Is there a time limit that landlord has for holding onto to part of a security deposit before he may, if ever, make the repair?
My daughter moved out of her house in at the end of May, 2019. Her landlord kept 626 of her 750 security deposit, citing various repairs. It took 6 weeks of texts, emails and a registered demand letter to finally get copies of all the receipts for all this work to confirm the costs are legitimate (he is not trustworthy and I still doubt the truth of some of these receipts but there is not much I can do when there is a receipt).
The issue we are still having is over bedroom carpets. He kept $175 from each tenant to replace two bedroom carpets. When I pressed him for the receipt, he sent an unofficial guesstimate from Home Depot (the room was never officially measured) as to the cost to replace the two carpets, however, he has not ordered or purchased the carpets nor has he replaced them. He said he plans to do it when the current tenants are away on spring break which would be March 2020. Is this legal? Can a landlord hold onto money without making the repairs in a timely manner? Can he hold onto our $175 on the off chance that he will actually replace the carpet next year? How will I ever know if he does it? This doesn't seem right to me and I am more than willing to take him to small claims court for the $175 (which will double the amount if I prevail) if what he is doing is illegal.
He also withheld money for the living room rug based on another unofficial carpet estimate from Home Deport. He ended up replacing the carpet with vinyl flooring, which cost more than his original carpet estimate and he's making a big deal about how he only withheld from the carpet estimate and not the more expensive final price, like he is doing us a favor. Can the cost of a replacement that actually exceeds the value of what's being replaced be passed onto the tenants? I feel like he isn't really doing us the favor he wants me to believe.
Thank you.
My daughter moved out of her house in at the end of May, 2019. Her landlord kept 626 of her 750 security deposit, citing various repairs. It took 6 weeks of texts, emails and a registered demand letter to finally get copies of all the receipts for all this work to confirm the costs are legitimate (he is not trustworthy and I still doubt the truth of some of these receipts but there is not much I can do when there is a receipt).
The issue we are still having is over bedroom carpets. He kept $175 from each tenant to replace two bedroom carpets. When I pressed him for the receipt, he sent an unofficial guesstimate from Home Depot (the room was never officially measured) as to the cost to replace the two carpets, however, he has not ordered or purchased the carpets nor has he replaced them. He said he plans to do it when the current tenants are away on spring break which would be March 2020. Is this legal? Can a landlord hold onto money without making the repairs in a timely manner? Can he hold onto our $175 on the off chance that he will actually replace the carpet next year? How will I ever know if he does it? This doesn't seem right to me and I am more than willing to take him to small claims court for the $175 (which will double the amount if I prevail) if what he is doing is illegal.
He also withheld money for the living room rug based on another unofficial carpet estimate from Home Deport. He ended up replacing the carpet with vinyl flooring, which cost more than his original carpet estimate and he's making a big deal about how he only withheld from the carpet estimate and not the more expensive final price, like he is doing us a favor. Can the cost of a replacement that actually exceeds the value of what's being replaced be passed onto the tenants? I feel like he isn't really doing us the favor he wants me to believe.
Thank you.