Previous Landlord (SLUMLORD!) Won't Return Deposit (home, neighborhood, tenant)

[boyd888]

Perhaps you should just give him your new address and stop being so paranoid yourself?

If you take him to small claims court the judge may not be too thrilled that you refused to provide him your new mailing address (although technically a work address should be ok). If you give him the new address and he still does not return your deposit then you actually have a case against him.

[sad_commuter]

You sound like the crazy person

[Rabrrita]

Originally Posted by boyd888

Perhaps you should just give him your new address and stop being so paranoid yourself?

If you take him to small claims court the judge may not be too thrilled that you refused to provide him your new mailing address (although technically a work address should be ok). If you give him the new address and he still does not return your deposit then you actually have a case against him.

There is nothing in VA VRLTA, Commercial Code, case law, or even common law that provides for a specific address to be gven for the return of the tenant's security deposit. All a tenant is required to provide is an address. Now, there may be some questionable lease provision requring the residential address, but I doubt any Judge would uphold such a clause.

To the OP, you need to have your lease in front of you in order to get any advice since you may be an exemption under VRLTA, so some of it will depend on what you agreed to abide by in your lease.

[robbobobbo]

Send a forwarding address of your choosing with a note giving a limited number of days for return of deposit. Don't discuss with him whether such-and-such address would be sufficient, just give him an address. Take him to court if you don't get the deposit within your specified time frame (as long as your time frame isn't shorter than what the lease gives him).

I would bet that he's already exceeded the number of days specified in your lease for such return of deposit, but since (it sounds like) you haven't given him a forwarding address, he has an excuse to give a judge. He won't have such excuse after you send mail stating "please mail my security deposit to 123 Main St, Anytown, USA."

I use a lease for my one property that states it's exempt from the VRLTA, but it still lays out my (landlord) responsibilities pertaining to return of deposit. And the departing tenant is only required to leave me a new address. It could be their mom's address, their work address, their home address, whatever. I would hope and assume that your lease was equally detailed and wasn't little more than a handshake.

One thing that comes to mind about his insistence on knowing your new residential address is if he is planning to sue you for damages that exceed the deposit. I know you wrote you left it cleaner than when you moved in, but you've also portrayed him as unscrupulous.

[Riley09swb]

Originally Posted by svanzandt

The PO box idea is worth a shot, thanks.

I know that he can find our address by public record and that angers me even more that he is using this as an excuse. This guy is not the smartest, either. We even offered to meet him at any place of his choosing. Another thing is that our mail is forwarded, so even if he mailed it to the old address, we would still receive it.

I work in a very small office. The mail comes straight to the front desk, which is about 15 feet from mine. I told him that would work well since we are not home during the day and I could ensure that it was received.

Any idea why he is doing this? How does it benefit him to know our new address?

Honestly, I don't think he has the money.

We had our house rented out to someone and they finally moved out in June of this year. One of the tenants also refused to give us their forwarding address. It made us wonder why. We did have a local Sheriff's deputy show up at the door about two weeks after they moved out looking for the wife's brother.

I heard horror stories from my neighbors about them after we moved back in. I find it odd that you don't want to give your landlord your forwarding address to get your money back. He wants to be done with you as much as you want to be done with him.I wouldn't send it to an office address either. When we sent our tenants their SD back, we made sure that we sent it priority with tracking so we could prove it was delivered to the address that was provided.

[Rabrrita]

Originally Posted by robbobobbo

I would bet that he's already exceeded the number of days specified in your lease for such return of deposit, but since (it sounds like) you haven't given him a forwarding address, he has an excuse to give a judge. He won't have such excuse after you send mail stating "please mail my security deposit to 123 Main St, Anytown, USA."

The OP did give an address, it's the work address. But, in rereading the post, I think I see the problems.

The OP provided the information as to their new address via a text message. Since a text message is not acceptable as 'Notice', unless the landlord acknowledged that text or admits they received it, they can claim they never received it which means they had no mailing address for the tenant so they couldn't send the deposit.

[svanzandt]

We originally sent a text message with the address, but didn't hear back from him. After 45 days passed, we sent a letter in the mail requesting the return of the deposit and gave my work address again. 2 weeks later, he sent a text and threatened to take money out of our deposit and refused to give the money because the address was not our new home address.

A week before we moved out, he showed up unannounced and was mowing the lawn and threatened to take money out of the deposit for it. The lawn was in NO WAY out of control. It fit in perfectly with the neighborhood, and my husband mowed it every week or 2. We also planned to mow it on the day we moved out. We confronted him about it and he didn't care, he thinks he can do whatever he wants. While mowing the lawn, he cut the wire for our underground dog fence and didn't even attempt to fix or replace it, then also removed a temporary fence that enclosed the yard. Why would he think that it is OK for him to take over a month to remove a huge tree limb from the roof that is dangerous and have no repercussions, but we have to pay for him to do things as he pleases?

No matter what address I give him, I'm sure he is going to take what ever money he wants from it, and we will have to take him to small claims court anyway. For anyone that has done this, can we include the security deposit, court fees, and wages missed for going taking time off work to go to court?

Please keep your rude comments to yourselves. This has been a nightmare to deal with and I don't need any insults. We were great tenants and anywhere I have previously rented, I have always left on good terms and received the entire deposit back within a month.

[apexgds]

Originally Posted by svanzandt

Please keep your rude comments to yourselves. This has been a nightmare to deal with and I don't need any insults. We were great tenants and anywhere I have previously rented, I have always left on good terms and received the entire deposit back within a month.

When you post about your private life on the internet, you open yourself up to all sorts of commentary ... good, bad, and ugly. You can't control the responses you receive. If you don't want rude comments, don't post in the first place.

Sorry, but that's the harsh reality of the internet.

[robbobobbo]

Originally Posted by svanzandt

For anyone that has done this, can we include the security deposit, court fees, and wages missed for going taking time off work to go to court?

What does your lease say?

Also read LIS > Code of Virginia > 55-248.15:1

Note "If the landlord willfully fails to comply with this section, the court shall order the return of the security deposit to the tenant, together with actual damages and reasonable attorney fees."

I am not a lawyer and have not been through this situation, so I do not know if your costs in lost time/income due to going to court would be "damages".

[snowdenscold]

Originally Posted by apexgds

Your home purchase is public record. If he wanted to show up on your doorstep, it wouldn't be that difficult to find out where you live. Just don't think that not giving him your address protects you in any way.

It might be public record, but it's not that easy to find where the OP lives. On all the online county property record databases, you can only search by street name and then see who lives there, not the other way around.

So unless the landlord already knew the neighborhood and could just try a bunch of street name searches...