Quote:
Originally Posted by Noah930
I've never gotten my security deposit back intact, despite the fact that I've always been pretty gentle on stuff. I'm a mechanically-sympathetic kind of guy, if you know what I mean. From my previous renter's perspective, I always viewed the security deposit as a way for the landlord (or mgmt company) to extort an extra month's rent out of me.
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I have to agree with you there Noah. Almost all of the places I rented from previously, they "require" one full month's rent as the security deposit. Almost every place would try to withhold over 50% of the deposit for cleaning, maintenance, etc. Then it turns into the fight of my documentation vs. their documentation on move-in and move-out. One even tried to stick me with utility costs
after my move-out date because they hadn't got a new tenant into the unit soon enough. All the meticulous cleaning they say is done - inspect the unit after to find that nothing was done after my move-out. Same place tried to charge me for replacing carpet which was already 8 years old when I moved in, already had wear & tear (light carpet with visible wear). I had noted that on move-in walk-through and shared my copy after living there for 3 years.
I understand that most property management companies are trying to average out the costs of maintenance with security deposits. But it's a deposit - meaning if I've not damaged the property beyond normal wear & tear, I should be getting most (if not all) of that back. Most tenants expect it back for treating a unit like crap, most managers expect to keep it regardless.