Need Precedent...rental security deposit (tenants, eviction, record, illegal)
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I am going to move from a place that I've lived over 4 years at; it's a duplex. The problem is all of the people that have lived across from me on the other side of the duplex (mostly students going to the local university) have NEVER got their deposit back from the landlord.
The last set of students that lived across from me came back the next year and sued the landlord and won. I also have maintained email addresses from several of the student who did not get their deposits back but couldn't get back to sue. These are all nice people and I saw 2 of the move out days where I went in and the place was spotless. My side was so destroyed when I moved in originally I painted and have pics before and after so it would be a joke if the landlord tried to say my side would need to be inspected and cleaned because it already is.
The landlord tells them he has 14 days to return the deposit and they go back to the mainland and he never sends the money to them.
This all worries me since I live in Hawaii and I will move to the mainland and will not be able to come back to sue for my deposit. Is there a precedent out there that someone has sued the landlord to receive the security deposit on move out day due to the past action of non-payment of security deposits to multiple tenants plus the court action where the court ended up garnishing the landlord's bank account?
What happens to other people isn't relevant. I don't believe you're permitted to have attorney representation in a Hawaii small claims court and the only solution I can suggest to avoid the problem is that you don't pay last month's rent. There's always the possibility that the LL will file a claim against you but it's a chance you might consider taking.
Did you see the other unit when the tenants moved out? Maybe they didn't deserve to get their deposit back. Groups of college students have a tendency to be hard on a building, not cleaning very often, and perhaps doing some small damage.
Did you see the other unit when the tenants moved out? Maybe they didn't deserve to get their deposit back. Groups of college students have a tendency to be hard on a building, not cleaning very often, and perhaps doing some small damage.
True, but the OP's words seem to demonstrate that this situation wasn't so:
Quote:
Originally Posted by tyvin
The last set of students that lived across from me came back the next year and sued the landlord and won. I also have maintained email addresses from several of the student who did not get their deposits back but couldn't get back to sue. These are all nice people and I saw 2 of the move out days where I went in and the place was spotless.
Sometimes a bad landlord who takes advantage is just a bad landlord who takes advantage.
Some tenants hope to get away with not paying last month rent to set it off by security deposit but it is illegal so I never advise that to do and with our rentals that isn't possible since we charge last month rent upfront and we go to court pretty fast and getting an eviction on yout record will stay there...
Good luck and it should end if a LL does this to all people.
Some tenants hope to get away with not paying last month rent to set it off by security deposit but it is illegal ...
I absolutely agree with you and it's not something I would ever recommend normally but, taking the OP's account at face value as being accurate, this may just be a case where the end justifies the means.
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