Landlord Withheld deposit, take him to court? - Page 2

Right. Prices commensurate to product.

 

Back on topic...

I since $500 means a lot to you, it's probably worth the 40-100 dollars in court fees to have a judge look at the case.
In that sense, you seem to have clear evidence that the landlord has yet to do any repairs.

It might behoove you to contact the current residents and request a written statement that no repairs have been done, and whether or not they require repairs to the scratches.. If they state they do not care for them to be fixed (but rather just reported it to not get pin-pointed as the culprits of said damage) then the case is closed..

No need for repairs aside from leaks? Then he's a scandalous thief. I think with what you've described, I have confidence that any judge would side with you as having attempted to fix most the "damages" yourself.. Although technically if your stains/whatever were light enough to come out with a simple cleaning, then he'd have nothing on you anyway as I'm sure there's a law in your state declaring he must wash carpets and paint walls at a certain frequency, almost assuredly prior to when a new resident moves in. It's just good business either way. Having said that, if he was to clean (or DID clean.. might want to check that as well) the carpets, your residual dirt/stains would have been easily removed... Unless of course you spilled wine and blood all over the place...

Also, it TX it's required by law that renters store deposits in banks (usually individual accounts), and when returning the deposit they also return the interest earned (albeit a low 0.5-2% APY). About 80% of them do not, and is a GREAT tactic for getting your deposit back since they knowingly broke the law.

You're pretty well protected.. Unless you put a hole in the wall or seriously broke something, they really have no reason to withhold deposits unless they just want to steal your money, which seems to be the case.

Any judge in his or her right mind would require that landlord to show receipts in court proving that damages in the amount of at least $500 were repaired.  The judge should also require the landlord to pay the court costs since you wouldn't be in this situation if he wasn't being a greedy douche.
 
I say call the landlord first and give him one more chance to give you the deposit back.  then call small claims court and have him served with papers.  Likely either he will go ahead and refund your money, or if he is smart he will find $500 worth of "repairs" to make before the court date.  But the repair receipts will show he had the repairs done after he was served with notice of the court date.  Plus he didn't notify you in time.  Did you ever go to the post office and see when the letter was post marked?  Remember it is the date that it was put in the mail that they will look at, not the date it was delivered.  It sucks, but that is the way it is.

Well said 00, only consider NOT tipping the aforementioned
D B off.

I think I'm going to go for it, I'll check the postmark date and re-read the laws but I don't think he has a leg to stand on with this one.  Even if it's only $100.00 I'd be happy.  I took good care of that place, I even improved it by planting a flower garden and cleaning it up.  He's got 4 rentals all on one street plus the house he lives in, his wife has a business and so does he.  Should I get the entire thing back? Probably not, but I feel that I'm due at least a little bit, so for all this BS he's going to make me go through I'm going for all of it...

Excellent.  Best of luck. 

Those items you described are hardly worth the deposit.  You are entitled to all of it.  Most of that stuff is landlord responsibility anyway.  Good luck.  i hope you nail his crooked @ss! Be sure to let us know what happens.

SN ..... remember that you are also entitled to your regular pay since you have to take time off of work to take this dicktard to court.

In Montana attorney fees and lost wages MAY be awarded at the discretion of the court

For such a cut and dry case, I think that it would be awarded.  Will they try a case in your absence for small claims court?  If you can get the move-in check from the new tennants, that should be all that you need, provided that the damages that he is arguing are in there.

If homeboy didn't put a cent into his rental from when you moved out to the next tenant, you should get it all back.  Good luck.