Landlord is withholding refund

[slbosley]

I rented a house in Texas and now the landlord won't give the refund back. When I first moved into the house I made a long list of problems with the house and kept a copy. The people who lived there before me left the house a mess. A few repairs were made at my request and we did several repairs ourselves and even had to pay almost $300 for yard clean-up. Now the landlord is blaming me for some of the problems that had already existed and also included in the original list of problems. My question is...he lives in about 200 miles from the house that I rented, do I have to file the claim in his county or can I file the claim in the county where I rented the house. Below is some information that I found on the web about small claims in Texas but they aren't real clear to me.

28.011. Venue

An action in small claims court must be brought in the county and precinct in which the defendant resides, except that:
(1) an action on an obligation that the defendant has contracted to perform in a certain county may be brought in that county; and
(2) an action for which venue is proper under Section 15.099, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, may be brought as provided by that section.


Thanks in advance for you help

Sandy

 

[HomeGuru]

I am sure you can file in the venue that the subject property is located in but double check with the court clerk.

 

[slbosley]

thank you so much for your help. I have contacted the county clerks office and they are mailing a small claims packet to me. I am able to file in the county where the property is located.

 

[HomeGuru]

You are welcome and good luck. Read the State L/T laws as you may be able to ask for more than the amount of deposit.

 

[JETX]

Sandy:

In reading your post, it appears that you might have two different issues here:

Texas has some very specific Tenant/Landlord laws detailing the requirements of both parties. They are detailed in the Texas Property Code, Title 8, Chapters 91 and 92 (93 has to do with Commercial Leases).
A copy can be found at:
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/py/py009200toc.html

For example: in Texas, the landlord is generally required to return your deposit and a statment of account for any deductions within 30 days of your moveout (see below for conditions). If he doesn't do this, than you can sue for THREE times the amount of your deposit.

Also, the renter has the right to make certain repairs and deduct them from the rent.

Here are some citations:

Security Deposit:
§ 92.103. Obligation to Refund
"(a) Except as provided by Section 92.107, the landlord shall refund a security deposit to the tenant on or before the 30th day after the date the tenant surrenders the premises.
(b) A requirement that a tenant give advance notice of surrender as a condition for refunding the security deposit is effective only if the requirement is underlined or is printed in conspicuous bold print in the lease.
(c) The tenant's claim to the security deposit takes priority over the claim of any creditor of the landlord, including a trustee in bankruptcy."

AND

§ 92.104. Retention of Security Deposit; Accounting
(a) Before returning a security deposit, the landlord may deduct from the deposit damages and charges for which the tenant is legally liable under the lease or as a result of breaching the lease.
(b) The landlord may not retain any portion of a security deposit to cover normal wear and tear.
(c) If the landlord retains all or part of a security deposit under this section, the landlord shall give to the tenant the balance of the security deposit, if any, together with a written description and itemized list of all deductions. The landlord is not required to give the tenant a description and itemized list of deductions if:
(1) the tenant owes rent when he surrenders possession of the premises; and
(2) there is no controversy concerning the amount of rent owed.

Summary: I suggest the following:
1) If the landlord has NOT complied with the above (return or deposit or accounting within 30 days), you might consider taking legal action in Small Claims court. Talk with your county courts clerk. BTW, you can sue in the location where the rental was, not in the landlords jurisdiction.
2) If you did receive notice, but don't agree with the deductions made, you also need to consider taking this issue to Small Claims. In my experience, most JP justices are very lenient towards the tenant on these cases. Also, you might be able to recover some of the 'landlord' expenses that you paid during the tenancy.

Good luck, and let us know how this turns out.

