I paid full SDeposit - Landlady dividing it to other delinquent tenants?

[sneaker]

Hi,

I live in Los Angeles California.

I put down a 3000 security deposit on my apartment because my roommates hadn't arrived. There were four of us on the lease. Each of these roommates cut me a personal check for their share of the sdeposit a month later. Then a fifth roommate was added to the lease and gave an additional 500 security deposit to the landlord.

In my lease the only mention of the return of the deposit is to give a forwarding address for the master tenant. I would assume this is me since I put down the deposit and handle most of the interaction with the landlord.

The landlord says she must split the money evenly between all the tenants. I don't want this because the other tenants left the house trashed and I have had to hire cleaning services to clean their mess. Also they have paint damage in their rooms that should not be split out evenly. Also four of us have 750 in limbo and one roommate has 500.

How can I make sure she returns all the money to me? [Especially given that between the deductions from the landlady and the services I hired their share of the deposit is likely depleted.]

 

[army judge]

You can't. She has to distribute the remaining deposit funds evenly to all tenants on the lease.

If you get stiffed, it'll be by your roomies. You can sue them in small claims, but don't expect to collect on your judgment.

You should try and get them to reimburse you for the cleaning services. Otherwise, get ready to get screwed, again!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mightymoose]

You aren't owed the money. The other tenants already repaid you. The landlord is doing the right thing.

If the other tenants left a mess then that would come out of their share of the deposit, and it would be the landlords responsibility to collect anything over that amount.

If you feel you are owed something then you can either make a demand of those individuals to pay up or you can go to small claims, or both.