Can They Keep the Deposit?

[Bridgewater]

I currently live in an apartment with two other roommates in Santa Barbara. Before we moved into the apartment, I put up the $3000 security deposit, while my roommates contributed nothing. The lease ends in a little over a month and I plan to get a new place.

My roommates are planning on staying in the apartment and signing a new lease.

The apartment management company told me they will not return my deposit until the apartment is empty. So, they plan on keeping my $3000 deposit despite my moving and a new lease being signed by people other than me. My $3000 deposit will then be applied to the new lease that my roommates are signing.

Regardless of what the apartment complex policy is, I don't believe they can keep my deposit and apply it to my other roommate's lease when my contract with them has ended.

Furthermore, when my roommates eventually move out of the apartment, the management company told me they would return the deposit to my roommates. So basically, they are just trying to tell me that I'm out $3000.

I don't believe my current roommates have the funds for a new deposit, but that should not be my concern.

Legally speaking, does the apartment management company have an obligation to return my deposit after our contract is ended regardless of what my roommates do?

 

[zddoodah]

What do your lease and your written agreement with your roommates say about this issue?

Also, are you in Santa Barbara, New Mexico? Santa Barbara, California? Somewhere else?

 

[adjusterjack]

Before we moved into the apartment, I put up the $3000 security deposit, while my roommates contributed nothing.

Now you know why that was a bad idea. What on earth compelled you to do that?

The apartment management company told me they will not return my deposit until the apartment is empty. So, they plan on keeping my $3000 deposit despite my moving and a new lease being signed by people other than me. My $3000 deposit will then be applied to the new lease that my roommates are signing.

That's right. When the three of you signed the lease you became "jointly and severally" liable to the terms of the lease. The $3000 deposit covers all three of you and is likely not refundable until all three of you move out and surrender the apartment. That's a pretty standard lease provision.

I don't believe they can keep my deposit and apply it to my other roommate's lease when my contract with them has ended.

Do you have a separate contract between just you and the landlord? I don't think so. I think you have a single contract binding all three of you together. Your obligation lives beyond your move-out.

Furthermore, when my roommates eventually move out of the apartment, the management company told me they would return the deposit to my roommates.

That would be risky for them because they are equally obligated to you. The smart way to do it would be to issue one check with all three names on it. Then the landlord would be out of the picture.

I don't believe my current roommates have the funds for a new deposit, but that should not be my concern.

It should be. You should have gotten $1000 from each of them before you moved in or not moved in with them at all if they didn't have the money.

Legally speaking, does the apartment management company have an obligation to return my deposit after our contract is ended regardless of what my roommates do?

Depends on the terms and conditions of your contract but I don't think so.

 

[Bridgewater]

What do your lease and your written agreement with your roommates say about this issue?

Also, are you in Santa Barbara, New Mexico? Santa Barbara, California? Somewhere else?

California. School was starting and had to get a last minute place. I found a place with two others, but they did not have the funds for the deposit. That was the situation.

So even if the lease ends, which also represents the end of the contract, if the other roommates decide to stay in the apartment, management can keep my funds? Seems like they would have to create a new lease with a new deposit.

 

[Zigner]

So even if the lease ends, which also represents the end of the contract, if the other roommates decide to stay in the apartment, management can keep my funds? Seems like they would have to create a new lease with a new deposit.

If the two roommates stay and you leave, then you need to seek the return of your portion of the deposit from your roommates.

 

[adjusterjack]

Seems like they would have to create a new lease with a new deposit.

They don't.

The existing tenancy could continue month to month with the existing deposit kept on hand.

 

[zddoodah]

What do your lease and your written agreement with your roommates say about this issue?

Also, are you in Santa Barbara, New Mexico? Santa Barbara, California? Somewhere else?

California. School was starting and had to get a last minute place. I found a place with two others, but they did not have the funds for the deposit. That was the situation.

So even if the lease ends, which also represents the end of the contract, if the other roommates decide to stay in the apartment, management can keep my funds? Seems like they would have to create a new lease with a new deposit.

You didn't answer my first question. Please do so.

 

[mightymoose]

If your roommates can not produce a new deposit, perhaps you should be persuading them to move out as well. If you leave without your deposit, it is very unlikely you will ever get it back.