Bad Situation with my Landlord

You would get more responses on the rentals board. Before I start, help me understand or confirm.

1. So you have requested the landlord to make repairs and they have failed to do it.

2. The landlord in addition, has chosen to stop by unannounced to "talk."

3. Now with little time left on the "lease" you fear that your landlord will hold your security deposit hostage.

4. The landlord has agreed to let you out of the lease?

Consigliere
13 minutes ago
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report abuse You would get more responses on the rentals board. Before I start, help me understand or confirm.

1. So you have requested the landlord to make repairs and they have failed to do it.

2. The landlord in addition, has chosen to stop by unannounced to "talk."

3. Now with little time left on the "lease" you fear that your landlord will hold your security deposit hostage.

4. The landlord has agreed to let you out of the lease?

you can ask the consigliere to ask a capo to put a horse head in her bed. they know how to deal with voiding contracts.

and ps, any landlord who asks for more than one month's security deposit (extenuating circumstances like poor credit, other financial issues on tenant's part) is probably a pain in the ass.

Tone is all wrong.

columbiacounty
11 minutes ago
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report abuse Tone is all wrong.

Tony is spelled with a Y retard. Who is Tony?

jim_hones10 we made some requests within the first month of living here and many of them were extremely slowly fixed and some of them outright disregarded. I have documentation of those things.

She does announce herself to "talk" but expects quite liberally to be able to knock and come in and talk.

With respect to #3 she has $5200 and can not produce an account where it is being held and has openly admitted that it is not required (in her opinion) that it be kept separate from her financials. She only owns a building with two units which she rents. According to this site: http://www.housingnyc.com/html/resources/faq/security.html#spent I am under the impression that she should have an account she can show where the money is.

#4 yes she has changed our lease end date to May 31 instead of Sept 31.

She has been a horrible landlord, I have amazing credit and had plenty of proof of financial stability. I just don't want her to have the leverage because I did everything I could to take care of the place. I am just not used to be treated in this way in all my years of renting from other people in a variety of cities in the US.

I have been instructed by two attorneys and a broker not to let her have the last two months rent. I tried to be nice and at least have a conversation about it when we met (while she was showing people the apartment) this weekend. I feel sorry for the poor people that take over the place when I leave, but I want to know what actions she can take in the coming weeks given I don't want to provide her with any more money.

Mind you we already found a new place to live and just have to wait till May 1 before we can move into it.

how will this "affect" your credit? The last thing you want to do is not pay your rent. Why don't you truly document the repairs she did not perform by sending her a certified letter of the outstanding issues. Also communicate by certified letter what your plan is for moving out.

Hey this may seem unorthodox, but why not ask her to look at your apartment before you move out and let you know what she believes you damaged that is beyond normal wear and tear so you can correct it prior to moving, and make sure you document that meeting in a recap certified letter.

If you do not want a landlord to mess with you, just make sure you document everything via certified letter/return receipt. This will indicate to the landlord that you know what you are doing, and that you are preparing for shenanigans and that the landlord will not be able to use the idea of Court to intimidate you.

Read about your rights, and just prepare yourself the appropriate way.

Do you have a new place lined up already?
Forget about your rights and her manipulative, greedy little soul. It's just a negotiation: she has some money in her bank account you'd like back, and that she'd like to keep. My advice is to stop the chats and keep to necessary written communication. Write everything as if a judge were to read it, but hopefully it won't come to that.
Offer a compromise: does she want you to move early? Maybe that's good for both of you. In return for your flexibility, she should let you use one month of security as a last month. Make sure you document the condition of the apartment fully on the day you move out, and then wait for 45 days before sending a letter about getting it back. That's the time to threaten legal action, because it's cheap for you to file in small claims to get your deposit back, and you have evidence the apartment was clean and in good condition when you left.

Yes, photos, photos, photos on your way out the door!

>If you do not want a landlord to mess with you, just make sure you document everything via certified letter/return receipt. This will indicate to the landlord that you know what you are doing, and that you are preparing for shenanigans and that the landlord will not be able to use the idea of Court to intimidate you.

The magical certified letter. Only $5.75 at your local wizard post office.

I have tons of photos already. She lives in the basement of the building, is it still important to send certified mail?

