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Getting Security Deposits Back
Carpy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
It's my opinion based on both my own experience and those of friends that the idea of security deposits for housing is kind of scam. I mean that you probably aren't getting much if any of it back because cleaning/repairs are going to magically cost whatever the deposit was, no matter how much effort you put into cleaning the apartment before you moved out. I'm getting ready to move soon and looking for tips that people might have to increase how much of my own money I can try to get back.
Currently planning on asking about what cleaning and carpet cleaning company they use to hire them to clean my place and then when they try to withhold money asking for an itemized receipt of what they are charging me for. Any thing else I can try?
Currently planning on asking about what cleaning and carpet cleaning company they use to hire them to clean my place and then when they try to withhold money asking for an itemized receipt of what they are charging me for. Any thing else I can try?
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From the Renter's side of things the security deposit is a means to ensure some culpability of loss when your tenant leaves with holes in the walls, broken appliances, and mold everywhere. Carpet and painting isn't free, and repairs can often be much, much more than the deposit depending on the quality of the tenant.
As mts said, things have an acceptable life to get reimbursement for them.
In most states:
They can also only get reimbursement for however much life is remaining, and however much of the area is damaged. If only 10% of the carpet needs, they can only seek 10% in damages and based on a % of however long the acceptable life is. If the carpet only lasts 7 years, and it's been there 10, they can't get bananas in most cases.
To agree with the above, they do have to provide you an itemized list. Make sure to ask them for receipts of work with the address of the unit, because it's not uncommon for them to have a boilerplate list they fire off for this stuff, and sometimes they don't even do half of what they send.
For all those in this situation where their landlord said they always clean the carpet when you move out and to not waste your time doing it yourself, make sure you're not paying for that. In a lot of jurisdictions, if the landlord decides to do something de facto, there's a pretty good case to be made that your security deposit shouldn't cover it and it's part of the landlord's costs of doing business.
I've gotten all my security deposit's back but one, the other was $100 and it wasn't even worth fighting because there was probably $100 worth of damage from pets.
In any case the best approach as a tenant is to document stuff at the time you move in; make a list, take photos, report any damages or other out of order stuff to the landlord immediately. This does two things: catches any random incidental damage before you get charged for it down the road, and (sometimes more importantly) lets them know that you're paying attention and are thus a bad candidate for random fuckery.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
If you have white walls, spakle your own small holes on the way out. Spakle is cheap, and its really easy. They are going to paint on the way out anyway, but the idea is that when you walk in with your land lord the place is essentially perfect, and their initial reaction will be that you are probably too maticulous to make it worth the effort. Being present on the walk through is something we always try and do.
Also if you have carpet, invest in a few rugs for your major living areas, you will do far less damage to the carpet from just small spills.
You should check the legality of that. A lot of people put it in leases, a lot of leases have wildly illegal clauses in them just because no one bothers and they download this shit from the internet instead of getting a lawyer to draft one for their local tenant/landlord laws.
-Clean the oven. Shouldn't take too long, and will likely save you $50 the landlord would charge you.
-Pull out the oven and the fridge(CAREFULLY) and sweep under them.
-Leave ZERO burnt out light bulbs
-Dust the cupboards and the tops of the doors (and really the entire apartment)
-Wash the windows
I've done that and the above suggestions (take photos of your place when you enter, if anything is seriously damaged have it added as a 'pre existing condition' on your lease, and clean up the place before you leave) and I've gotten all of my deposits back over five apartments.
Oh, wait, I got charged like $25 because apparently I cracked the crisper drawer in one of the refrigerators cause I have a habit of just kicking it closed.
Also, check your state and local laws, many states require that landlords paint between each tenent. A landlord or property owner who is required to, but does not, is typically a red flag for other silly goosery in the future.
It's too late now, but in general if you spill shit on the carpet make sure it doesn't stain. Spot cleaning or borrowing a carpet shampooer from time to time will keep you from ratty looking carpets in the future. Most places aren't really concerned about nail/tack holes unless they're seriously excessive; if you're hanging a few pieces of art, fine, if you're tacking up pictures all over your room like you're a teenager you might want to invest in a tube of spackle. Clean the fridge, freezer, oven, stove (including under the stovetop), windows, floors, tub/shower, sinks, and counters. Wipe down or dust cabinets, windowsills, heaters, doorknobs, doors, light switches, and light fixtures. If you're like us and you kept your trash can up near a wall, scrub the walls around that area to make sure they aren't nasty. In fact just wipe down the walls in general, I used a swiffer with those damp pads that are like cleaning wipes to just wipe down the walls especially in high traffic areas and the bathroom. Our old downstairs neighbor was a heavy smoker and so our bathroom, which must have been above a room he used to smoke in, would seep tar from the walls sometimes if you took a really hot shower; I made sure to wash all the walls and ceilings thoroughly. Same in the kitchen right around the stove area, the walls up by the ceiling were tacky because of the amount of cooking grease that ends up in the air, I cleaned all that really well. I wouldn't pull out the appliances because that could damage whatever flooring surface they're on, especially if it's shitty lino like it probably is; use a vacuum and get under there as best you can, instead. If you have carpets, vacuum the shit out of them. Magic eraser is good for small marks, but remember that it's basically micro sandpaper and it can fuck your walls up if you lean on it too heavily.
Be honest with them in advance about what is broken, you may find out it isn't really a big deal anyway. I was stressed because our mini blinds were broken by the cats but apparently they aren't included in the apartment - they just leave the old window coverings from previous tenants if they're in good enough shape, and if they aren't they just throw them away. The main thing I've been screwed over by in the past is leaving even one or two small things in the apartment. They absolutely will charge you like $70 an hour for labor to carry a shoebox outside if they can get away with it.
When we gave notice to vacate they gave us a detailed list of what they were going to look for in terms of cleanliness, though it turns out that most of that stuff is more than they really look for. In terms of cleaning, we really wanted the $800 back so we put a ton of effort into it and it was probably more than really necessary but I figured I'd rather put in the effort for $800 than not put in the effort. Most of this stuff I did over time in the last month we were in the apartment, like if I had a couple minutes where I wasn't busy I'd get out the swiffer and wipe down some walls, or I'd just add vacuum the hell out of the radiators to my regular weekly chores. If you're really concerned, you could always just ask your landlord directly what they're looking for at move out to make sure that you meet that benchmark. It will still depend on your landlord, too. If you live in a college town in a college-y complex, you're probably fucked, but it doesn't hurt to make it clear to your landlord that you aren't like all those shithead college kids who just ruin their stuff; YOU want to make sure that they have a good experience, unlike those jerkoffs they USUALLY have to deal with.