Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Absolutely legal for an owner to change management and the contract between owner and management company is none of the tenants business.
Having said that the owner may or may not know the laws as good as the management company.
We had issues in the past and lost a property because the owner demanded to keep way more money from the security deposit as by law is allowed and owner demanded we would deduct it and we refused to do anything wrong under the law.
You can go and fight it and many owners have no clue that in a court of law a picture is not enough. The owner needs to proof when the items were installed and how much they cost at that time and than deduct in a legal way and that is where it often goes wrong.
There is nothing illegal about transfer of management. The point here is that the PMC collected the deposit from the tenant, the PMC signed off on the tenant's exit from the property and the management of the property reverted to the owner after the tenant moved out at the expiration of the lease and before his security deposit was returned. It's a murky area which in my opinion only an attorney can answer.
As far as the state law which the OP cited, viz "A landlord who in bad faith retains a security deposit in violation of this subchapter is liable for an amount equal to the sum of $100, three times the portion of the deposit wrongfully withheld ... " bad faith has to be proved and even though you can sue for 3X the amount of the security deposit, any such award is a discretionary judgement. In other words, at the judge's sole discretion. Very rarely does it happen.
Good luck and hopefully everything will go smoothly!
I rented a house for a year and 3 months through a property management company. The lease ended at the end of June.
On July 9th, I received an email from the property management company stating that they were "currently working with the owner" to determine the amount of our rental deposit that would be refunded.
On July 18th, I received another email from the property management company stating "I just wanted to let you know that the owner will be sending your deposit itemization to you, not us." Attached to the email was a NOTICE TO TENANT OF CHANGE IN MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR SECURITY DEPOSIT. Management was changed to the owner of the house, and the notice was signed by the owner on the 12th of July.
I haven't heard from the owner yet, but I suspect he will be far more aggressive in determining how much of our deposit to keep than a property management company.
Is this legal?
It's not illegal to change management companies or sell to another while you're a tenant on a property. Ok let's say I decide to sell all my properties to another person ( corporation or just another guy doesn't matter). I would have to inform my tenants and the new property owner would have to uphold the agreement I had with the tenants if they were on a lease ( yearly or month to month). Once the terms of the lease I had with the tenants expires the new property owner can pretty much make whatever lease agreement/standards/rules he wants with the tenants. He would have to follow the law on notice to vacate, return of security deposit etc.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
