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Re: FIRE! - Landlord Forum thread 339491

Re: FIRE! by Anonymous on October 5, 2015 @23:26

                              
The ecurity deposit IS tied to receiving a report from teh Fire Marshall. If it turns out that the tenants are culpable in the fire, then they have caused damage to the rental and the security deposit would properly be retained by the landlord (and would merely be a drop in the bucket toward damages). That's why the landlord is well-advised to wait until the end of the allowed period before reconciling the security deposit.
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Re: FIRE! by Susan on October 5, 2015 @23:50 [ Reply ]
No, the security deposit is the tenants money, not the landlords to illegally retain. If the rental is not habitable due to the fire, the tenant can end the lease which the landlord is obligated to return the tenants security deposit. If the fire is determined to be caused by the tenant, the landlords insurance company will seek to recover for damages. If the fire damage is not caused by the tenant and the landlord withholds the security deposit, the landlord can be on the hook for up to three times the security deposit, court cost and lawyer fees, which will often total far more than the security deposit! Again, a tenants security deposit is not tied to a fire marshals report that can take months if not years to determine. Only a foolish landlord would try to hold on to a tenants security deposit past state requirements to return it based on waiting for a fire marshal report!
    Re: FIRE! by Terri (VA) on October 6, 2015 @10:20 [ Reply ]
    Susan - what does a tenant need to do to end the lease? So far, nothing has been done (officially). Legally, I have 45 days to return the deposit. The fire marshal's report will be completed tomorrow (not months away, thank goodness).

    I guess my concern is that if I return the deposit and find out that the cause was, for example, smoking in the house (which the lease clearly states is not allowed), they purposely caused the fire by breaking the lease. If I give them back their $$, I still need to pay the $2500 deductible, and am out the deposit that is used exactly for that purpose - to cover damage that was caused by their actions. The insurance company may go after their deposit, but then the INSURANCE company gets my deductible AND their deposit.

    I may be wrong on how some of this works, but I plan to give them their deposit today if it truly was accidental or occurred in the fireplace.

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