Landlord Deposit Question?

Question

Hi, I am hoping someone can help me with this. I live in Utah, and I gave my landlord 45 day notice that I was leaving by November 06' after my year lease was up. I moved out early on 10/30/07, cleaned the place, had it sparkling! The carpet was cleaned by me, and the house was immaculate. I took pictures when I left.I contacted the landlord, who didn't return my calls. Finally, the landlord said they were charging me $300 for cleaning, $200 for carpet cleaning and $275 for a broken sprinkler head. I fought them on these charges, althought the sprinkler head was true. I went with my uncle and fixed the sprinkler head which the part cost $4.29! They finally gave me my deposit and out of $1100 they gave me only $575. Also, they gave it to me Dec. 1st, which is 2 days after the 30 days. If I take them to court, will the judge acknowledge the deposit was late and that they didn't comply with the 30 day law even though it was only 2 days late? I need help with this! Do I have a case?

One more thing. The Utah tenant landlord law states that they have 30 days to return my deposit, or if they have my recent address, they have 15 days after recieving my fowarding address, whichever is sooner. The day I moved out and notified them the place was clean and empty, I gave them my new address. So will this help me in court. Thanks everyone, I appreciate it! :)

Answer 1

It sounds to me thst you have a good case for small claims court. I would pursue it.

Answer 2

Utah law requires return of security deposit within 30 days after the end of the tenancy, not on the date you moved out. Your tenancy ended one day later, on the 31st of the month.
Under Utah law, a landlord must return a tenant's deposit within thirty days after the tenancy ends, or within fifteen days after the landlord's receipt of the tenant's new address, whichever is LATER (not sooner).

I think you will be hard pressed to find a judge who will give you any satisfaction since you received the deposit on the first of December.

However, you stand a much better chance of hauling them into court for what appears to be excessive damage charges against you. It appears that they didn't charge you for the sprinkler head, but did hold the cleaning and carpet cleaning fees against you. As far as the carpet cleaning goes, check your lease to see if there is an acknowledgement that you will pay for carpet cleaning. If it's in the lease, you're stuck for that charge as well. Nonetheless, $300 for cleaning, if you left the place spotless, is unduly harsh. I'd lodge a small claims suit in hopes of recovering that and the carpet cleaning, if that's not specified in your lease.

Answer 3

No because they have 30 days to either refund or notify you of what you were being charged so you cannot get them on returning the deposit 2 days late. So I wouldn't waste your time with that.

However, if you took photos of the place and the photos show the unit in pristine condition along with the carpet and you kept all the receipts from having the carpet cleaned then I'd take them to small claims court for your balance of the deposit and fight them for charging you for recleaning the place when there was no need.

Answer 4

If you gave notice that you were moving out on November 6th...then the landlord has until December 6th to either send you a accounting of your security deposit or a full return. You can still take them to court to dispute the charges.

Answer 5

You are SMART.

You took pictures before you left. That is all you needed.

I would be willing to wager, than not only does your deposit have to be returned within 30 days, but if the landlord ILLEGALLY deducted anything from your deposit, that is the same as not returning it at all.

Your case is EXCELLENT.

Sue in court for every penny of your remaining deposit, and check to see if your state does double or treble damages for late deposit return...b/c I do know, that if you don't sue for it, the judge won't award it.

Good luck!