Maximum time limit to get a security deposit back?

I would be calling them every 5 minutes until I got an answer.

you need to keep on top of them, but upto 90 days is not horrible. after that it's another story.

I would send them a letter saying "Since you have not found any damage which was done to the unit during my tenancy in 45 days after my returning the unit to your possession, I take this as an admission that there was no damage, and therefore there will be no deductions form my deposit" and send is registered/certified mail. If they don't respond, there is a good chance that if you have to go to Court, they will deem them to have admitted it by not responding. If they respond, there are three possibilities I see: 1) The response contains a check for your security deposit, 2) they say that they have begun repairs in issues X, Y and Z, but have not finished them yet so can not yet determine what the damages are (again, you can use any item they DON'T list as an admission that those items were not damaged and if they try to claim later that they were, you've got a great defense that "after 45 days they didn't know about that damage?" , or 3) They don't respond, and this also can be deemed an admission that they don't have any claims (Section 32. Admission by silence. — An act or declaration made in the presence and within the hearing or observation of a party who does or says nothing when the act or declaration is such as naturally to call for action or comment if not true, and when proper and possible for him to do so, may be given in evidence against him. (23a)).

Thanks everyone - is there a specific rule though? Or can they just drag this out as long as possible. It really makes no sense since the money is in escrow and they have to pay me the interest and I have to pay taxes on it -as menial as the interest is.

this is excellent advice from 30 yrs and you should follow it. if you get no response, your next letter should formally threaten legal action. i worked for a realtor once where i kid you not, the rule was no one gets their security back until they threaten legal action.

Will do. What a pain and awful policy. I really need the money too.

The legal standard is something fuzzy like "reasonable." As someone who has been both a landlady and a renter, I would say 120 days is "reasonable" -- but I'm with 30 years, start bugging them now.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Wow, I'm amazed you'd consider 4 months as reasonable. As a landlady, what would make you take that long, front_porch?

I would have personally put it at 30 days and would've started bugging them at that point. In any case, as is always the case, just do what 30yrs says.

Yes, the law in NYC says just "reasonable", so unless its written into your lease, you can't sue until 4 months. Or so. Sorry, I am afraid.

Wow, modern world, everybody expects everything instantly. I am taking some of my cue from the publishing industry, where it often takes me four months to get paid ... but here's another example: Do you get your tax refund in 30 days? Of course not.

Imagine a small landlord who has two units: one has a tenant with a leaky faucet, and one just became vacant and needs to be inspected - where are you going to send the handyman? Exactly.

A vacancy is slightly outside the "normal" routine of business, and will get handled, but not as quickly as more pressing phone-ringing problems.

ali r.

Well this isn't a small landlord. I'm pretty sure the apartment has already been re-rented -120 days is ridiculous imho. Based upon my previous experience with other large landlords 120 days is extreme. I'll write the letter and contact their lawyer if I need to. I have her email and have spoken with her in the past.

Uh, front_porch, I would think that the highest order of business is getting the vacant apartment filled with a new tentant. Presumably, this needs to happen after an inspection, so you do your inspection and figure out the fixes/upgrades you want to do ASAP so your apartment doesn't sit empty. I'm sorry, but 4 months to do an inspection is not what I'd consider "reasonable".

There are all sorts of situations where people play budgetary tricks with when they pay out what they owe late. One such example is people with their accounts payable with some song-and-dance about wanting to be able to have sold the crap you and getting paid by your vendors so you can pay your vendors. Another is our government with the tax refund delay, but there are reverse things you do (e.g., if you owe taxes on April 15, which should be your goal anyways, you get several months of "free" carry on the money).

In any case, when you get into a vendor agreement, you set out terms like net 30 or net 90 in terms of when payments are made. Fine. If a landlord wants 4 months to pay back the deposit, put it in the lease. Otherwise, don't be surprised if you get complaints & lawsuits after about 30 days, IMO.

