I was renting an apt. for 750 / month (paid on the 15th of each month). It is a shared situation where my roommate and I each paid the landlord separately. I gave both my landlord and my roommate 2 weeks notice before I moved out. My roommate failed to replace me in 2 weeks and now needs until the 1st to get someone in. Now my landlord wants to take it out of my security deposit for the 2 weeks of vacancy. We never signed a lease and there was not even a verbal agreement on the amount of notice needed prior to moving out. I figured 2 weeks would suffice. What should I do in this case? Does he legally have the right to withhold 1/2 of my security deposit for this reason?

If you are in the US then the law in most states is that, in the absence of a written lease, the tenant must give the same amount of notice as the frequency with which rent is paid. So if you pay rent every 30 days then you need to give 30 days notice. If you pay rent every 7 days then you need to give 7 days notice.

Yes in the US normally ( with some states slighty different) but if you have no written lease or rental agreement with specific rules if you are paying once a month, then you have to give a 30 days notice. If you move out prior to 30 days notice.

You did not say how much deposit but yes it sounds like they have a right to hold back some of it

Yep!! You most certainly are required to provide a 30 day written notice to terminate your tenancy.

As the other answers confirm, 2 weeks notice was not enough. Since one of the purposes of the deposit is to pay for unpaind rental, It would appear the landlord was well within legal rights.

Thank you so much for all of your advice. I just find it hard to believe that he's able to make a case w/o a lease. Is there a law book somewhere that says 30 days notice is standard with or w/o a lease? I will probably do a bit more investigating and if nothing else, cut my loses. Thanks again.

At the top of this forum is a "sticky" note with links to tenant/landlord law sites for each state. Use them to check out the laws for your area. They do vary for each locality, but there are commonalities. One of those is that, unless otherwise specified in writing, that a notice equal to the rental period is required.

I do feel the need to point out something here. One of the reasons you come to a site like this is to find people with knowledge and experience you don't have to advise you. Four people gave you the same advice. One a lawyer (Lisa), one a property manager (Cville) and one a landlord (Chuck).

One last point, the reason many rentals operate without a lease is because there are some standards set by law. Utherwise every landloard would require a lease to protect themselves. Those laws protect both sides. For example, just because there is no lease doesn't mean the landlord can kick you out without notice or cause.

I am curious if you gave the landlord a written notice that you were moving and did you pay them the amount by check that you would be staying and did they take your notice and your check as if they were in acceptance of you leaving early? I am a tenant not a landlord and I think we have some rights especially when their actons may void out the typical arrangements. They could have told you that they were not going to accept this to protect their greedy interest in having you stay and possibly go broke or loose your opportunity on a better place you could afford maybe even have to evict you that would cost them hundreds of dollars and pain then you wouldn't even have to get out for maybe 5 months if you played them and wanted to be a little like they behave, I have an aunt who rents out her place and I know people who have done this to landlords, I am not sure why landlords don't respect people like us who are honest and pay our bills, we save them a lot of hassles. I hope you get the truth about your situation maybe from tenants rights.
You know you can call Tenants Rights and ask them, it cost a little but it is worth it if you have a leg to stand on, they can write the letter for you and maybe you can just talk to someone on the phone if their nice and don't want to just take your money they may tell you something you need to hear.

Hugs Dval

It is called Renters Rights, sorry I called it tenants rights. You can call information to get the number.