I have found that she is co-mingling the deposit with her funds. I am speaking to an attorney now about the proper verbage to put in a letter demanding a location of the funds. I have also read on the NY attorney general's site that they can forfeit the right to manage the trust if they are co-mingling the security deposit. So I can demand they return it to me immediately.

Anyone ever done something like that? Also the building hasn't been inspected since 2003 I am going to report that to the attorney general as well or the housing authority.

She does need to tell you where your security is being held, which bank, and it does need to be kept separate from her other "financials." Do not withhold the last months' rent, unless she agrees in writing, as she can press a case against you for nonpayment if you do that.

Look, this is a woman who has rented out 1 or possibly more apartments for many many years. She knows all the tricks and has many of her own, and isn't going to be intimidated by crap like a certified letter. Certainly you should do what is right for you, including taking photos, and even your blog is a good "journal" of activities if you need to recall what happened at certain dates (although the format and tone are rather immature, more reflective of you than her). You are in the best position to determine how to approach her, but approaching her rationally (even if she is irrational) is better than escalation (like an out of the blue certified letter, which by the way, one of the tricks with a certified letter is simply not to sign for it so any certified letter should be accompanied by an identical non-certified letter mailed at the same time with a proof of mailing receipt which is a record that only you get) at this stage. She's got a few things over you including your money, photos of you damaging the wall, a record of repair and replacement of appliances (making it tough for you to "claim" that she was unresponsive; complaining about cold water - no one will care, you can call 311), and she knows you don't want to be hassled (which is why you are moving out) whereas she seems like the type who isn't easily hassled.

Photos are a good idea, an attempt at a rational conversation followed by (assuming she consents) putting it in writing for the both of you. And yes, if she mistreats you at the end, Small Claims Court goes up to $5K and you can (and do) represent yourself.

huntersburg I guess you have outlined more reason for me to not let her have any additional funds for rent. She hasn't provided me the location or proof that they are managed in a correctly established account.

we are just going to move out on May 1 and return keys May 2nd. The lease ends May 31st and she wants us out May 1st after she has seen how much interest she has in the apartment. We have no desire to damage anything and have fully repaired the wall she claimed was damaged not to mention fixed tons of cracks in her plaster that she has been made aware of that we did not cause.

Also I find it extremely odd how different the opinions of this forum are compared to speaking with a tenant / landlord attorney.

"Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract."

Times are different, this is considered duress, it;s shunned upon.

Wetlands
about 3 hours ago
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She does need to tell you where your security is being held, which bank, and it does need to be kept separate from her other "financials." Do not withhold the last months' rent, unless she agrees in writing, as she can press a case against you for nonpayment if you do that.

this isn't correct. if the owner owns only one building, and it has less than a certain number of units, then they don't need to do this.

huntersburg
about 2 hours ago
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Look, this is a woman who has rented out 1 or possibly more apartments for many many years. She knows all the tricks and has many of her own, and isn't going to be intimidated by crap like a certified letter

"crap" like a certified letter is the way you are supposed to deal with your landlord when handling a dispute, according to the city.

@jim_hones10 actually I was researching the issue and according to NY Tenants Rights http://www.ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/pdfs/publications/Tenant_Rights_2011.pdf page 9 paragraph 3:

Landlords, regardless of the number of units in the building,
must treat the deposits as trust funds belonging to their tenants and they may not co-mingle deposits with their own money. Landlords of buildings with six or more apartments must
put all security deposits in New York bank accounts earning
interest at the prevailing rate. Each tenant must be informed
in writing of the bank’s name and address and the amount of
the deposit.

The only difference between her and larger buildings is she is not required to put the money in an interest bearing account. Unless the Tenants Rights guide on the attorney general's website is not correct then she is required to put that money in a separate account by law.

Also, if she doesn't she can forfeit her right to hold the money:

Failure to Hold in Separate Account

If there is evidence that the landlord has not deposited the rent
security deposit in a separate, interest-bearing bank account,
the tenant has the right to demand its return. Failure to receive
annual tax forms notifying the tenant of interest earned on the
account or the landlord's refusal to respond to requests
regarding disposition of the earned interest, might be such
evidence. First, there should be a written request to the
landlord asking him for information on the current status of the
rent security deposit moneys and the name and address of the
banking institution where the account is held. If there are
grounds to believe that the moneys are not properly deposited,
state those grounds for the record and demand that the deposit be
held according to law or returned to you. Request the landlord
reply in writing within ten business days. If he does not, you
can file a complaint with the Attorney General (see below). For
regulated tenants, a complaint of overcharge (as above) should
also be filed with DHCR, stating that the landlord, by mixing the
deposit with his own funds, has collected an overcharge.

http://www.tenant.net/Rights/CTRC/ctrcf006.html

I'll preface all this with "I am not a lawyer, so confirm whatever I say yourself as appropriate".

