Many tenants view “ security deposit’ as last months rent and therefore consider themselves zero-liable for damage to the property
When I was living in a huge apartment on the river with 3 roommates, we tried moving without paying the last month’s rent and got sued for the amount due.
Chapter 2: We had to pay it, and then we hired a lawyer to get it back.
Chapter 3: We won. (Judge to landlord’s lawyer: “Why don’t you just give their money?”)
Chapter 4: We split it 2 ways instead of 4, leaving out the two people who refused to pay for the lawyer. Lawyer gave us a big break and only took $150.
Moral of the story: NYC has nice people too.
Every place I rented the landlord went over and above to keep that deposit for some phoney reason. I would love to see some kind of protection for renters when they check out. Not all renters know they should basically photo and video walk thru and document everything.
I have friends with rental properties and I have seen the way a place can be trashed.
Nonetheless the abuse on the side of landlords has been allowed to circumvent even the tiniest pretense of due process for a century.
What probably needs to be done is assign some bloated government entity (perhaps the county courthouse with maintaining photographic records.
Renter registers photographs of the property upon taking the lease and whenever damage which falls on the landlord occurs. Landlord registers photographs during the property inspections they are supposed to be doing. Both register photographs when the renter moves out.
Pain in the ass?
So what.