Withholding my Security Deposit

[Larmar18]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Jersey
My Landlord of 8 years has never had an issue with us. Rent paid in full on time and took very good care of the property. He had a contractor and himself inspect and neither found any issues with the condition of the property. So when we asked for our security deposit back we were surprised when we were told no. The Landlord is holding our security deposit until he has my utility account numbers and the accounts are transferred to his son (the new tenants) name. Is this legal grounds for holding our money? Our utility accounts were all paid by us and opened by us. We transferred our accounts to our new property. The Landlord doesn't want to pay new security deposits to start utility accounts. We paid our deposits like I said and opened accounts when we moved in. Is this legal? Can he withhold our money over utilities? Not sure what our rights are. There has not been a lease in 7 years and nothing about holding the deposit or transferring utilities. Thanks!

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Jersey
My Landlord of 8 years has never had an issue with us. Rent paid in full on time and took very good care of the property. He had a contractor and himself inspect and neither found any issues with the condition of the property. So when we asked for our security deposit back we were surprised when we were told no. The Landlord is holding our security deposit until he has my utility account numbers and the accounts are transferred to his son (the new tenants) name. Is this legal grounds for holding our money? Our utility accounts were all paid by us and opened by us. We transferred our accounts to our new property. The Landlord doesn't want to pay new security deposits to start utility accounts. We paid our deposits like I said and opened accounts when we moved in. Is this legal? Can he withhold our money over utilities? Not sure what our rights are. There has not been a lease in 7 years and nothing about holding the deposit or transferring utilities. Thanks!

If you've transferred the utility accounts, then the services are off at the old place.

No, this is not a valid reason for withholding your deposit. Sue the bad guy in small claims court. In fact, I'd explore whether or not your entitled to double or even treble damages due to the landlord's withholding your deposit in bad faith (in other words, he KNOWS [or SHOULD KNOW] that his reasons aren't valid.)

 

[Gail in Georgia]

When you did you vacate the rental property?

Gail

 

[Gail in Georgia]

The reason I asked is that under normal circumstances (i.e., you didn't vacate due to flood or fire) a landlord in your state has 30 days to return the security deposit after the termination of the lease.

It is not unusual that in some area if a tenant vacates owing utilities, the owner of the property (the landlord) is charged for these. This is why some landlords wait until nearing the end of the legally required date to return the vacating tenants security deposit.

Gail

 

[FarmerJ]

In that rental was the natural gas and or the electric supplied by NON government owned utility firms ( EG where I live we all get electric from East Central Energy BUT if one happens to live in Mora mn then its mora public utilities a city owned utility ) reason I ask that is that when utilities are city owned if they are not paid the city that owns them will force the owner to pay them where as a for profit utility company that is not govt owned normally doesn't have the option of forcing a property owner to pay unpaid tenant bills. Also in that rental were you to pay the water and sewer bills or were they included? As to so called roll over agreements where the LL gets billed by a utility automatically when a tenant moves out in order to avoid a utility start up fee , that has no bearing on your LLs obligation to follow your states laws or not about your deposit funds.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Jersey
My Landlord of 8 years has never had an issue with us. Rent paid in full on time and took very good care of the property. He had a contractor and himself inspect and neither found any issues with the condition of the property. So when we asked for our security deposit back we were surprised when we were told no. The Landlord is holding our security deposit until he has my utility account numbers and the accounts are transferred to his son (the new tenants) name. Is this legal grounds for holding our money? Our utility accounts were all paid by us and opened by us. We transferred our accounts to our new property. The Landlord doesn't want to pay new security deposits to start utility accounts. We paid our deposits like I said and opened accounts when we moved in. Is this legal? Can he withhold our money over utilities? Not sure what our rights are. There has not been a lease in 7 years and nothing about holding the deposit or transferring utilities. Thanks!

Like you have already been told, you are likely going to have to sue your landlord for your security deposit. However, you probably need to tell him that the accounts cannot be transferred to his son's name because they have already been transferred to your new residence. Perhaps when he realizes that it cannot be done at all, he will become reasonable.