By commingling your deposit (and admitting to doing so), your landlord has done a conversion on your deposit. "Conversion" is the civil equivalent of the criminal word "steal". She does have to keep your funds separate from her own, though the exact details can depend on factors.

Case law is pretty well-established on this issue. If your lease is over and the LL commingled funds, courts will force them to return the deposit regardless of the condition of the apt. Your rights to recover converted funds trump the LL's right to take money out of the deposit. The LL may sue to get money for alleged damages, but such a case will not be heard until conversion has first been remedied. If your lease is up, this means paying back your deposit with interest. If you are still under the lease, then conversion may be remedied by segregating the monies although I don't recall all the details.

Correction: as soon as you bring action against LL, they can no longer remedy conversion by segregating the deposit.

This is from footnote #2 of this case law that gives an excellent history of the statutory & case laws covering deposits:

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ny-civil-court/1398260.html

I suggest you read the above fully and look up the referenced statutory laws (http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi?COMMONQUERY=LAWS) and case laws (search Google, many will be there).

Here response is in a nutshell (after I mention the above to her)

you are responsible for the April rent....and May's rent unless we come to a meeting of the minds about an earlier release date.

I am not required, nor do I intend to, share any bank account information with you.

Anyways she says she has consulted a judge to get confirmation. I called a lawyer and they confirm that she is right. However you are saying the opposite and legitimate sites say that she should be putting the money into a trust in my name.

I think I need to just file a complaint and move on. Chances are she does this to everyone who lives there.

Your LL is never going to return money to you. What if you just let her be the one who comes to you looking for what she thinks she's owed, instead of vice-versa? She'd have to go to court, etc., etc. She's showing your apartment to new tenants right now, so chances are she's gunning for them to move in the day after you move out. What would she be coming after you for? You haven't paid April, but she has two months? You're already cutting your losses, so just stay the course.

nobody said you are trying to intimidate with a certified letter, but if you do end up in court, you will need those to get any point across.

She has two months security. You have two months left in lease. She is a bitch. Stop paying the rent and leave when the lease is up.

Move on.

I would definetly not pay it. Gcondo is either a landlord or a boy scout. What are her damages $5200? She's already got that amount from you. She won't bother taking you to court when you're already leaving anyway!

haha, yep if living by and honoring the agreements we enter into makes me a boy scout... wanna go camping? yes, that's good advice, break the terms of your lease and use your security deposit to pay your last two months rent. leave the door open - hey - they landlord will never do anything what are the chances, right? oh but if there are damages to the apt, and the landlord is motivated, well, you are in for even more aggravation.

I thought I had posted this, but I guess not.

Here is a course of action I suggest you consider (with advice from your lawyer):

1. File a small claims suit today to demand that the deposit be returned immediately due to illegal conversion because she commingled funds. Because you have taken action, she cannot remedy the illegal conversion by segregating the monies (per case law).

2. Notify her that you will not be paying thr lease due to the illegal conversion & violation of the lease. (NY law says that the rules on security deposits are part of every lease, regardless of what is said in the lease.) Do not say that you'll pay her rent from the security deposit or anything like that, leave it ambiguous. Take pictures, etc., as others recommend.

The point of the above actions (I think) is that it keeps you above-board w.r.t. the lease. Because of the illegal conversion of funds by her, plus you taking legal action, she no longer has a legal right to be holding the security deposit.

Now comes the fun part, which I suggest you follow through with given the amount of pain she has caused you and the amount of effort you have already expended on the matter. When you go to small claims court, I think they should rule that the deposit be returned to you even though you have not paid rent. The case law I directed you at above is pretty clear about how the return of the deposit must be handled first and separately from rent / damages claims she may have on you.

