Security Deposit being held

[ledork]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

The story:
We had a great relationship with our LL the entire time we lived in his house. Properly notified him of our move-out date. I originally paid him $950 at move-in. He took off $100 so he wouldn't have to clean the house when I moved in. It wasn't dirty, per se, but I still invested in cleaning supplies, and my time in cleaning the house before I completely moved in. So, we had to stay in the house until the 11th of the month, which he properly deducted from the deposit amount. We completely cleaned the house - left it in better shape than I got it in. Of course, he has 30 days to send the deposit back, but he is not answering my calls, my emails or my texts in regards to the deposit. Our old neighbor, who we still keep in touch with told us that he stopped by the house (2 weeks after move out) and ws complaining that the back door/garage door hadn't been cleaned! This is from a garage that has holes in the walls (from LL). So...can he withhold our remaining deposit because we didn't clean a door? It seems completely unreasonable to me, but I wouldn't put it past him. And if does attempt to do this, what is my recourse?
Another thing - When we moved in, the hardwood floor in one of the bedrooms began to warp. This was due to a hose leak from his irrigation/sprinkler system, and was fixed by my husband, without question or reimbursement. The warping subsided for about 1 year, and began to get bad again close to our move out date. The realtor he hired commented on the floors and said that it may be a termite problem/or mold. Drove by the house the other day and there were floors outside in the driveway - I'm hoping he is finally going to fix the issue. Is there any way WE could be held liable for that? The damage was not due to anything we did, and was most likely caused by the LL's negligence in coming out to view the property when the issue first appeared.

This is my first post here and I am eager to hear any advice!! Thanks in advance!

 

[Equeen]

Your LL is required to send you a settlement statement in the state specific time frame. I don't know what that is in TX but it does very from State to State. He has to account for all monies withheld.

Give him the time he is allowed hopefully he will follow the law and you will see what you feel you deserve when he sends the statement. Make sure he has the information he needs to get that to you. (forwarding address)

Once that time passes if you don't receive a statement or if you receive a statement and you don't agree with the amount deducted. You then contact him and try to negotiate a settlement you both can live with. If no agreement can be reached then sue.

Hopefully you took pictures when you moved in and when you moved out. If not then things will be tougher. But that is true for the LL also. He will have to prove his loss and that it was your fault. If the court feels he kept the security unlawfully you can be awarded up to 3 times the security amount in some areas, not sure if that is the case in TX. Same penalty applies if he fails to send the security settlement all together.

Back off a little, give him the time he is allowed by law then follow the steps from there.

 

[Gail in Georgia]

Yes; in Texas a landlord has 30 days to return a security deposit (or provide itemized, specific information on the amount kept for damages above normal wear and tear)...so quit calling, emailing and texting him/her about this issue until this time period is at hand.

Most landlords tend to wait until near the end of their states required time period to provide this information.

Gail

 

[Equeen]

Hi Gail!

I think one of your posts on the LPA site sent me over here to check things out. You mentioned to a poster that the advice she/he received here was correct, I guess they had posted here first but went looking for a different answer on the LPA forum. This is an interesting site, I know you didn't do it on purpose but thanks for pointing the way here!

 

[ledork]

Thanks! I will heed your advice and back off until the 11th. Hopefully he will comply with all of the TX laws. I will be back soon if I need further advice, but I hope he does the right thing and I won't need to come back!!

Thanks again!

 

[ledork]

One more issue/question. Upon move out, there was a couch and some bags of household crap that we no longer wanted. We were intending to throw it out with heavy trash pick-up that following week. We left our keys, garage remotes and everything else there. Turns out that heavy trash pick-up wasn't going to happen until December, so we had to figure out an alternate way to dispose of the couch. The trash bags were taken out that following trash day (a friday), and the couch was removed on the 22nd. When I last spoke with LL, he felt the need to reiterate that he had 30 days to refund the deposit, BUT that he was also speaking with his lawyer about us leaving the couch in the garage until the 22nd of the month. Since the heavy trash pick-up was not an option, we had to find a dump site and take it out there.

Can he really try to charge us for those additional 11 days AS RENT?? It sounded like he was trying to do that. That seems very unfair and just plain dumb. Thanks!

 

[Equeen]

That's a sticky one. I believe he can, you were not out. A LL never knows what is garbage or what is family heirloom items. Even if it looks like garbage if he were to throw it out you could come back and say "hey my mothers ring was in there" not saying you would but I just went through that with tenants. Loads of crap covered with animal feces and urine but they tried real hard to convince a judge that it was valuable stuff. I am happy to say good documentation saved my neck.

The one part of this that can help you is if he took possession when you left not when you went back for the couch. Had he been in there working or anything? Was he advertising it “For Rent” Can you prove it?

If he waited to go in and get the keys or do anything until you got the couch out then you are going to have to pay for those days.

My opinion & I am not a lawyer but I would charge you if I were your LL. I can’t rent property when tenants leave there stuff behind. Now what I have always done in these situations was to give the tenant the choice pay until you can get it out or I’ll dispose of it but the cost for that is deducted from the SD.

 

[ledork]

Well, he had been advertising it for rent since before we moved out. We had previous conversations with him about us throwing out the couch, but since the heavy trash pick-up schedule was delayed, we had to figure out an alternate way in which to get rid of the couch. He did not offer to charge us for getting rid of it himself. He lives in a different city and did not even return to the house until last week. The realtor he hired, as far as I know, continued to show the house. I do know work was started on removing his warped floors last week when he visited the house. And he also removed a dead tree in the front yard before we removed the couch.

So, to answer your question I do believe he took possession before the couch was removed. The realtor continued to show the house. The For Rent sign was never removed - it had been up since August. The couch was on the side of the garage, covering up the holes in his garage walls. If a prospective tenant were to see the couch, it would not have been that big of a deal. It's not like it was junky, we just didn't have room for it at our new home, so we decided to trash it. I know that doesn't matter, but just pointing out the fact.

Do you still think he will try to keep an additional 11 days rent? Or rather, can he legally keep it even if he continued to show it and began work on the house?

 

[Equeen]

I think he can.

I think you need to take a break from this. Right now you are worrying about "what if's"! I know you want to be prepared but all you can do right now is wait to see what the security settlement statement says.

You never said one way or the other but do you have pictures?

 

[ledork]

No, unfortunately, I did not take pictures at move-in, or move-out.
The realtor (who is also a neighbor) did the walk-off, and if need be, I will get her into court so she can testify to the condition of our the house at move-out.