Former Tenant Asks If She Has A Moral Obligation To Return Deposit To Landlord After New Tenant Complains
"I know you moved away a while back. But can you still give me some cash?"
Olha Nosova / Shutterstock It's pretty typical for a landlord to ask for a security deposit before you move in. What isn't quite as common is when your former landlord returns said security deposit after you move out, and then she messages you asking for that money back because her new tenant complained. That's the exact scenario one woman found herself in, leading her to turn to Reddit for advice.
The tenant's former landlord reached out about complaints from their current tenant.
In a recent Reddit post, a woman shared the message she received from her former landlord. The landlord wrote, “My new tenant has just sent me a list of issues he discovered since he moved in 4 days ago. I'm a little surprised because none of these issues were present a year ago when you moved in."
Reddit
The issues included an inside lock that didn’t work, a kitchen sink that needed replacement, worn-out magnets on the kitchen cabinets, and a toilet that clogged daily.
Facing these repairs, the landlord asked her former tenant if she would be willing to help cover the costs. “She has always been very nice to me,” the former tenant wrote. “I’m not sure of the norm, but should I reply? Is it standard to ask tenants to fix these issues?”
But based on the comment section, most people were completely against the idea. “Absolutely not,” one user wrote. “This isn’t your property, you never owned it, and these are normal things a landlord fixes.” Another added, “Your landlord didn’t help with rent, so why would you help with repairs?”
In most cases, landlords are responsible for apartment maintenance.
Perfect Wave / Shutterstock
The post was shared in the subreddit r/NYCapartments, so to understand the user's situation, we can look at the city's renting rules. According to the NYC rent guidelines board, if your apartment has any defects or needs repairs, you’re supposed to contact your landlord so they can take care of it.
If they don’t respond, tenants have the right to contact the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD), which can order the landlord to make the repairs or even fine them. Tenants can also make necessary repairs themselves and deduct the cost from rent, as long as the expense was to correct a violation of the city’s housing maintenance code.
So how does this connect to the Reddit post? To begin with, the new tenant has every right to ask the landlord to fix these issues. A toilet that clogs daily is a sanitary hazard, and a broken inside lock is a security risk.
Most importantly, it’s the landlord’s job to handle this, not the former tenant’s. Nowhere in the city’s guidelines does it say that if a landlord has maintenance problems with a current tenant, they can go former tenant fishing to collect money. The security deposit was already returned. End of story. But maybe not...
It's not illegal for a landlord in New York to request payment for damages after returning a security deposit.
According to BrickUnderground, landlords must return security deposits to tenants within 14 days of a tenant vacating the residence. That means, many landlords forego a walkthrough before returning the money. As a result, it's not uncommon for NYC landlords to request payment for damages following the return of a security deposit.
Normal wear and tear, like the magnets on the cabinet doors, should not be the tenant's obligation, and the locks should all be changed prior to a new tenant moving in, but the toilet and sink issues are a different story. The question becomes, can you prove that you did not damage these appliances?
Steven Kirkpatrick, partner at law firm Romer Debbas, told the outlet that landlords can ask for money after returning the deposit, and if you ignore it, they can sue. It doesn't happen often, but it can happen. It's why he always recommends taking photos before moving in and after moving out, and always requesting a landlord walkthrough.
Chances are, if the former tenant pretends she never got this message, nothing will come of it, but the fact that she feels a moral obligation might mean there's more to the repairs than we actually know.
The moral of the story in this case is not to let any little thing just go because you assume it's normal wear and tear. Take photos of everything, and might as well document it with video as well. It's very possible the new tenant broke both the sink and the toilet and is trying to get out of paying for it themselves.
Matt Machado is a writer studying journalism at the University of Central Florida. He covers relationships, psychology, celebrities, pop culture, and human interest topics.