Now if you get a decision of her having to pay the deposit back to you despite you not having paid rent (as you should), then follow up to make sure she pays you the amount plus statutory interest (9% I think). If she does not pay, place a lien on her properties. When she pays it back, then and only then is she allowed to make a claim against you for the rent and/or damages. At this point, you can be nice (pay it) or annoying (make her accept a discounted amount for the trouble she caused you, if she doesn't like it she can waste time / money in court).

From the case law:

However, just as surely, if the landlord fails to segregate properly a security deposit, or mingles it with personal funds, the law views such as an illegal conversion of the security deposit (Kelligrew v. Lynch, ... ).   ... This right to immediate recovery of a security deposit rests upon fundamental principles explored in the leading case of ... in which the Appellate Division, Second Department, explained:

“[The security deposit law] changed the legal relationship between the [landlord and tenant] from debtor-creditor to trustee-cestui que trust.   The inability of the commingling landlord to set off claims against the deposit flows from the change in his legal status.  [The landlord] does not owe a debt as he once did;  he owes a duty not to commingle the deposit with his own funds.   Upon a breach of that duty, he forfeits his right to avail himself of the deposit for any purpose.   To allow him to set off the deposit against his individual claims is to treat the deposit as a debt and the landlord as a debtor precisely the situation which [the security deposit law] was enacted to change.”  (Emphasis added.)

Based upon this clear precedent, the court must reject the request that any right to a refund of the security deposit to these out-of-possession tenants be deferred until the resolution of other outstanding issues.

Look, I'm not a lawyer, but I do understand that a security deposit is meant to offset a breach of lease, and I did follow the link through enough to understand that tenant has already breached the lease by wall-mounting a TV in a brownstone.

My advice to the original poster -- not as a lawyer, but as someone who has seen a lot of landlord-tenant relationships -- is to not throw fuel on this fire. If you head to small claims court over your deposit, you may well get hit for counterclaims for damaging the landlord's property.

Not to mention how it looks that you've started a blog with that kind of language.

Your landlady wants you out; you want to get out. You've both started unwinding the relationship. The next step is negotiate how much of the security deposit it will take to cover the damage from hanging the TV. I think you will have the most favorable outcome in that negotiation if you do not try to ramp things up a notch by raiaing conversion issues.

Either way, you might want the advice of an actual real estate atty.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

FP, that sounds like bad advice.

The LL has unlawfully taken the tenant's security deposit. I.e., the civil version of "stolen". The LL no longer has any right to offset it against a breach of lease. No counterclaim will be considered until the deposit is first returned. The "damages" claim is so secondary to the illegal conversion that the court will not offset them. The case law is very clear on this.

In terms of "negotiating", the LL is being a bully. You don't appease a bully. The tenant has a legal obligation to pay the lease unless the LL amends the lease in writing with whatever is "negotiated". I am guessing the tenant wants to "negotiate" no damages. The LL wants to negotiate $5000 damages. Guess what happens if they don't come to an agreement? Legally, tenant needs to pay rent and then chase after LL in court for $5000.

What do you think the LL's intention is here with the deposit?

You seem to not understand that the LL has unlawfully taken money from the tenant. Your advice is like saying that you should negotiate with a thief who has stolen your property.

When I rented out apartments I always asked for and got 2 months security. If the tenant was vacating the apartment at lease end I always did a walk through the apartment, with the tenant present, about 2 months before lease end. If all seemed reasonable regarding the condition of the apartment I would tell the tenant to not pay the final month's rent, leaving 1 month's security. After the tenant vacated, I would do a final inspection and than mail the security to the tenant. I don't ever remember holding back any security, guess I had good tenants.

As to holding security, I always co-mingled it with my own funds and I never remember any tenant asking where the funds were being held.

The landlord is being very nice to let you out of the lease after only 5 months. You should inspect your own behavior, you may not be the "dream" tenant you think you are.

Thanks for all the great feedback. I am speaking to a landlord tenant lawyer today (assuming he gets back to me). I plan to show him the information we have been talking about here.

WRT the blog I explicitly kept names and identities hidden and changed. I'd wager it'll be hard for her to find and use the information in court. It was intended to share the story with friends and family in a humorous way. Those that know me are getting a good laugh in on my life but not really giving me any valuable feedback.

All that being said I have already demonstrated that I know how to replaster and fix the wall as I fixed one of her other ones. I have already bought materials to fix this wall with the TV and the abutting wall to make sure the whole room matches. I have no desire to damage her property and plan to leave it as I found it. I frankly just want out and my good faith deposit back.

