(no subject)
Has anyone had experience with small claims court? Specifically, sueing your landlord for a security deposit? I was wondering if anyone has experiences good or bad you can share with me, and/or advice about handling small claims court.
***Edit: Doesn't it just figure that despite numerous voicemails, my landlord picks up the phone finally today and talks to me about it? He claims it is between my roommate and I, that the lease went into his name and essentially he is supposed to buy me out. If my former roommate would just send the check (or grow up and answer my emails and tell me what the situation is rather than ignoring them), then I could stop stressing about this situation. Ugh.
I would delete the post, but thought maybe some helpful information might be gleaned for others in the future, since this kind of shit happens all the time.***
I sent my landlord a letter with 60 days notice that I would not be continuing my lease. My last day living there would also be the last day of that year-lease. However, my roommate was going to stay in the apartment, and we verbally agreed that he would send me my part of the security deposit when he got a new roommate. He has not responded to any of my emails or texts since July so I'm guessing that is not going to happen. Lesson learned: don't trust even the people you have known since high school when it comes to money.
After talking to people and googling a lot about this sort of thing, I have come to find out that typically the landlord will return the security deposit to the roommate who is leaving and start a new lease with the current roommate. There is a clause in that lease that says it will automatically renew unless there is written notification from tenant 60 days before end of that lease.
One mistake I believe I made was that I neglected to send written notification of my new address (I thought my roommate was going to give me the deposit and we could work it out amongst ourselves. Alas, twas not to be apparently). This is a clause in the lease, but there was no timeline associated with that clause. There was a timeline associated with the standard clause that the landlord would return a security deposit within 30 days.
I have written my former landlord a letter in the last month asking him to return the deposit to my new address. I have heard nothing from him, nor has he returned my voicemails.
I truly feel I have a case here and plan to go to small claims this month. It seems like a relatively simple process, based on a brochure of theirs I downloaded recently. I simply hope it will be successful despite my (hopefully minor) blunders.
***Edit: Doesn't it just figure that despite numerous voicemails, my landlord picks up the phone finally today and talks to me about it? He claims it is between my roommate and I, that the lease went into his name and essentially he is supposed to buy me out. If my former roommate would just send the check (or grow up and answer my emails and tell me what the situation is rather than ignoring them), then I could stop stressing about this situation. Ugh.
I would delete the post, but thought maybe some helpful information might be gleaned for others in the future, since this kind of shit happens all the time.***
I sent my landlord a letter with 60 days notice that I would not be continuing my lease. My last day living there would also be the last day of that year-lease. However, my roommate was going to stay in the apartment, and we verbally agreed that he would send me my part of the security deposit when he got a new roommate. He has not responded to any of my emails or texts since July so I'm guessing that is not going to happen. Lesson learned: don't trust even the people you have known since high school when it comes to money.
After talking to people and googling a lot about this sort of thing, I have come to find out that typically the landlord will return the security deposit to the roommate who is leaving and start a new lease with the current roommate. There is a clause in that lease that says it will automatically renew unless there is written notification from tenant 60 days before end of that lease.
One mistake I believe I made was that I neglected to send written notification of my new address (I thought my roommate was going to give me the deposit and we could work it out amongst ourselves. Alas, twas not to be apparently). This is a clause in the lease, but there was no timeline associated with that clause. There was a timeline associated with the standard clause that the landlord would return a security deposit within 30 days.
I have written my former landlord a letter in the last month asking him to return the deposit to my new address. I have heard nothing from him, nor has he returned my voicemails.
I truly feel I have a case here and plan to go to small claims this month. It seems like a relatively simple process, based on a brochure of theirs I downloaded recently. I simply hope it will be successful despite my (hopefully minor) blunders.