Walk It Through: Twenty-One Days For The Deposit
Moving out, normal wear and tear, the itemized statement, and three days' notice before suing.
At the end of the lease, the tenant cleans, hands back the keys and leaves the carpet worn from ordinary use.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One deposit. Treble damages under the tenant's section, deposits on a park lot, pet fees and a landlord's counterclaim for rent are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Normal wear and tearThe deterioration that comes from the intended use of the place, without negligence, carelessness, accident, misuse or abuse by the tenant, the household or guests. Nothing may be kept from the deposit for it.
- Security depositMoney a tenant deposits with a landlord for any purpose other than rent, refunded within twenty-one days where the lease sets no time and within thirty days in any event, with an itemized statement for anything kept.
- Treble damagesDamages entered at three times the amount assessed, which the landlord and tenant chapter allows in an action under the tenant's section.
- Small claims departmentThe part of the magistrate's division that hears claims for money or property worth no more than $15,000, without a jury and without lawyers appearing at the hearing.