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View Full Version : Refund of deposit From Landlord


nikkinelson
Jul 7, 2010, 03:52 PM
We signed a year lease in a house in Sugarland for 1300 a month. We have had nothing but problems in the house with repairs and the landlord would never answer any of our calls, we would call back again and again until he go annoyed and anwered. Finnally he would send someone out a week later or so. We had rats, Black mold was discovered half way through our lease, due to a broken pipe in the attic, it took him almost 2 months to do something about the mold, he did fix the pipe about 2 weeks after we notified him. He said that mold is normal in South Texas and that we would be okay. My whole family was getting sick with sinus infections and bad ones at that. Several months after this had happened we received a gift, a car wash in fort worth was ours! I have our conversations from landlord in writing due to email. I told the landlord about the car wash and wanted to know if there was any way we can get out of our lease with good standing and able to get our deposits back, and I said if this is NOT going to work than myself and my kiddos will stay in the house until our lease was up and my Husband would move to Fort Worth and stay with one of our parent. Our landlord said as long as they can sell there house and we stay there until it is sold that we should be fine. So he sold his house closed on it the last day in April and we paid through the whole month of April. I had to call him the end of May asking about our deposit. He then sent us a disposition saying he was taking our 2600 deposit and applying it to unpaid rent with 1300 added on to it and he put next to the 1300 forgive. I then called him saying you sold your house you can not use our deposit for unpaid rent when the house is not yours anymore. He then changed his mind and sent us another disposition 1 1/2 months later saying he used our deposit for replacing duckt work due to rats... There were rats in that house before we moved in, we have documentation from previous renters stateing that. My question is should we sue?

LisaB4657
Jul 7, 2010, 04:04 PM
Yes, you should sue! Go for it!

nikkinelson
Jul 7, 2010, 06:17 PM
Oh thank you so much, this helped a lot.
Is it true when you hire an Attorney you have the right to sue for 3x the owed amount plus Attorney Fees? That's just what my Brother in Law said he got when he had to sue for his deposit. Sorry if this sounds

LisaB4657
Jul 7, 2010, 09:34 PM
Oh thank you so much, this helped a lot.
Is it true when you hire an Attorney you have the right to sue for 3x the owed amount plus Attorney Fees? That's just what my Brother in Law said he got when he had to sue for his deposit. Sorry if this sounds
I wasn't able to read all of your comment since it got cut off. If you want to add more info you should put it in the quick answer box. I checked and Texas law allows a judge to award you triple the amount that the landlord wrongfully withheld, plus legal fees. In your case it is definitely worth suing the landlord!