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If you had the choice between having to put up money for the damage deposit, which is equal to one month's rent (approx. $1,000) or pay a one-time fee of $175 and not have to pay a deposit, which would you choose an why?
It makes no sense so my immediate reaction would be "what's the catch?" and I would go over the lease with a very fine tooth comb to find out what it was. In some states it wouldn't be legal.
If you had the choice between having to put up money for the damage deposit, which is equal to one month's rent (approx. $1,000) or pay a one-time fee of $175 and not have to pay a deposit, which would you choose an why?
If you're asking about Surety Bond, read your paperwork carefully.
You won't get that $175 back and if there are damages, the Surety Bond company would pay the landlord/complex and then come after you. They wont work with you, they will sue you as soon as smile at you...this is what they do.
From what I understand, and I have limited knowledge on this, there is no communication between you and the landlord, no disputing the damage charges, they (the Bond company) would send you a bill and if it wasn't paid, they sue. (I saw this as an option in my last unit and asked the manager about it....she doesn't recommend it, but she has to offer it based on company policy)
As a landlord, I'm not very interested in a one time non-refundable fee of $175. My good tenants get all their security back. The bad tenants sometimes do a couple of thousand dollars in damages. I don't have enough good tenants, at $175 each, to cover the thousands in damages that a bad tenant might do.
Not to mention, why should the good tenants be covering the damage done by the slobs, anyway?
If it is a surety bond, I don't want to have to hassle with a bondsman about how much they will give me to cover damages. I'd rather just do the repairs and take it out of the deposit. All insurance companies have a bunch of reasons why they don't have to pay on claims. I'm sure the bond company isn't any different.
After reading that link, I say security deposit. What would happen if you got a crappy landlord that dinged you for all kinds of stuff and then you have to fight the bond company. It seems like a headache to have to go through the bond company who would then contact the landlord etc.
Where as with a security deposit, you can file in small claims very easily without an attorney and fight only the landlord in court.
And whichever you end up doing, take thousands and one picture of your place inside and out before moving in and date it ONLINE somewhere like Facebook/Instagram to prove the dates along with a newspaper in each photo. And then take the same amount of pictures with a newspaper upon moving out. The newspaper dating of the leaving pictures should be fine and not needed to back up online. With the moving in pictures, it's probably easy to order a backdated newspaper and make it seem like it was back then which is why I suggested you upload those photos to a site where it's dated for you plus prevent losing them to data errors etc.
Unless you live in a SUPER apartment with great management, I think you can just plan on losing any deposit you put down.
Time and time again (about six apartments between us) until we bought our home, my husband and/or I would give plenty of notice and SCOUR our apartments before vacating, but we never got a deposit back, even though we had no pets and no kids and so there was NO damage. Each time we were told that they refused to refund our deposits because the carpets and windows needed cleaning! To have the windows and carpets professionally cleaned would have cost us more than losing the deposits!
However, the last time we had an apartment, before we bought our current home, we had lived in a nice 3-bedroom apartment for five years (and at that time we had two kids, a cat, and a dog), and when it was time to move after the experiences we had had before, we basically said, "screw it" and just gave it the kind of cleaning I would do if my mother was coming over. (Clean, but not sterile.) Surprise, surprise -- we got 90% of all our deposits back -- they only deducted for a torn screen door!
Anyway, my advice would be to not plan on getting any deposits back at all and only do as much cleaning as you WANT to do when you move out.
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