What if it is stated in the lease that the security has to be in an escrow acc't? Will that hold up in small claims court, even though Pa law says after 2 yrs? I am not concerned about interest.

First its not a good idea to piggyback your question on someone else's. This can lead to confusion. You should start a new thread. So I've moved your question to its own thread.

Hold up in small claims court for what? You need to tell us the whole story.

Oh I am sooo sorry! I am new here and had no idea!
I will try to find where you moved the question and add to it.
Thanks for your help.

You just did. This is where I moved it.

LOL Hey you're good!
Ok I will add to this question.
I rented for 7 months. I put down a pet deposit of $200 which is a given known by pet owners the landlord always keeps.
However, the one month security deposit was never put in an escrow acc't and now the landlord is claiming all kinds of bogus damages! I had asked him repeatedly for the name and address of the bank where the security was held and after repeated attempts, he gave me the name but not the address of a bank that has many branches. I finally let it go and figured it may be my leverage if push comes to shove when I move out.
The thread I was reading and mistakenly added to stated that it needs to be held in escrow after 2 yrs or did I misunderstand? Was that interest had to be paid after 2 yrs?

It states in my lease that the security was to be held in escrow and I will take this lying rip- off person to small claims court if that would be upheld. Just not clear on if that is Pa law or not.
Thanks for your help!

BTW- I just moved back to LI!!

If the lease specifies that the deposit must be held in escrow, then that would supercede State law. So it really doesn't matter what the law is.

The problem though is that, as I recall PA law, there really isn't any penalty for not doing so.

You could argue the landlord violated the terms of the lease if he charges you for bogus repairs, but that's not going to affect the amount of repairs.

I thought I had read that he could be court ordered to pay double the security back if he didn't show it was in escrow. I am not sure if it applied to Pa.
Thanks for your time and help.

If you can find that in the law, then you have grounds to sue for that. Generally a landlord can be required to pay double or treble damages if the deposit or an accounting is not returned promptly. Don't recall such applied to not properly depositng the security.

What if it is stated in the lease that the security has to be in an escrow acc't? Will that hold up in small claims court, even though Pa law says after 2 yrs? I am not concerned about interest.



I don't like to post sites without quoting the actual law but without knowing a lot more about your circumstances I am referring you to Pennsylvania Security Deposit Law (http://www.thelpa.com/lpa/landlord-tenant-law/pennsylvania-security-deposit-law.html).

Depends on a lot of factors.