed 1.75 years- the lease gent from yearly to month to month after 12 months. At about the year mark we asked permission over the phone to get 2 cats which we did. They scratched a mattress in the basement but not much else.

When we moved out I asked early on what we needed to do to get our $2.4k deposit returned. We filled in holes from hanging pictures and asked for the paint colors to fix completely but landlord didn’t know what colors were used. We asked several more times what he would want us to do in order to get out deposit back but never got anything out of him.

Now, it’s been 30 days after we’ve moved on and I had to ask again when we would see our deposit returned and instead he asked for my email to send a letter.

Since he is a small landlord and clearly does t run this rental efficiently and we are going to start having our own tenets in a duplex where we live soon, I want to look at this as a case study about how to do things differently.

Any advice or comments much appreciated.