The current owner of my building asked whether the former owner had returned my security deposit by mistake. The former owner is elderly and senile. I moved in the building in 1990. One of the other neighbors (who has lived there 20 years) says that he returned his deposit and the landlord assumed that he had done the same with me. He didn't. What the old landlord did was give me a check, maybe ten years ago, that he said was "interest" on my security deposit. It was maybe $125.00. I didn't question him. I told this to the current landlord. The current landlord then requested a copy of my original lease with the details of the security deposit. I made a copy and gave it to him. Can he force me to pay a second security deposit? Thank you for any info you could give me.
2006-11-07 04:34:10 · 6 answers · asked by rcurtiss@pacbell.net 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Renting & Real Estate
What are the terms of your lease? Did you have fixed lease with month-to-month extension, or an informal, unwritten extension? How does the lease calculate the security deposit - as a fixed fee or percentage of rent?
Also check with your locality. Housing laws vary wildly from state-to-state and city-to-city. New York has byzantine housing laws that nobody understands. If you can produce a canceled check for the deposit, and the landlord can't produce a cancelled check for the full amount of the refund, the court's going to go with the evidence they have.
Remember - it doesn't matter what you know, only what you can prove!
2006-11-07 04:39:22 · answer #1 · answered by itsnotarealname 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Long story short, the current owner was responsible for collecting ALL security deposits from the former owner and verifying the amounts with the tenants to be on the safe side.
If they were told there wasn't a security deposit because it had been refunded or whatever, it was their responsibility at that time to verify this claim with you because ... if you can prove you ever gave anyone a deposit, the new/current owner is responsible for returning it to you even if they never got it. They can chase after the prior owner or whatever they want to do, but that doesn't affect you. The current owner owes you, and anything else is their problem.
All you have to do is prove that you gave the former owner a security deposit and the amount. If it's in your old lease, great. That's all the proof you need. If its not, then a canceled check, money order receipt, letter of acknowledgment, etc will do.
If you can prove you gave security, he can't ask for another. Your state may allow him to ask for additional security in proportion to the rent increases since that time, but he won't get a whole new deposit.
For instance,
old rent 300 / old deposit 300
new rent 500 / he is entitled to 200
His total liability to you is 500, no matter what he did or did not get.
2006-11-07 08:23:50 · answer #2 · answered by BoomChikkaBoom 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A security deposit is a liability of the property which transfers with ownership. Once existence of the liability is established, it is the responsibility of the current owner to prove that it has been satisfied. Your burden is met by producing a check noted as a deposit, a lease noting payment of a deposit, or a written receipt. Since it would be an unusual practice to refund deposits to an existing tenant, the presumption is that there was no refund without proof.
He can't force you to pay a second deposit, but he can increase the amount of deposit required at any time he could otherwise change any other term, such as the rent. He is on the hook for whatever deposit you can prove you paid the former owner.
2006-11-07 05:33:48 · answer #3 · answered by open4one 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Since you have a lease, it should state what happens to security deposits if the property ownership changes. Most leases and rental agreements state that security deposits will be transferred to the new owners without requiring approval or notifying the tenants.
As stated above, so long as you have proof that you paid your deposit, and that your former landlord does not have any proof that he refunded the deposit to you, you should be fine.
If you are in doubt as to the legality of this, contact a legal aide clinic in your area for help.
2006-11-07 04:55:24 · answer #4 · answered by CMR2006 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
As long as your lease shows that you paid a security deposit, it would be the responsibility of the landlord to prove that the previous landlord returned your security deposit. It would not be your responsibility to prove that you have not received it back. So you are in good shape. In fact, it's the responsibility of the current landlord to show you where he's keeping your security deposit. It should be held in a special account, and you should be informed of the name and location of the bank. It's your money.
2006-11-07 04:38:32 · answer #5 · answered by matthew s 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It would be his repsonsiblity to prove that it was refunded, not yours, especially if you have proof of the original deposit payment.
Hold your ground.
2006-11-07 06:03:03 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