Re: Security Deposit - Landlord Forum thread 358934

Re: Security Deposit by Garry on January 19, 2019 @10:59

YES. Just because you put a notation on the bottom of the check saying "final settlement", or similar words, does not mean the T cannot sue you. These days, anybody, can sue anyone, for any reason, at any time. You did not return the FULL security deposit, so they "could" sue you. HOWEVER, as long as you have definite PROOF for the amounts you deducted from the SD, it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY they will ever sue you.

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Re: Security Deposit by Huong on January 19, 2019 @22:07	[ Reply ]

The tenant notified me she would take full responsibility of the cooking burns in the carpet. Besides the cooking burns, there were also 3 other areas of pet urine stains she is responsible for. They had 1 dog and 1 cat living there. I had paid a professional carpet cleaner to come to attempt to remove the stains, but they were unsuccessful. I have a good faith estimate for the patch repair of carpet for $405. The carpet otherwise is still in pretty good shape, but we will go ahead and pay the difference to have it replaced, because patch work wouldn’t look good because we don’t have extra matching carpet available and it’s really difficult to match because it’s an older unit. Besides the carpet, I am charging them $50 for windowsill paint job, $17 for an air filter, and $13 for stove drip pans. And $30 of for additional cleaning of dirt and stains and bulk trash removal. I have receipts for all of them, except for the replacement, because I haven’t done that yet. Am I able to replace the carpet and charge them for the estimated repairs? The replacement of carpet would be about $750 and replacement of vinyl is closer to $1500, but the maintenance of it is so much easier and we won’t have to go through the issue of pet urine stains again. Any thoughts or recommendations?

Re: Security Deposit by Garry on January 20, 2019 @16:56	[ Reply ]

Yes, go ahead and charge them the $405 for patching in a piece, but then that amount will go towards whatever you pay to replace the whole carpet. If you return a partial deposit, they are not likely to try to sue you. If they do, your records will indicate that you did not try to charge them for the full replacement cost of the carpet. At that time, it would be up to a judge to decide what figures to use. Usually tenants only sue LLs who not only keep the full deposit, but come up with $1-$3,000 more that the T owes.

Re: Security Deposit by Huong on January 20, 2019 @20:15	[ Reply ]

Ok, thanks!

Re: Security Deposit by AnonymousFL on January 22, 2019 @09:08	[ Reply ]

Huong, you appear to be leaving out one important element when it comes to flooring replacement/patching...depreciation. You really should include depreciation in your equation. I have learned that different parts of the country have different rules regarding the 'life' of flooring. 7 to 9 years appears to be accepted 'life' of both vinyl and carpet. Of course, cleaning is a whole other thing, so if reasonable measures were taken to clean the stains and those stains were not present at move-in, you should be fine charging for those.

Re: Security Deposit by Jason on January 23, 2019 @03:14	[ Reply ]

I agree with "Anonymous" regarding normal wear and tear. Carpet fades, flattens and could even get stained just by people entering the front door wearing dirty shoes. I personally take a ton of pictures of how the apartment looks before the new tenant moving in so that I can reference them later down the road and also so that I have them for court if it should come to that.

Re: Security Deposit