I did think of what inonada was saying above. Where I could take legal action to retrieve my security and then not pay rent either. I am not in the business of putting that bad karma out there, but I really don't want to back down here. I think she needs to be taught a lesson in how to treat people who are her customers with some respect. The way in which she conducts her business has made me unable to sleep easily at night and feel comfortable at home.

Thanks again for the advice, I will let you all know how it turns out when I speak with the lawyer.

RENY, read the law & case law. You have been a good LL, and you have had good tenants. The latter may not always be the case. To protect yourself, do not commingle the deposit and provide notice of its location a legally required. No clause in the lease may absolve you of this requirement, these are legally incorporated into every lease regardless of what the lease says. If you do not segregate the deposit, the tenant may trash your apt, and the court will legally force you to first give back the deposit regardless of the damages, and then to afterwards separately place a claim for damages. When you commingle the security deposit, you lose the right to it because of your unlawful conversion (i.e., the civil version of stealing).

If you have an attorney or broker who tells you otherwise, best to change them as you are paying money to idiots who are supposed to understand the rules but actually do not.

Nada, if this brownstone owner, who I believe owns a single building, is a thief and a bully by your standards, then heaven bless you, because I don't think you've experienced what real theivery and bullying are.

In terms of negotiation, yes, if I were the OP I would negotiate. I negotiate for a living, I spend a lot of time watching brokers and attorneys with decades of experience negotiate for a living, and in my experience, jumping straight into the most adverserial position is generally jumping into a position of weakness. There's being angry, and there's being justifiably angry, and then there's getting what you want. Separate things.

So what does OP want -- to rain destruction down on LL for the perceived justice of it, or does he want to walk away with the greatest amount of cash possible and the best credit possible?

my advice is steering him towards the latter path, b/c that's what he asked about.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Spoke with an attorney that came highly recommended by a trusted colleague.

WRT the legality of the conversion and what she is required to do. Yes all that is true. However he said practically in a court situation just because there is a precedent doesn't mean that it'll pan out that way. Especially in this arena.

He said best for me to do be out of the apartment no later than end of April. Then return the keys and hope that she returns that last half of our security deposit assuming I don't wreck the place. So I guess that is what I am going to try and do.

Bottom line, she is wrong on the conversion and location of the fees. Reality of the court though is that it will only serve me if I want to be the aggressor. I don't particularly care to do that, however it would be great to see some way of regulating this sort of thing.

Inododo is obviously playing the online virtual fantasy version of the law and a courtroom. He watched too many ambulance chaser lawyer commercials on TV and thinks that you just have to be a combination of a blustering jackass and someone who can throw out terms and references that sound somewhat credible (not to a judge or to opposing counsel but on a message board) and then you win

He's stated he hasn't been to court be he's got a plan all the way up to placing a lien.

FP, do you think the OP is entitled to the immediate return of the entire deposit right now regardless of the condition of the apt? Do you think the LL thinks so?

9 Supreme Court justices come to 2 different conclusions on most all matters, but Inododo who is not a lawyer knows definitively the iron clad answer to this problem.

> do you think the OP is entitled to the immediate return of the entire deposit right now regardless of the condition of the apt?

When you say immediate, do you mean after this is litigated and the plaintiff receives a non appealable judgment and then hires the New York County Sheriff to enforce the judgment?

nada, you're getting very hypothetical here by asking me to put myself in the shoes of a landlady who I don't represent, have never met, and have only heard described in very negative language by her adversarial counterparty.

But I could imagine a housing court/small claims court situation where the judge asks the landlady to return the security deposit in whole, the landlady shows she is prepared to do so by offering up an attorney escrow check, the landlady claims breach of lease and damage to the apartment, and the judge asks the tenant to heal damage to the apartment by paying to repair the wall, and the tenant ends up getting his deposit back minus whatever the court thinks damages are, and each side is out a thousand bucks for attorneys, and the tenant has a housing court notice in his file that shows up every subsequent time somebody runs his credit.

