And so it begins-landlord and the security deposit

[fluffycookie]

Sorry - I need to vent. We've been emailing and calling for the last week to set up a date to do the walk thru with no response. He finally responded this morning and said that when showing the new tenant the apartment and that he noticed a dent on the fridge. Neither of us had ever noticed it so I checked and there is a small less than 1" dent on the the fridge side (side by side fridge) about 6" up from the floor. I have no clue how it happened and honestly it could of been like that when we moved in and didn't realize it. MH has already gone thru and repainted all of the rooms and trim (they had left us the paint) because we know the new tenant is anxious to move in. We've been there for two years and any issues are wear and tear (scratches on the hardwood floors), it's not like we put holes in the wall (actually DH took all of the pictures down and patched the holes before painting) or broke things. I just have a bad feeling about this.

[vanillacourage]

Did you do a formal walk-through when you moved in?

A small dent of that size could easily be considered normal wear and tear, so your landlord should not be able to withhold much, if any of your security deposit to pay for it.

[aspentosh]

I highly recommend doing a walk through before you move in. With our rental, we had the tenants go through and mark all the damages and we did the same. No room for error since we both OK the damage before signing the lease.

I do agree with VC though. That sounds like normal wear and tear.

[fluffycookie]

There was no formal walk thru. We picked up the keys and moved in. He came over after we were moved in to have some electrical work done (with no notice) but didn't do any walk thru.

[vanillacourage]

I would just not respond to his raising the issue of the dent - let him bring it up again. If he does, say that it could very possibly have been there when you moved in (since he doesn't have proof that it wasn't) and that you're confident it would fall into the category of normal wear and tear. Look up tenant law in your state regarding the return of your security deposit.

[slug*bug]

Aug 24, 2012 10:37:48 GMT -5 aspentosh said:

I highly recommend doing a walk through before you move in. With our rental, we had the tenants go through and mark all the damages and we did the same. No room for error since we both OK the damage before signing the lease.

I do agree with VC though. That sounds like normal wear and tear.

Ditto. I'm trying to imagine him arguing a 1" dent in small claims court: even if you did put a small dent in the fridge, what would he argue were the damages? The amount of the cost of repair of a tiny dent? Especially if this is his only complaint, I think he's going to have a hard time making much of a case out of such a tiny issue.

[pitterwoo]

yeah, this seems so minor. Like is the rental really in such pristine condition that he would use deposit money to go get a 1" dent repaired? I doubt it, and if he's not getting it repaired then it's wear and tear and he shouldn't be trying to keep any of your deposit.

[mollybrown]

So frustrating! Our complex gave us a form to write down damage but didn't do a walkthrough either. Of I noticed all kinds of minor dents and dings after returning the form. I didn't even check the appliances thoroughly. I agree that landlords should always be doing a walk through before hand and helping document the condition, but they have refused the last few places we rented. They haven't walked through with us at the end either. They just send us a bill for whatever. It sucks.

Hopefully he will let it go since that sounds really nitpicky. I can't imagine replacing a rental fridge over a small dent.

[fluffycookie]

[quote author=mollybrown board=mm thread=48939 post=776530 time=
Hopefully he will let it go since that sounds really nitpicky. I can't imagine replacing a rental fridge over a small dent.[/quote]

This is the thing that I am the most concerned about because I have feeling he is going to be very picky. The only thing that may work in our favor is apparently under our state laws the security check must be deposited within 30 days and the landlord has to provide a written receipt with the bank account information clearly listed and we never received that. Under the state law that would mean we automatically get our deposit back.

I am so glad we're homeowners now and never have to deal with landlords again. Our other past landlords were always great, this one was unresponsive...in one case we emailed him about a leak and didn't hear anything back so I called three days later only to find out that he had come over the morning after I sent the email but never told us or fixed the leak because he couldn't figure out where it was coming from...