Honestly, IMO, if you're not paid within 30 days (or given notice of the damages), the landlord probably has no intention of returning your deposit without a fight, or at least a complaint. See glamma's post regarding the policy of the realtor she had worked for once.

Although I've never lived in a "normal" apartment in NY, I can tell you that the norm in other places is for management to do a checklist walk-through *with* you as soon as you've moved out (or are all packed up). Even if that's not the norm here, there's no way that anything more than a few days is "reasonable" to assess damage. Add a few days for banking and postal service, and to me one week is "reasonable".

A week and a month is reasonable with a management company.

10 days is reasonable with an individual owner.

From a legal standpoint, let me give you some food for thought: you can only take out for actual damages. So, it certainly makes sense for a LL to wait until the unit is re-rented because one of the easiest ways to "prove" damages is if the new tenant insists that some item needing repair or they won't sign the lease, then obviously they were damaged. So in my view it's easy to see why it's not so "unreasonable" for a LL to wait until that happens before returning security (although I will say in my personal belief, it should be returned as soon as the unit is inspected and whatever repairs need to be done are finished and they have gotten billed for them).

there is absolutely no way that anything more than two months is reasonable (and FP I'm surprised at your stance. renters are not "in business." thousands of dollars to an individual in a rental situation is quite different. although frankly i think the amount of delays that businesses engage in in paying their bills is horrible hypocrisy, just think of what their credit ratings ought to be).

this is a large landlord. if they had presented proof of needed excessive repairs that would be one thing, this is total BS.

cccharley, the husband would be happy to help you if you'd like.

Wow, you guys are severe.. shamed me into a desk purge (where there are indeed action items that are four months old, though none from the tenant, who is happy happy).

ali r.

i would be very suprised if a large landlord like manhattan skyliine doesn't have specific language in their leases detailing how long it will take to get your deposit returned. i would expect 90 or so days. and hopefully the dog "deposit" is not a "dog fee" as it often turns out to be

despite what you read from the "experts" that responded here. read your lease, you signed it and agreed to it at least a year ago. it will tell you in plain english how long you will wait for said deposit

Jim, you're absolutely right on saying that one should look to the lease, but the standard REBNY and Blumberg leases for condos and coops say "reasonable", which is stupid since it leads to uncertainty and differences where there need not be any. However, they were drafted to presumably be pro-landlord, and in lawyer-logic, uncertainty about something you control is always superior to specific language.

FP, I'm sure your desk purge had much less contentious issues on it. Just realize that a tenant appreciates a 4-month delayed deposit return about as much as you appreciate a rent payment that is 4 months late. It's a significant amount of money to many people, and uncertainty about whether or not it gets paid can create a lot of anxiety. If you're sitting on Fort Knox with a penchance for legal confrontation, you might relish the situation (ahem), but most people get quite stressed over it. Honestly, if my LL came to me and said "Hey, it's going to take me a couple of months to get you the deposit because I've got some cash flow issues," I wouldn't care a whole lot, segregated account be damned. We've got a good trustful relationship, and more importantly, the place has a crapload of equity behind it, so it's not like I'm not going to get paid. Hell, I've had no problems paying rent a month or two early because it made issues related to LL being out-of-town easy. However, if I get a runaround on the deposit being returned in a timely manner (e.g., "I've been busy for the last month"), I'd probably go thermonuclear pretty quickly.

Keeping the tenant in the loop is one thing; giving a runaround is another. Not that I'm saying that's what you'd do, but rather how it'd be interpreted.

This was in the NYT Dec.18 2009
http://realestateqa.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/getting-back-security-deposits/

inonada
about 8 hours ago
ignore this person
report abuse Jim, you're absolutely right on saying that one should look to the lease, but the standard REBNY and Blumberg leases for condos and coops say "reasonable", which is stupid since it leads to uncertainty and differences where there need not be any. However, they were drafted to presumably be pro-landlord, and in lawyer-logic, uncertainty about something you control is always superior to specific language.

