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I may or may not need legal counsel in the near future, and I've decided to ask Apolyton's advice first because... well... why the hell not.
At the end of June the lease ended at the townhouse I was renting with three other roommates. Our relationship with our landlords had been pretty decent throughout the two years of the lease, but as it came time for us to leave they became inexplicably confrontational. In the end, however, we managed to move out with little trouble (from the landlords, anyway).
Now, Maryland law requires that the landlord send us our returned deposit minus deductions no later than 45 days after the end of the lease. About a month after we had moved out, we emailed the landlords wondering where the deposit was. They cited the fact that they had 45 days and said they'd get it to us soon.
And they did. However, our security deposit (which had been 1 month's rent plus a hefty pet deposit) had been reduced to about 1/3 of its original. The largest deduction came from them having to replace the second floor carpeting due to our two cats peeing and tearing things up. We kind of expected the carpet would have to be replaced, but we still imagined we would receive more of the deposit in return.
So I decided to do a little research. As it turned out, our landlords were trying to cheat us. The most obvious and illegal way in which they were trying to cheat us was the fact that security deposits in Maryland are supposed to earn 3% interest per year, and they completely failed to include this addition. More than that, they wanted to charge us for a number of repairs to the house that essentially amounted to cleaning, which is not supposed to come out of a security deposit. Only "damage in excess of ordinary wear and tear" is supposed to be applied as deductions to the deposit. And finally, in Montgomery County tenants are generally not responsible for the full replacement costs of damaged items. We're only supposed to pay for the depreciated value of the carpet given its expected lifespan, not the full cost of a brand new carpet.
After detailing all of the ways in which they screwed with our deposit, we sent an email back to them with a revised estimate - more than twice what they had offered us. That was a week and a half ago, and they still haven't responded. The real estate agent that the landlords and we did business with at the beginning of the lease has tried to call us, but we've told them that we only want to communicate via email (for the purposes of documentation).
Pretty soon we're going to send them another email stating that they have a deadline to respond to us, with the implicit threat of legal action.
If I read the Maryland laws on landlords, tenants, and security deposits correctly, because our landlords failed to provide us with a security deposit that included interest from escrow within 45 days of the end of the lease, they have technically forfeited their ownership of our security deposit. And again, if I read correctly, we have the right to sue them for up to 3 times the amount of the security deposit plus legal fees.
Do the poly legal experts think we'd have a good shot at winning this? Do the poly legal experts think I've forgotten anything in my analysis of the situation here? Do the poly legal experts have any general advice to offer?
One significant point against us is that we did not walk through the house with the landlords at the end of our lease, so we have no proof that the house was in the condition we know it was at the end of the lease. We know - and are perfectly willing to admit - that our cats damaged the carpet on the second floor a considerable deal, but we also know that there's no reason why we should have to pay for general cleaning costs of the kitchen, bathroom, etc.
P.S. Failure to offer sound advice will meet with lengthy bans and large PCRs.
At the end of June the lease ended at the townhouse I was renting with three other roommates. Our relationship with our landlords had been pretty decent throughout the two years of the lease, but as it came time for us to leave they became inexplicably confrontational. In the end, however, we managed to move out with little trouble (from the landlords, anyway).
Now, Maryland law requires that the landlord send us our returned deposit minus deductions no later than 45 days after the end of the lease. About a month after we had moved out, we emailed the landlords wondering where the deposit was. They cited the fact that they had 45 days and said they'd get it to us soon.
And they did. However, our security deposit (which had been 1 month's rent plus a hefty pet deposit) had been reduced to about 1/3 of its original. The largest deduction came from them having to replace the second floor carpeting due to our two cats peeing and tearing things up. We kind of expected the carpet would have to be replaced, but we still imagined we would receive more of the deposit in return.
So I decided to do a little research. As it turned out, our landlords were trying to cheat us. The most obvious and illegal way in which they were trying to cheat us was the fact that security deposits in Maryland are supposed to earn 3% interest per year, and they completely failed to include this addition. More than that, they wanted to charge us for a number of repairs to the house that essentially amounted to cleaning, which is not supposed to come out of a security deposit. Only "damage in excess of ordinary wear and tear" is supposed to be applied as deductions to the deposit. And finally, in Montgomery County tenants are generally not responsible for the full replacement costs of damaged items. We're only supposed to pay for the depreciated value of the carpet given its expected lifespan, not the full cost of a brand new carpet.
After detailing all of the ways in which they screwed with our deposit, we sent an email back to them with a revised estimate - more than twice what they had offered us. That was a week and a half ago, and they still haven't responded. The real estate agent that the landlords and we did business with at the beginning of the lease has tried to call us, but we've told them that we only want to communicate via email (for the purposes of documentation).
Pretty soon we're going to send them another email stating that they have a deadline to respond to us, with the implicit threat of legal action.
If I read the Maryland laws on landlords, tenants, and security deposits correctly, because our landlords failed to provide us with a security deposit that included interest from escrow within 45 days of the end of the lease, they have technically forfeited their ownership of our security deposit. And again, if I read correctly, we have the right to sue them for up to 3 times the amount of the security deposit plus legal fees.
Do the poly legal experts think we'd have a good shot at winning this? Do the poly legal experts think I've forgotten anything in my analysis of the situation here? Do the poly legal experts have any general advice to offer?
One significant point against us is that we did not walk through the house with the landlords at the end of our lease, so we have no proof that the house was in the condition we know it was at the end of the lease. We know - and are perfectly willing to admit - that our cats damaged the carpet on the second floor a considerable deal, but we also know that there's no reason why we should have to pay for general cleaning costs of the kitchen, bathroom, etc.
P.S. Failure to offer sound advice will meet with lengthy bans and large PCRs.
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