Do I have to send an official letter with deductions from Deposit?

I rented a room in a 3 BR rental property with 3 individuals.(I do not stay there).

I gave a notice to leave to one person and he left. He did not do any move-out inspection and simply walked out. Later I found the room to be too dirty, some things broken, bathroom in a mess and broken shower. On top of cleaning the property, I had to spend on those minor repairs. They all add up and now exceed the deposit amount. I took photos of place.

The guy has been asking me refund of deposit. He texts me everyday. I sent him a text reply detailing all deductions and demanded the money that he owes me. Are text messages enough or do I have to send him an official letter with deductions?

You don't say about the circumstances of the deposit. When did he give it to you, and what was the agreement?

Is the deposit separate from any deposit from the other individuals, or are they all together. Are they jointly responsible for conditions, or severally responsible (or both)?

Regardless of if a letter is required in your state or not, it is always a good idea to send a letter specifying exactly what deductions are being made from deposit, keep a copy for yourself, maybe even ask USPS for a certificate of mailing.

State law says the deposit must be refunded within 30 days of moving out else Landlord owes twice of the deposit.

The deposit is given by that individual separately and it was his share of deposit. No one is jointly responsible.

I think we have part of the truth here, but not the whole truth.

You said, "State law says the deposit must be refunded within 30 days of moving out else Landlord owes twice of the deposit"

I'm guessing that your law is similar to my state's law, which says that the landlord must send an accounting statement for the deposit to the last known address within 30 days of the end of the lease, and that any amount wrongly withheld must be refunded at double (or triple) that amount.

So the way this works is you write up a ledger that shows the deposit amount, below that list all the deductions, then at the bottom either shows the balance owed or the refund due, then you send that statement along with a check (if there's anything left) or a demand for payment for the amount due.

Failure to send the written accounting statement as required may also be grounds of the tenant to claim damages in court, unless you provided and estimate of charges but for a reasonable scenario you could not complete all repairs in a timely manner, in which case you'd possibly be able to request and extension. But this is assuming the tenant 1) Finds you 2) Sues you and 3) Gets you personally served notice of the court hearing.

Bottom line: if you didn't follow the laws correctly, now is a good time to negotiate outside of court to avoid the hassle and expenses of fighting it out in front of a judge with an unknown outcome. Perhaps agree to split the damages/cleaning bill 50/50. Get it in writing and signed by both parties.

For next time...

Step 1: Need to learn your state laws on security deposits and follow them. Most states have their laws online that you can look up and refer to.

Step 2: Be sure to share the whole story so we know how to best advise.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone.

I have been sending him text messages within few days after he moved out. He had been replying to my text messages and challenged my deductions. I sent him the details of every deductions as and when I incurred through phone texts. Now he owes me money. All this happened within 30 days.

Now we are out of 30 days and he sent me demand letter to pay within 7 days.

Alex,

Sounds like he consulted an atty.

If this is just a room, cleaning is easy and he’ll argue he cleaned it.

Work this out NOW to avoid court. You did not send his written settlement by certified mail. You could easily lose and have to pay the filing fees and HIS atty.

What are the laws in your state about HOW the SD accounting needs to be sent?

In my state, if they don't provide a forwarding address, you're off the hook.

I am not reducing or adjusting any of my expenses just because he is challenging. My expenses stay as I spent and as I detailed to him in Text messages. This is even after he has sent me a Demand Letter for Security Deposit.

The faucet was tampered & kicked resulting in water dripping. The shower door was kicked and was just placed to rest. It came off moment I touched.

I have no problem in sending the same information in Certified Mail. But in principle, I have detailed and sent him all the deductions. He had been disputing my Text messages, so in other words, he did receive the messages.

Thanks Robert.

All of my expenses were labor. I did not have to buy new material and could use spares in my garage, like mud patch, soap, vinegar, extra flapper and flush valve etc.

When the faucet was leaky, we had to open the valve, put it back in place and tighten with Channel Locks.

When the shower door came off then we had to realign it on tracks and tighten the screws. Most of these items would look nice in his photos but not necessarily they were working as expected.

Alex,

Each of your posts shows me more and more that you do not know how this works, which means you will lose in court.

Law and court are not based on logic or who was right or wrong.

Learn this about business: Wanna be RIGHT or RICH?

How much money are we talking about?

Give up a few hundred to save yourself a few thousand. He will win and the judge will make you pay his atty. THAT is how court works.

Alex I've been following you and your rental business. Several times I've posted GA guidelines. My take and apparently others also. YOU don't have a clue. frankly have made no effort-- except for coming here --after the horses have left the barn for questions that a LL should know-- or at the least have knowledge of.

Good luck.

I would agree that it sounds like you should try and settle with the guy. You could say that you left the letter at the last known residence instead of mailing it, but not sure if you admitted to not doing that in texts.

Our court will allow texts as extra evidence but we still have to go thru all the old school stuff with regards to the SD.

My state doesn't allow me to charge for my labor either. Sounds like you have more labor than anything in this. What costs did you incur otherwise? Some materials, paid a trash man, lost some rents.

Not following the rules for the SD will come back and bite you. Take this loss for the teaching moment it is. Deduct the materials and rents lost from the SD. Send the rest back to him and see if this ends the story. Stop fighting over texts as well. Block his number after you get a valid mailing addy and get back to reading the laws and regulations for your area.

Alex,

Do you like to work? Given a choice, I prefer not to work. What does that mean? Well, in a perfect world you would be able to give 100% of the deposit back and the unit would be returned in perfect shape.

You are saying that it isn't being returned that way. So I am inclined to believe that the tenants has 1) too much money or 2) not been instructed clearly enough to know what is expected out of them.