urgent help needed!!

[not2cleverRed]

Fighting an aggressive tenant's rights attorney will get expensive fast. If the tenant's lawyer thinks he'll prevail, there's no reason to hold down billable hours. The landlord will end up paying the tenant's lawyer in most cases.

You mean, the sort who posts on their commercial webpage, "My website isn’t written in third person for a reason: when you contact me, you get a person: one who is interested in you and your legal needs."

(Yes, even I was able to find it.)

 

[quincy]

Here is a link to the Massachusetts General Law, 186.15(b), that seems to be the one gauriagrawal is claimed to have violated:

https://malegislature.gov/laws/generallaws/partii/titlei/chapter186/section15b

Three times interest, court costs and (especially) attorney fees makes the potential damages awarded a bit scary.

 

[gauriagrawal]

ton of thanks everyone. I am almost about to finalize the lawyer. Since I am out of the country it is the best suggestion. One questions to gain knowledge meanwhile..

Is there any subsection of the law of 186 15b which enforce the treble damage of returning the deposit late. What is the late means in my case. I mean deposit was demanded in August and we returned in October. Please note lease is till active...also We had kept the the deposit in an Escrow account. It is just that tenant is counting 30 days from the time he gave us the deposit and we by counted from the date lease was signed.

 

[quincy]

You should save all questions for your attorney. I personally still can’t figure out why you needed to return a security deposit to a tenant still residing in the rental.

 

[Just Blue]

You should save all questions for your attorney. I personally still can’t figure out why you needed to return a security deposit to a tenant still residing in the rental.

I can't either. My best guess is that OP allowed himself to be intimidated by the tenant due to ignorance of his right/responsibility under the LL/Tenant laws of Massachusetts.

 

[quincy]

I can't either. My best guess is that OP allowed himself to be intimidated by the tenant due to ignorance of his right/responsibility under the LL/Tenant laws of Massachusetts.

There certainly appears to be some confusion over the security deposit laws. Admittedly, Massachusetts has not exactly made these laws easy to understand.

But a lawsuit has in fact been filed against guariagrawal so an attorney in Massachusetts is the best person to sort it all out at this point.

And however this turns out, I think guariagrawal would be smart to do two things: One, not renew these particular tenants’ leases again and two, find a property management company to handle the rentals in the future.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

ton of thanks everyone. I am almost about to finalize the lawyer. Since I am out of the country it is the best suggestion. One questions to gain knowledge meanwhile..

Is there any subsection of the law of 186 15b which enforce the treble damage of returning the deposit late. What is the late means in my case. I mean deposit was demanded in August and we returned in October. Please note lease is till active...also We had kept the the deposit in an Escrow account. It is just that tenant is counting 30 days from the time he gave us the deposit and we by counted from the date lease was signed.

Maybe yes. Maybe no.

15b is pretty technical, and it would take too much time to ask all the required questions for me to guess as to whether you're liable for treble damages. You'll need to discuss with your attorney anyway.