Hello,
I'm in dispute with an old roommate over the return of his deposit and I'm not sure what my legal obligations are. He is an attorney, so knows the law better than I do, and is now threatening me with several things - theft, fraud, reporting me to the DCA, and alerting my company of our dispute. I don't know if he has the right to, or if he's just being a bully. And I don't know if I am in the wrong or not. Please advise.
My roommate moved in, took over mid-lease, for a total of 6 months in a luxury building in Marina del Rey. He gave me a $500 deposit. Mine was far higher, but for 6 months, this seemed like a fair number. He moved into a furnished room, and paid everything in cash. Our agreement when he moved in was that I would pay all the monthly utilities, and then he would pay me for his half, but from the first month that they were due he started asking me to just deduct them from his deposit. I argued that his security deposit was not to cover utilities, that it was to cover any unforeseen problems or damage at move out, and asked him to please pay his portion. I wasn't about to deplete his security deposit month after month for the utility bills. After a couple of weeks he finally gave in and paid them. This happened again every month - he would either ask again that they be deducted from his utilities or simply wait weeks to pay me for them. It became a pretty heated argument around month 3 and 4. Month 5 and 6 he refused to pay, again just stating that I have his deposit and he would not be paying them. I had no problem with the scenario for the last month as it made sense since we didn't live together anymore when I finally paid all the final bills, but every other month it really cause some trouble. We lived in an expensive building and our utilities were not cheap. At the end of it all, I had a $500 deposit, less 2 months of bills - each month about $150... his return being about $200.
A week before we moved out I asked him to please email me his address to return the deposit. He never did. Then I started receiving emails from him about 2 months later asking about his deposit. I was traveling so didn't reply right away. He emailed again, a few days later, and I just replied that I was not home and that his deposit was ready to return, and to please give me an address to send it to. He refused, and demanded a breakdown of everything to review approve first. I just thought, great, here we go again - another argument about his monthly bills. Everything was at home, I didn't have it with me at the time, and frankly - I was dreading anymore dealings with him, so I didn't reply. I just thought, I will take care of this later when I'm home. A few days later I started getting really aggressive and threatening emails from him. He was not thrilled with my lack of reply, so again I just asked him to please send me an address and I will mail him the breakdown and deposit return, and that if he wanted to dispute anything, I would be happy to have that conversation with him. He viewed that as shady and again started threatening me. Finally, I just decided to mail everything to his last known address (the address we shared) and be done with it. I trusted he forwarded his mail and that eventually he would receive it. I emailed him and told him what I did. Now he's even angrier, stating that he never used that address for mail that he wouldn't receive it, and again demanded that I email him the breakdown for approval, and that we would then give me instructions for returning his deposit.
If I don't comply, he says he is going to report me for theft and fraud, report me to the DCA, report the situation to my company (he's copied my company email address on every email even after I've asked him not to), and go after our building for the return of his deposit.
I am so confused as to how this has escalated so far. It's for +/-$200, minus a $75 cleaning fee that I added since I did the move out clean. So, we are talking about roughly $125.
Clearly we are both stubborn. After asking him several times, he is refusing to give me an address or any other way to return his deposit... and I'm refusing to email him the breakdown for review and approval. It's purely out of principal at this point. After the multiple months of him paying his bills weeks late or not at all, and now all the aggressive and threatening emails, I simply don't want to do it.
Am I in the wrong? Can he do what he is saying he will do? Will I be in any legal trouble if I don't do what he is asking?
Should I simply give in and do what he's demanding?
Thanks for your help.
I'm in dispute with an old roommate over the return of his deposit and I'm not sure what my legal obligations are. He is an attorney, so knows the law better than I do, and is now threatening me with several things - theft, fraud, reporting me to the DCA, and alerting my company of our dispute. I don't know if he has the right to, or if he's just being a bully. And I don't know if I am in the wrong or not. Please advise.
My roommate moved in, took over mid-lease, for a total of 6 months in a luxury building in Marina del Rey. He gave me a $500 deposit. Mine was far higher, but for 6 months, this seemed like a fair number. He moved into a furnished room, and paid everything in cash. Our agreement when he moved in was that I would pay all the monthly utilities, and then he would pay me for his half, but from the first month that they were due he started asking me to just deduct them from his deposit. I argued that his security deposit was not to cover utilities, that it was to cover any unforeseen problems or damage at move out, and asked him to please pay his portion. I wasn't about to deplete his security deposit month after month for the utility bills. After a couple of weeks he finally gave in and paid them. This happened again every month - he would either ask again that they be deducted from his utilities or simply wait weeks to pay me for them. It became a pretty heated argument around month 3 and 4. Month 5 and 6 he refused to pay, again just stating that I have his deposit and he would not be paying them. I had no problem with the scenario for the last month as it made sense since we didn't live together anymore when I finally paid all the final bills, but every other month it really cause some trouble. We lived in an expensive building and our utilities were not cheap. At the end of it all, I had a $500 deposit, less 2 months of bills - each month about $150... his return being about $200.
A week before we moved out I asked him to please email me his address to return the deposit. He never did. Then I started receiving emails from him about 2 months later asking about his deposit. I was traveling so didn't reply right away. He emailed again, a few days later, and I just replied that I was not home and that his deposit was ready to return, and to please give me an address to send it to. He refused, and demanded a breakdown of everything to review approve first. I just thought, great, here we go again - another argument about his monthly bills. Everything was at home, I didn't have it with me at the time, and frankly - I was dreading anymore dealings with him, so I didn't reply. I just thought, I will take care of this later when I'm home. A few days later I started getting really aggressive and threatening emails from him. He was not thrilled with my lack of reply, so again I just asked him to please send me an address and I will mail him the breakdown and deposit return, and that if he wanted to dispute anything, I would be happy to have that conversation with him. He viewed that as shady and again started threatening me. Finally, I just decided to mail everything to his last known address (the address we shared) and be done with it. I trusted he forwarded his mail and that eventually he would receive it. I emailed him and told him what I did. Now he's even angrier, stating that he never used that address for mail that he wouldn't receive it, and again demanded that I email him the breakdown for approval, and that we would then give me instructions for returning his deposit.
If I don't comply, he says he is going to report me for theft and fraud, report me to the DCA, report the situation to my company (he's copied my company email address on every email even after I've asked him not to), and go after our building for the return of his deposit.
I am so confused as to how this has escalated so far. It's for +/-$200, minus a $75 cleaning fee that I added since I did the move out clean. So, we are talking about roughly $125.
Clearly we are both stubborn. After asking him several times, he is refusing to give me an address or any other way to return his deposit... and I'm refusing to email him the breakdown for review and approval. It's purely out of principal at this point. After the multiple months of him paying his bills weeks late or not at all, and now all the aggressive and threatening emails, I simply don't want to do it.
Am I in the wrong? Can he do what he is saying he will do? Will I be in any legal trouble if I don't do what he is asking?
Should I simply give in and do what he's demanding?
Thanks for your help.
