I vacated my Rochester, NY rental on August 30th, with accordance to the lease. It's Oct 14th and still have not received my security deposit. The house was left in excellent condition, completely cleaned and no damages. I see no reason for him to keep any of the money.

I've called my landlord on 5 different occasions and have left a message 4 times. He has not returned my calls. I left an address to mail it to with the keys. When I spoke to him before moving out he said he would send the deposit within a week or two.

One of my roommates was able to get a hold of him and he said he was going to hold the deposit due to a bees nest in the house. We were unaware of a nest, and I'm not sure how that is our responsibility, plus that still does not explain why he hasn't gotten back to us. He told her that he would send her the portion he owes her, but not me and he would give me a call to discuss it since I was the last one living in the house and should have noticed the bees. Of course he hasn't called and I've called him twice since then.

I'm not sure what I need to do in order to get the deposit back. I've done some research and I found that NY law says the landlord must return the deposit within a "reasonable period". I'm not sure how many days that is. 30? 45? 60?

I also noticed a bunch of security deposit demand letters that say if the landlord does not return a security deposit or an itemized list of damages and charges within x amount of days he forfeits his right to collect any portion of the security deposit. Does this apply to NY state law?

I'm really frustrated about this whole situation. Any help or suggestions?

You are dealing with either a dumb or dumb like a fox LL. Bees are not your responsibility and he can't keep a dime because of insects. You will likely need to sue him in small claims. Start by sending him a certified letter restating everything you said here including his promise to refund in a few weeks. Restate the dates you left messages which went unanswered. Give him a reasonable deadline for the return or you will file a small claims court appearance.

As you found, NY law doesn't specify a period, but reasonable is generally considered to be 30-60 days. E any punitive measures for not returning the deposit. I would wait until the end of the month and then send him a letter stating that he has one week to return your depsit or you will take him to court.

And NY doesn't have

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

As you found, NY law doesn't specify a period, but reasonable is generally considered to be 30-60 days. e any punitive measures for not returning the deposit. I would wait until the end of the month and then send him a letter stating that he has one week to return your depsit or you will take him to court.

And NY doesn't hav

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Did your post get cut off?

It sounds like most everywhere agrees that past 60 days is unreasonable, so that's good advice.

Since he hasn't gotten back to me would he forfeit any money he wanted to take for the bee problem? Is there any way he could take money for the bee problem since I didn't know there was a problem? I don't want to go through all of the legal processes, and pay any court fees, but if I do I obviously want to make sure that I will win the case.

Yep it did. I was saying that NY doesn't have punitive damages if they don't return the security on time.

I don't see how he can blame you for the bees. Its not like you built the hive for them.