When the security deposit is not adequate to cover costs of damage and cleaning, our reconciliation letter requests payment of the deficiency within 30 days. Every once in a while we get it. If not, we wait another 30 days and send a copy of the lease, the security deposit reconciliation, the tenant’s original application to a collection agency. The agency we use takes a portion of what they collect as their only fee, so it costs us nothing unless they can collect and the agency is pretty motivated. Sometimes we collect within a couple of months; sometimes it is years later; and other times we never get anything. The advantage, though, is that we do collect some of it without any ongoing effort on our part. Once the agency has it we can forget about it until a check shows up.
It is easy. It costs nothing. It holds the tenant accountable.
