Walk It Through: The Deposit That Did Not Come Back
Thirty days' notice on a month-to-month, a move out, fourteen days of silence, and small claims.
A tenant on a month-to-month lease, with rent due on the first, decides to move out at the end of next month.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One deposit on one apartment. A fixed term lease, the landlord's claims for damage, and a pet deposit 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.
- Pet depositAn additional deposit a landlord may take for a pet, of up to one-fourth of one month's rent.
- Security depositMoney a landlord holds against unpaid rent and damage. It may not exceed one month's periodic rent, apart from a pet deposit, and the balance goes back with a written itemization within fourteen days after the tenancy ends.
- HoldoverA tenant staying without consent after the term ends. If it is willful and not in good faith, the tenant may owe up to three months' rent or three times the actual damages, and attorney's fees.
- Liquidated damagesA sum fixed by law rather than proven loss. A tenant unlawfully removed, excluded, or cut off from an essential service recovers three months' periodic rent as liquidated damages and a reasonable attorney's fee.
- Periodic rental dateThe date rent falls due. A month-to-month tenancy ends by written notice given at least thirty days before the periodic rental date the notice names.
- Setoff or counterclaimA defendant's own claim against the plaintiff, filed and delivered at least two days before the small claims trial.
- Small Claims CourtA court for civil claims of up to seven thousand five hundred dollars, beginning July 1, 2025, where parties appear without attorneys and a judge decides without a jury.