susankasin
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA
Hi everyone. I am looking for your opinion on whether or not my roommate and I have grounds to demand our full security deposit back. So let me give you the background on our case:
July 1, 2008: We moved out of our apartment and emailed the manager our new address and requested the security deposit be sent to our new address. We have paper evidence of this.
July 31, 2008: Still haven't received our deposit, we emailed the manager. She told us the deposit has been sent, and that we should contact the main office by phone.
August 08 - September 08: We called the main office numerous time and was always told that the person responsible was not there. We left our information each time and never got a call back. We left many voice messages also, and never got a call back.
September 9, 2008: I emailed the main office demanding a response. I did not receive a reply.
September 11, 2008: We received a check finally for less than half of our original deposit. We only lived there for a year and left the apartment in good shape (unfortunately we did not take pictures when we left, so we did not have evidence). Since they paid us so late and so little, my roommate and I were furious. We decided to look into laws related to security deposit.
February, 2009: After a few busy months we finally got around to writing a letter to the main office. We cited that they did not return our deposit within the 21 days required by California law. As I understand it, the law allows us to ask for 3 times the security deposit back if they did not return it to us because of bad faith. I'd consider them not responding to my phone calls and emails evidence of bad faith... However, in our letter we still only requested that we get our full security deposit back.
April, 2009: We did not hear back from them and we are getting pretty frustrated. We are sending them another email and will try calling again before considering other actions. Based on their track record though, I'd be surprised if they respond.
So that is our story. Do you think we have grounds to get our full security deposit back at a small claims court? Things I think we have against us:
- They claimed to have sent the deposit in July. Can they just say that they sent it and it's not their fault we didn't get it?
- They sent us the deposit in September but we didn't take it.
- We did not have evidence of the state of the apartment when we left.
What do you think? Thank you very much!
Hi everyone. I am looking for your opinion on whether or not my roommate and I have grounds to demand our full security deposit back. So let me give you the background on our case:
July 1, 2008: We moved out of our apartment and emailed the manager our new address and requested the security deposit be sent to our new address. We have paper evidence of this.
July 31, 2008: Still haven't received our deposit, we emailed the manager. She told us the deposit has been sent, and that we should contact the main office by phone.
August 08 - September 08: We called the main office numerous time and was always told that the person responsible was not there. We left our information each time and never got a call back. We left many voice messages also, and never got a call back.
September 9, 2008: I emailed the main office demanding a response. I did not receive a reply.
September 11, 2008: We received a check finally for less than half of our original deposit. We only lived there for a year and left the apartment in good shape (unfortunately we did not take pictures when we left, so we did not have evidence). Since they paid us so late and so little, my roommate and I were furious. We decided to look into laws related to security deposit.
February, 2009: After a few busy months we finally got around to writing a letter to the main office. We cited that they did not return our deposit within the 21 days required by California law. As I understand it, the law allows us to ask for 3 times the security deposit back if they did not return it to us because of bad faith. I'd consider them not responding to my phone calls and emails evidence of bad faith... However, in our letter we still only requested that we get our full security deposit back.
April, 2009: We did not hear back from them and we are getting pretty frustrated. We are sending them another email and will try calling again before considering other actions. Based on their track record though, I'd be surprised if they respond.
So that is our story. Do you think we have grounds to get our full security deposit back at a small claims court? Things I think we have against us:
- They claimed to have sent the deposit in July. Can they just say that they sent it and it's not their fault we didn't get it?
- They sent us the deposit in September but we didn't take it.
- We did not have evidence of the state of the apartment when we left.
What do you think? Thank you very much!