When Your Landlord Won't Refund Your Security Deposit

What do you do if you were a perfectly fine renter, left the place in great shape, but your landlord won’t refund your security deposit?

A NYmag article with advice about getting payback in various life situations offers the following:

Send biweekly letters to your landlord and save any written or voice-mail responses. After a few months, show up at her office and ask for proof of any damage and repair costs.

If they don’t provide proof, they say the next step is to file a suit in small claims court.

I had this happen to me once. The top of a front-loading dryer got a dent smaller than a quarter in it and when we moved out the landlord deducted the cost of a new dryer from our deposit. Back then I had no clue about my rights as a consumer back then and my only recourse was to fantasize about throwing Moltov cocktails through the landlord’s front window. They had this really huge big glass window too…oohhh it would be so…ok, I’ll admit, I still catch myself daydreaming about it.

Getting Payback [New York Mag] (Thanks to Brian!)

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