That's a good solution for the tenant only if you think the alternative outcome is that the landlady keeps all two months' of his security deposit, and nothing we've been shown so far convinces me that that's what's going to happen.

ali

Theoretically you owe the balance of the lease, unless LL finds a new tenant. You don't have any basis as of yet to start a lawsuit over "conversion" of your deposit, because it isn't due back to you yet, nor is any interest. I thought from your description that all you owe is April's rent, plan to move out May 1st, so even if you don't pay April, the LL will still have a month from you to cover lost rent. I wasn't thinking about damage from hanging a TV, but I do think this is getting blown way out of proportion by everyone. Thinking ahead to your argument to a judge? There's no reason to suspect that will even happen. But if the LL still has one month after you've moved out without paying one month's final rent, the LL is not going to part with a penny of it, and you're not going to get a penny of it. You broke a lease. End the relationship as simply as possible. You'll lose something. Your LL will lose something too.

FWIW, I think you received good advice from your lawyer. Do get in writing that you are moving out at the end of April as requested, and ask for an inspection by the landlord or her agent on the last day when you will return the keys.
Do repair the holes in the wall where you hung your TV, and take lots and lots of pictures of each room.
45 days after you move out, send a certified letter asking for your deposit. If she refuses, THAT will be the time to threaten to sue, because you're talking a small sum that can be recovered via Small Claims. That's easy to do by yourself, and she will certainly lose if you have proper documentation she asked you to leave early and you left the apartment in good condition.

lowery: "You don't have any basis as of yet to start a lawsuit over "conversion" of your deposit, because it isn't due back to you yet, nor is any interest."

That's a very interesting viewpoint, lowery. Tell me, though, how do you reconcile that with the following footnote in the case law I referred to above:

“Commingling by landlord is a conversion, which gives tenant an immediate right to recover the deposit without offset by reason of any claim by landlord.   Landlord's right to the security is revived if the commingling ceases before tenant brings an action to recover the deposit.   But segregation after expiration of the term and vacation by tenant is held too late for such revival”

FP, I'm not sure whether you haven't read the case law I linked or whether it is beyond your comprehension. Read the above snippet, let me know what you think about a judge offsetting the deposit with a claim.

enginerd, I think your plan to pay rent sounds fine. But here's what I am guessing will happen:

- You will move out
- The condition of the apt will be back to how you received it.
- She'll play delay tactics on assessing damages, etc. to drag things out.
- After some time you'll start making more and more noise.
- She'll come to an assessment that she takes out a ridiculously large amount for damages.

At that point, remember that you can, with high likelihood, get the whole thing back through a simpler route of conversion rather than arguing about damages.

Inododo's words sound nice until you have to actually do something to make them effective

AAnyone figure what happens in inododo's scenario after the conversion is remedied? The tenant then owes the same amount to be placed into escrow per the existing lease. So net, nothing minus legal fees and personal aggravation.

inonada, I don't doubt your legal research, but I'd LOVE to see a real-life court case where someone comes to a judge with a gazillion cases of people looking for orders to show cause to evade eviction and someone has a complaint that their landlord, four months after they moved in, has been discovered to have commingled their funds and boy, howdy, they demand instant relief - especially when the tenant has already decided to break the lease anyway, with the landlord's blessing

There are lots of unpleasant people in landlord/tenant relationships, and starting a full legal offensive before there's any dispute, just to make sure that you're right in the dispute when it DOES happen (which presupposes you anticipate yourself in a lawsuit) is just as bad as commingling funds. People do return deposits out of commingled funds. If you get your refund out of commingled funds are you going to start a lawsuit over the violation of that footnote you found in your research? Do you want this divorce, or do you just want to drag out the relationship for the rest of your life with your ex-spouse because you just can't let go of that one eency-teency-weency way in which you think you may be 100% in the right and your ex-lover 100% wrong?

The OP is just tired of writing out checks because they're paying for the next apartment. They need to just hash it out with them and move on. They know the LL isn't going to refund anything, so they're doing the "you have my deposit" game. Let's not turn anyone into a saint here.

Of course you'd advise the OP, inonada, to pay the rent in the apartment for April? And March if he hasn't paid it? And if the movers come on May 1st, he'll pay May rent also, right?

