Deposit refund law

By Sophie

My lease expired july 22.  It is now September 2 and I have not yet received a letter from my former landlord or a check.  As required, I gave them my new forwarding address.

How should i proceed?

thank you

Edited on: Friday, June 21st, 2013 5:28 am

2 Responses to “Deposit refund law”

My response: (We welcome stories, examples, explanations, answers and a touch of your personality)
 

Landlord

September 10th, 2009 11:38 pm

If you haven’t gotten your check yet– you won’t! Obviously your landlord is not planning on returning your rental deposit. Most likely, they are in default of the rent law governing your security deposit.
I poked around this site and found that you can file a complaint. I would consider doing that. I personally haven’t dealt with a complaint from the RPA, but then again I try to treat my tenants fairly.


Debbie

August 9th, 2012 11:09 am

First, send a certified letter to the landlord requesting the deposit be returned. Set a reasonable date to receive a reply to the request and say formal action will take place after that time. The landlord should return the deposit or give you an itemized list of charges that were deducted due to property damage, unpaid rent, upaid late fees etc.

If you get the refund. Case closed.
If you get a list of charges. Determine if they are reasonable and things you are responsible for. If they are not follow up with another certified letter explaining why these charges are not owed and another reasonable deadline for response.
If you get no response: File a small claims case against the landlord. You should get the deposit and damages if you need to resort to this remedy. Texas says deposit plus $100 plus 2X the deposit amount that was not returned. Now winning does not guarantee payment, but it does make it far more likely. There is a whole other legal rabbit hole to go down if they refuse to pay the judgement.


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