Should I not move out until I get security deposit back?

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by readymade

I just meant that, as he's still living there, his lease isn't up yet. That's not to say it WON'T be up tomorrow, next week, etc...

He COULD get an estimate for the work, himself. And/or have the work done himself. But he says his landlady is untrustworthy, so I suspect that she will keep his deposit no matter what. Therefore if you pay to have it fixed AND she keeps the deposit it wouldn't be worth it. (my landlord once kept most of my deposit because I left a smudge on the wall. He claimed he had to re-paint the entire apartment. I wished I'd taken pictures.)

You could always fight the deposit with pictures and/or your estimate for the work done (or getting the work done yourself). I don't know how much your deposit is. May be worth it if it's $1500+. May NOT be worth the time involved, though.

Whatever the case, just take tons of pictures just in case. Personally, I would get my OWN estimate... just in case she tries to charge you $1500 for a $300 job or something.

and I agree, get his own estimate and take pics. That I agree with.

Let me briefly relate a situation that happened to us many years ago. We rented a home in Texas, I am not totally anil but do like a clean house. We did the usual walk through at the beginning, but not, normally being renters (it was a year lease til we could decide where we wanted to buy) but not a move out one. We had no kids at home, only the two of us and a dog and cat. Well, we were given written notice, about the time the lease was up the home had been sold. Let me add, we allowe the landlady to show it whenever she wanted. Ok, so now we have 30 days to find a place. We decided to buy. WE moved out, 30 days later, had the carpets professionally cleaned, left the place in perfect condition as far as we were concerned. Well shock of shocks, our landlady kept our entire cleaning deposit and why? 1-we had signed the lease, stating we had a dog, but didn't mention the cat, somehow she found we had one and used that against us: 2 mini blinds had been bent, somehow, I have no idea how, and 3rd, get this? We forgot to clean out the fireplace. Her claim, she had to hire someone to clean the fireplace, , the carpets were damaged by the cat (hello!) and the mini blinds had to be replaced. (that might have been true) We didn't bother to fight it after we talked to a lawyer who specialized in Real Estate, he said it isn't worth the efforrt.

If we even rent again (very unlikely) we will be much more careful. We have rented a few times in our adult life and always gotten back our deposit plus a thank you for leaving everything in such good condition.

[readymade]

The worst thing that has ever happened to me was the aforementioned "We need to re-paint the apartment" because we'd left a smudge on the wall (about the size of a finger). They kept some of our deposit. Whatever... we'd left the smudge so we didn't contest it.

I've heard so many horror stories, though, that I always take tons of pictures when I move into a place, and I have it professionally cleaned afterwards & take lots of pictures. They say you should always do the walkthrough with the landloard both times. I've never done that, though.

Aside from where I'm living now, I've always had good landlords.