Refund of security deposit ? Possible ?

Do you know what is the easiest way to retrieve the deposit ? ...Take 007 or Jason Bourne to the landlords office. Not joking

Chalk it up as additional rent, and move on.

go to small claims

How much $ are we talking total? How much was your rent?

I wonder how many landlords make withholding a small percentage of security deposit a profit center. I rented 7 different residences between 1989 and 2002 and never had a dime wrongfully withheld from my security deposit. My NYC rental was the first time I encountered suspicious landlord conduct in this respect. It was particularly telling when my landlord's executive assistant called me after multiple attempts to get security deposit back and thought she was delivering good news that I was getting more of my security deposit back than most tenants do! She is a truly lovely woman, and had no of the import of what she was conveying to me. In any event, I do think landlords have the upper hand here, and unless the money at issue is essential to the tenant (I think this is what HB is getting at), I would go with NWT's approach. Every once in awhile you are going to encounter a bad landlord, but I do think that is the exception rather than the rule. Unless you really need the money, just move on.

I don't condone it but people wonder why Ts don't pay the last month of rent.

The system is messed up. No matter how big or small, send a representative the day of the move out to turnover the keys and tender the security deposit. That day everything can be discussed in person.

That is what we do.

I've had about 6 and all were proper with the security deposits.
Both with large rental buildings and individual owners.

Hamptons rentals however have been the polar opposite.
3 out of 8 times, and each time was downright thievery.

Good landlords will do a walk through, discuss in professional manner, etc. - essentially behave as Consigliere describes. Bad landlord will completely ignore requests for walk through, etc. Any landlord who is inclined to behave badly may also have no problem lying in court or could go so far as to have crony contractor falsify invoice and testify on LL behalf. I have heard that small claims court can be great and cathartic, and for somebody who really wants to fight for the principle, more power to them; I always root for justice to prevail. However, I recently was involved in a case that I handled pro-bono for a friend of a friend because no attorney who specialized in the area of law in question would take the matter on because there were too many disputed issues of material fact and damages were low. Were the matter to proceed to trial (which it did), it was going to come down to a "He#1 said" vs. "He#2 said." In my previous litigation experience, lying witnesses were ferreted out in the discovery phase and cases settled accordingly; I have always represented businesses and emotion was never a factor. However, this case was different because emotion was involved, and neither side was willing to settle (lawyer's dream if client is fee-paying; not so much if it is probono or contingency client). At the end of the day, the jury credited the version of "He#1," and I cannot blame the jury for not being able to figure out which witness was lying. Frankly, I, myself, cannot even know for sure that my client was telling the truth because I did not witness incident that was being litigated, though knowing everything that I know (rules of evidence precluded jury from knowing everything I, opposing counsel and judge knew), I tend to think my client was telling the truth. Horrible outcome is that my client was not only victimized by initial incident, but now also has to live with fact that person who wronged him (in his mind) won again. This judicial loss was worse for him than the initial incident. So again, for any tenant who wants to fight here, my sincere hope is that justice will prevail, but they do need to be aware that system is not perfect.

Speaking of courts, Norman Goodman is retiring. alanhart, how many years have you been getting summonses from him? [question does not apply to C0lumbiaC0unty] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/nyregion/after-millions-of-jury-summonses-and-as-many-excuses-the-clerk-is-leaving-the-courthouse.html?_r=0