And then he'll make his demand for refund of his security deposit, down the road, after the LL has pretended to spend money repairing the OP's supposed damages to the apartment? And I'm sure you'd agree that this may all be mooted anyway by the fact that he broke the lease? Or am I being too glib here, and not doing my legal research on whether a signed letter from the LL saying, oh, yes, tenant, I do agree that it's okay for you to break the lease and not owe me a year's rent is sufficient to relieve the tenant of obligations to pay out the full rent term? Does it have to be notarized? Witnesesed? Or does the landlord's dropping by and snooping relieve the tenant of the tenant's obligations? If so, must there be video of the landlord dropping by? What constitutes dropping by without a reason? Just checking to see if everything's okay? Not having a good excuse for chatting with them inside the apartment? Inviting themselves in without being invited? Are independent witnesses required to verify this lack of invitation? Can a spouse be an independent witness?

lowery:

- The lease is already amended. There is no breaking of it.

- The issue of returning commingled funds is the central premise of the case law. The specific point there happens to be in a footnote because it refers to a situation not exactly matching the case. However, if you look up the case it refers to you will find the full-blown case from the 1960's or whatever. This case deals with a "novel" case of commingling by an owner who died, and whether the issue is passed onto the successor.

- You're the one that suggested the OP not pay. I think that's a fine course of action as well, although it puts tenant in default of lease with no excuse. If the OP does that, then he/she should not bring up the "you commingled funds" issue without an action until the lease is over so that the owner is not able to remedy by segregating funds. The point here is not to actually follow through with the suit, but knowing your legal standing to provide leverage in negotiations. If OP stops paying rent, then LL may threaten lawsuit to recover damages. If that threat starts looking real, then OP can (assuming lease is up) say "If you sue me for damages, I will sue you for commingling. If you try shit against my credit, I will sue you for commingling. Here is the case law, have your lawyer read it. It says that you'll have to pay me my entire deposit back immediately, despite me not having paid rent for 2 months and damages you claim. Now maybe the judge will ignore the law, but I wouldn't bet on it."

nada, I'm a judge's kid (and a lawyer's sister). I was trained early all that ALL case law is beyond my comprehension.

Anyone who has a password protected blog about not getting their security deposit back BEFORE THEY EVEN MOVE OUT is a loser. I hope you get litigious with this. I hope it consumes your life even more. I then hope you wake up and realize what I learned in 6th grade; breaking up is hard to do. You're in a bad relationship - move on - cut the strings and stop worrying so much about it. We're not talking about change your life kind of money here.

All of this effort for what? The hours you've spent on this are clearly wasted. The landlord is letting you out of the lease early- come on. Most landlords have break lease fees, be glad she didn't stick you with one.

Sounds like you have the new move out date in writing - nice. It may be important. Pay your rent, move out on time, repair what's damaged, leave her your forwarding address, leave the keys, perhaps she will sign a simple form you produce saying that you surrender the keys and all rights to the apartment on date and will sign it for you. After you move out, wait 30 days and give her a friendly phone call if you haven't received the money back. At 45 days send a certified letter asking her to send the funds to your new address. As 60 days resend the same letter. At 90 days start a small claims case.

The last thing you want is your name on the housing court records over something trivial like this. She has that leverage on you whether you like it or not.

Inododo wants a Supreme Court case and the National Guard.
He also skipped 6th grade.

inonada, yes I did suggest to just go ahead and move out without paying. I didn't think OP would move out owing two months' rent. I thought OP had a deposit equal to two months, had paid March, didn't want to pay April and had well founded concerns that maybe LL would not refund anything of that second month's security. From the little OP shared, this LL does sound like someone who will say, you broke the lease and you drilled a hole or messed up my paint, yadda-dadda, etc., and that the proper, ideal thing would not happen. Proper and ideal, the tenant moves out, having paid rent right up to the end, including for that month the movers come in. Then the LL subtracts repairs. Assuming new tenant does move in for a few more weeks, LL is going to subtract that as well. So yeah.... leave. And kiss goodbye to that second months' security deposit and say, well, at least I didn't lose two months' security. But no, this is not the right thing to do. Jazzman has it right - break it up and move on. This legalistic defensive strategizing ahead of time is not going to help the OP, will only make the situation worse.

if you read the OP's blog, he is an obvious entitled self-centered douchbag. Even if he is right.

Send the LL a certified letter stating a breach of the rental security act and request that the money be retured in full with iterest (7%) in 30 days. If the LL does not comply you can send a letter telling her to deduct the money from rent owed. read the rental security deposit law