 

[slbosley]

Thanks so much for replying to my question. This situation gets messier by the day. I received a letter from the landlord, addressed to my current address, (he says I never gave him my new mailing address) stating that since we hadn't given him the keys, we hadn't surrendered the property to him. I sent him a letter explaining that we had tried to contact him concerning the key return (remember he lives about 250 miles away) and when we went back to the house to determine which keys should be returned to him, the keys had been rekeyed. So, I sent several keys to him last week,so that he could determine for himself which keys went with the locks that he had removed. These locks had been removed within the first day or two after we moved out. I received another letter from him on the 12th of January in which he addressed completely different issues from what was mentioned in his first letter. And along with this letter was an itemized list of charges (well over a month after we moved out)including rent charges and late charges for the month of December and January. He keeps saying in his letters that the house isn't surrendered to him until he gets the keys back. He's got a for sale sign up in front of the house now, so I'm sure that I'm being charged for all the repairs that he's done to get it ready for sale. He's charging me over $2,500. My deposit was only $850. I don't believe I'm being treated fairly. Should I still go to small claims court or maybe the better business bureau? Or wait to see what his next move will be? Something needs to be done to stop this guy. Do you think a judge would be understanding in a case like this? I have witnesses who will say what state the house was in when I first moved into it. He says in his letter that I was supposed to leave the house in the same state that it was in when I moved in. If I had done that, it would not be liveable right now. I think what is happening here is that he wasn't able to collect for the damages that the previous rentor had made and he's trying to stick me with everything that he can. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures when I first moved in but he says he has pictures of different things that he'll use as proof. All I have is a list of problems that I faxed to the person who showed the house to me in the beginning of the lease. All of the pictures, except for the one of a few crayola marks on one wall that my grandson did (he's charging me $155 for repainting the whole room), are of things that existed before I moved in. Since he is operating under an assumed name in a different county, am I still able to file in the county where the house is? I'm sorry this post is so long but I'm just a little frustrated at the moment and would like nothing better than to see this little worm brought to justice.

 

[JETX]

Obviously, you have NOT read the statutes that I directed you to. READ THEM and you should be able to answer most of your questions. This is not the correct forum for a continuing saga of 'oh, one more thing'.

Let me ask you a few questions that could go a long way to resolving this..... and helping you:
1) Did you fulfill the full term of the lease?
2) Did you owe any rent, fees or penalties when you moved out?
3) Did you give the required moveout notice per the lease (30 days?) in writing with a new address?
4) How long after moving did you actually return the keys?
5) Honestly, how much should you receive of your original $850 deposit?

I also offer the following:
You made a BIG boo-boo in not returning the keys. That is one of the things that shows that you no longer have possession of the property. The fact that he may live away is no excuse. If this were done properly, you would have sent him the keys on the DAY you moved out (Certified mail RRR). Then you wouldn't be in this position. However, I believe that if he changed the locks within a few days of your moving out, he stopped the 'rental' clock at that time since this would be a tacit acceptance of the 'loss of access'.

Depending on your 'clean hands' answers to the questions above, if you feel that the deductions to your deposit were unreasonable and excessive, you have every right to pursue the difference in court. However, you need to be aware that the landlord may very well counter-sue for the damages over and above the deposit. You will have to be prepared to argue for your case, and to counter his inflated and unreasonable deductions.

My suggestion:
Send the landlord a letter asking for an explanation of his claims for damages. Be polite and professional. Do not be 'pissy'. Send it by Certified mail, RRR. Ask for a detail accounting of the damages, proof of the damages, photo's to support his claims and copies of all contractor estimates for the repairs. (I will bet that he made up the amounts and has no back-up). Only when you get his response, will you be able to assess the likelihood of your claim, and of his.

 

[slbosley]

To answer your questions:
1) Yes I fulfilled the full term of the lease...that's the only honest way to do business.
2) No I didn't owe any rent, fees or penalties when I moved out.
3) Yes I did give the required 30 day move out notice in writing, but I did not give my forwarding address in writing...only over the phone.
4) The keys..IF they were even the correct keys, were returned a month after move out.
5) Honestly....the amount of my $850 that I feel I should have returned is ALL of it.

I have learned a great lesson from all of this. Never rent. And never believe that other people are as honest as I am.

Thanks again for your free advice. I promise not to bother you with any more of my "oh and one more things".