Roomate Landlord holding my deposit!

[garethhgriffith]

I recently completed a 1 year lease with a roomate. During my lease I had a cat in my apartment and I was not allowed to. My landlord knew of the cat and never said anything about it. When I left the apartment, I left it in immaculate shape, better than the previous tennants left it to me. Anyway, my landlord now wants to withhold $200 from my deposit for the violation of pet agreement. I can find no where in the lease that states that he can create a "violation of lease" fee. It does state that I would be responsible for any damage to certain parts of the apartment, floors, painting, etc. Does he have the right to create a fee because of the lease violation? Does he have the right to ask me to pay for damages to things not specifically stated in the lease? (he mentioned having to get the HVAC system cleaned because of my cat but there is no mention of this in the lease)


Thanks for any responses

Gareth

 

[dee_dub]

No, he does not. Security deposits are to be held in the event there is any damage to the property. If your lease doesn't say "$200 penalty for having a cat", and there was no damage to the apartment, the money is yours.

Of course, he might try to charge you $200 to clean the place to pre-cat condition...

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

I suspect that if pushed your landlord will come up with $200 in damages to clean up after the illegally kept cat.

Gail