Landlord will not give me an answer

[mluka03]

My mother rented a home about 2 years ago, paid a $1,600 deposit, but when the lease was up and she moved to a new home, she never saw that money again. She was told she was getting the security deposit back. Whenever she tries to contact the man that rented the home out to her, she gets ignored, he never answers the phone nor returns her calls. No lawyer wants to take the case according to her because they say it's not worth it for them. And I don't know enough about this sort of thing to find a solution. If she has paperwork proving she was to get the money back who would she get to help her to get the money back from this person that apparently doesn't want to answer her. Her native language is Spanish and the man is American. She understands English well and speaks it too but has an accent. I don't know if perhaps the man feels that due to her heavy accent he can pretend and ignore her?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Florida's statutes regarding security deposits are outlined in the attached:

http://www.800helpfla.com/landlord_text.html

If the time period for returning this has passed, the landlord has lost his chance to keep any for damages.

Your mother can always consider filing a lawsuit for this money. Most of these lawsuits are handled through Small Claims courts as they involve relatively small amounts of money in dispute. An attorney is not needed; folks represent themselves in this court.

Gail