FP, I'm sure your desk purge had much less contentious issues on it. Just realize that a tenant appreciates a 4-month delayed deposit return about as much as you appreciate a rent payment that is 4 months late. It's a significant amount of money to many people, and uncertainty about whether or not it gets paid can create a lot of anxiety. If you're sitting on Fort Knox with a penchance for legal confrontation, you might relish the situation (ahem), but most people get quite stressed over it. Honestly, if my LL came to me and said "Hey, it's going to take me a couple of months to get you the deposit because I've got some cash flow issues," I wouldn't care a whole lot, segregated account be damned. We've got a good trustful relationship, and more importantly, the place has a crapload of equity behind it, so it's not like I'm not going to get paid. Hell, I've had no problems paying rent a month or two early because it made issues related to LL being out-of-town easy. However, if I get a runaround on the deposit being returned in a timely manner (e.g., "I've been busy for the last month"), I'd probably go thermonuclear pretty quickly.

Keeping the tenant in the loop is one thing; giving a runaround is another. Not that I'm saying that's what you'd do, but rather how it'd be interpreted.

i am not a landlord i am a tennant. and in my lease (with related, now with david frankel) it clearly states that when my security deposit returned (within x amount of days). most leases by large landlords are written this way. im sure the op's lease was as well.

Conundrum: Last day at the apartment, the husband uses the toilet for a #2 just before clearing out. Toilet seat breaks. Oh no!

Now technically the toilet belongs to the landlord, and doing a #2 constitutes normal use. According to legal advice from our favorite astrologer / psychic / tarot reader aboutready, it is the landlord's responsibility to maintain the toilet seat. Now, likely that the landlord will see the toilet seat broken and say it was the tenant's responsibility, despite protestations of streeteasy's favorite bitter lady who has enslaved her husband.

So anyway, what do you do? Do you just replace the toilet seat and save the aggravation of the back and forth over the security deposit?

Or do you hold firm, knowing that if a trial occurs and goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, that you can count on an 8 to 1 verdict (the 1 being Associate Justice Sotomayor, who is a fan of streeteasy and is no fan of the woman who thinks she was wrong for the job despite having an education that still has her using the "word" 'irregardless').

Ok just found my lease. It says after inspection of the premises the Landlord will return security deposit within 60 days, pursuant to the terms of the indenture of the Lease and renewal of Lease. Security deposit cannot be used for last months rent. So I will wait 13 more days and see if I receive my deposit back - I thought I remembered seeing something in the realm of 60 days. I'll send an email to the management liaison today as a reminder. Let's see when I get it. If not I will send the letter 30yrs told me to.

Honestly I wish I had used it for the last months rent since many people do - but i follow the rules. Also because they had an addition $1000 from me for the dog I didn't want to take a chance they wouldn't give me that back - however, I'm not sure they could mix deposits so to speak.

I'd like to hear 30yrs chime in, but you might perhaps want to wait 13 days to send an email/letter. That way, you can explain to them that they are in violation of the lease: there were no damages to the apartment, the LL did not describe any damages in those 60 days, and the deposit was not returned. Say that if you do not receive your deposit back within N days, you will be taking legal action. The point here being that you don't want to give them an opportunity to claim damages in the next 13 days, which your email may perhaps instigate. You want the 60 days to fully pass so you can claim that they did not declare any damages during that time.

I was going to say consult your lease--this is typically covered in leases with larger management agents. That said, you should still contact them and confirm they have your new address (even if you know they do) and that the check is in process. I'd call again in a week and check this again. And then with increasing frequency if the period for return set forth in the lease passes without the check.

Looking at a lease for a higher-end rental building, non-stabilized, non-condo. It says they'll return the deposit after the lease ends. And commits nothing more than that.

But I stick with what I said above, an individual owner ought to be returning your deposit within two weeks. A larger company, within one week after 30 days after move-out.