Help! Honest Landlord Needs Advice on Security Deposti

[NOrentcontrol]

Help - Need to know whether I'm in the "right" to withhold 100% of a tenant's security deposit. We have a tenant that just left our rent controlled building. They have occupied the unit over 10 years, however, we purchased the rent-controlled apartment building in the last 3 years. The unit is in god awful condition - carpet is BEYOND salvaging, with major food stains, urine stains, grime, big tears near the door jams; the walls are painted hideous colors. Tenants are of course claiming all of this was either pre-existing or normal wear and tear. They don't have any proof that any of this was pre-existing, and I have no proof that it wasn't. In addition to all of the other repairs, I will be forced to replace screen windows, stove cook top, sink, etc.

I will likely have to spend 3x their security deposit just to put the unit into rentable condition. Do I need to return ANY of their security deposit? Can I still charge them for the painting and carpeting even though they've occupied the unit for over 10 years?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Carpets in a rental situation will typically have a "legal" life span of 7 to 10 years. If they've lived there for a decade, the "life" of the carpet has been met. This doesn't mean that the former tenants cannot be charged for damage done to the floors below the carpet from issues such as pet (or human) urine.

Painting can also be an issue; some states require landlords to paint so many years. Can you check with the previous owners to see if these hideous paint colors were approved by them or "tenant induced". If the tenants took it upon themselves to paint without the landlords permission, they can be charged for having the unit repainted.

Attached is a helpful list that gives some suggestions regarding normal wear and tear versus damage:

http://www.wallawallaha.org/documents/pdf/newsletters/tsn/2004/08-2004tsn.pdf

Whatever you do, follow the requirements for your state regarding notifying the tenants of the status of their security deposit within the required time frame. Failure to do so often (in many states) negates the landlords ability to keep any of this money for damages and may actually result in you being sued for 2 to 3 times the security deposit amount.

Gail