Steps to Take When Deposit Isn’t Returned
Several readers have contacted me with a surprisingly common problem. They’ve moved out after giving proper notice, left the place decent and yet their deposit is nowhere in sight. The required 21 days had come and gone, and so, they feared, had their entire security deposit.
What if the owner does not return your security deposit? Before you descend into deposit despair, here are some tips that may get your deposit back to where it belongs.
Start with the obvious. Believe it or not, lots of folks move out and forget to give a forwarding address to their landlord. With the flurry of finding a new place and moving, many tenants simply move and forget the forwarding address.
So what is the landlord’s obligation for tracking you down? None. The landlord is required to mail the deposit letter to the tenant’s last known address. If you haven’t left a forwarding address, guess where the letter gets mailed? To the address of the place you just moved from. Why? It’s your last known address.
Don’t landlords have to take the time to call your nearest relative as listed on your application? No. Just to mail the itemized letter within 21 days of your departure to your last known address.
One reader was still waiting for his deposit for more than a month. After catching up to the manager, she indicated it was sent registered mail. Sure enough, the postcard notifying the tenant was overlooked, and the deposit letter was sitting at the post office, collecting dust.
It’s always good to start with the source. Whoever collected the rent is the first source to reach. Ideally, drop by the management office during business hours. If not, call the manager and in a nonconfrontational tone simply say, “Hi, this is John Q. Public, did I give you my new address? Let me give it to you again. I moved out three weeks ago, and haven’t received my deposit letter and check yet.”
Keep the tone light. Be sure to leave your area code and phone number plus the best time you can be reached.
Is your deposit gone? Or forgotten? You’d be amazed at how many owners are ignorant of the law and have no idea the time limit exists. Some landlords get busy with the move-out and re-rental details and are still making a list and checking it twice. Other landlords have confessed they simply forgot to send the letter.
Sometimes a new manager or owner takes over and assumes the previous party paid the deposit. In a recent e-mail, a reader worried that an unsent deposit was sold with the building. Turned out the seller thought the new owner paid out the deposit and vice versa.
Either way, all deposit moneys are documented and transferred (or credited to the price) at the close of escrow to the new owner. Deposit money remains with the property until paid back to you when you depart.
Still no luck? Nowhere to drop by? No return call? And you’ve tried for several days? Time to get some ink involved. Write a request letter to the landlord, stating your name, address of the property where the deposit is owed, deposit amount, move-out date and your new forwarding address. Include something to the effect of, “Please reply by the following date [insert a date] so I can be sure you received this letter. If I don’t hear from you by that date, you leave me no choice but to possibly file a lawsuit in Small Claims Court.”
Keep a copy of the request. Send it where you normally sent the rent.
Still no response? It’s rare, but some owners actually don’t return deposits. The Small Claims Court system was made for this type of situation. No lawyers or fancy suits, simply a place where anyone can go to explain the situation to an impartial judge and hopefully get a fair shake. The court limit for claims is $5,000. Be sure to pick the court that is in the jurisdiction of the apartment itself. Check the front of your phone book under County Government, Municipal Courts, Civil Division, for a direct phone number.
H. May Spitz is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer. Reader comments may be sent to hmay spitz@AOL.com.
