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June 3, 2009
Security Deductions
My father are I own a property in Park Slope and we recently had 2 people living in a 2 bedroom move out. They left the apartment a complete mess. I'll spare the details, but imagine trash everywhere, nothing cleaned, walls full of holes, nails, scratches and random paint etc.
At one point during the end of their time in the apartment 1 of the girls said she had found bed bugs, and had hired and exterminator (at their cost). Please let it be known that no one else has ever complained of bed bugs before nor after.
When I went to photograph the damage in the apartment, I noticed:
Empty bowls for cat food and water. (No pets are allowed in the building)
and
When I went to the floor to get a closer look, I found some dead fleas and for sure, some dead bed bugs in what was one of the girl's bedrooms.
Needless to say, I want to do all that I can to have the apartment cleaned, and also exterminated.
My question is, can the exterminator charges be taken out of the security deposit based on the lease violation of having the cat in the apartment, and the previous issue of the bed bugs, or is the cost solely on the landlord?
Thanks!
Comments
Take photos and keep your receipts for any money you spend from their security deposit. Don't forget to keep a copy of the signed lease, too.
Posted by: Ysabelle at June 2, 2009 10:25 PM
I would do as Ysbelle says: Take photos and keep receipts. Any damage outside of normal "wear & tear" is fair game, that includes the cats. Based on what you said, they did not leave the apt in broom swept condition. As for the bed bugs. I would hire an exterminator that specializes in the critters to make sure it's bug free before you re-rent. 9/10 times, it's the tenants that bring them in but for some reason, the Landlords almost always get blamed.
Posted by: Crownlfc at June 3, 2009 12:43 AM
Pets are permitted in an apartment if you as the LL do not discover the pet within 90 days of the tenant acquiring the pet, even if the Lease says otherwise. I presume the girl would say she had the cat all along.
Posted by: modsquad at June 3, 2009 7:04 AM
Deduct whatever costs you incur from the deposit, including an additional extermination.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at June 3, 2009 8:01 AM
Modsquad - on what do you base that assertion?
Posted by: Putnamdenizen at June 3, 2009 9:22 AM
Modsquad, your info on pets is a little off in general, and definitely off in this case. From DHCR (note that it applies to Multiple Dwellings): The right to own a pet is determined largely by lease provisions but is also subject to N.Y.C. Admin. Code Sec. 27-2009.1, commonly called the "Pet Law", which reads, in pertinent part, as follows;
a. Where a tenant in a multiple dwelling openly and notoriously for a period of three months or more following taking possession of a unit, harbors or has harbored a household pet or pets, the harboring of which is not prohibited by the multiple dwelling law, the housing maintenance or the health codes of the city of New York or any other applicable law, and the owner or his or her agent has knowledge of this fact, and such owner fails within this three month period to commence a summary proceeding or action to enforce a lease provision prohibiting the keeping of such household pets, such lease provision [prohibiting pets] shall be deemed waived.
b. It shall be unlawful for an owner or his or her agent, by express terms or otherwise, to restrict a tenant's rights as provided in this section. Any such restriction shall be unenforceable and deemed void as against public policy.
c. The waiver provision of this section shall not apply where the harboring of a household pet causes damage to the subject premise, creates a nuisance or interferes substantially with the health, safety or welfare of other tenants or occupants of the same or adjacent building or structure.
Posted by: vinca at June 3, 2009 9:51 AM
Serve the purpose of the deposit. Deduct. Put the burden on them to recover the funds. The nerve of them.
***Bid half off peak comps***
Posted by: Brownstones Half Off at June 3, 2009 9:59 AM
If this is not just 1 unit apt in a home and there are more apartments in the building, you may want to check with some of these girls neighbors to see if they are having a flea/bedbug problem also.
Those nasty things get in the walls and can travel easily between apartments, so if you're bombing just the affected place it may just push them to other areas of the building. The best way to get rid of bed bugs with any sort of certainty is to fog the entire building at once.
Or take off and nuke the site from orbit. Just to be sure.
Posted by: ennuiater at June 3, 2009 10:54 AM
I am also in the middle of trying to determine what a fair and reasonable deduction of my former tenant's security deposit should be. They left quite a bit of garbage(including a filthy mattress) in the apt. as well as various debris and personal belongings on the sidewalk in front of our house. Their intention was for passers by to take the stuff, but inevitably some of it sat for over a week and we then had to break it all down and put it into bags for the garbage pick up. Also, they left the fridge, kitchen cabinets and bathrooms in a terrible state. They looked as if they hadn't been cleaned for years. Is it fair to charge them for garbage disposal and cleaning? We were thinkging about $200. We spent about 3 days doing this work to prepare the apt. for new tenants. I realize that any landlord needs to do some cleaning and maintenance after tenants moved out, but feel that this was above what is usual. Lastly, these tenants broke their lease three months early and although we were able to find new tenants quite quickly we had to take a lower rent. Are we justified in deducting the difference in the monthly rent from our previous tenant's deposit for the 3 months that was remaining on their lease? This is our first time dealing with this so are unsure as to what is fair and legally justified.
Posted by: slopetoad at June 3, 2009 11:54 AM
Thanks everyone! It's a 6 unit building and no one else has reported any issues with any critters at all.
Posted by: cameljoe at June 3, 2009 12:22 PM
Cameljoe & Slopetoad,
Seems to me that the way to go about it is to document the problems promptly and send the tenants a letter explaining that you'll be withholding their deposit until you can assess the cost of the damage they caused.
Yes: if the apartment isn't broom swept (which means trash out, shelves and fridge empty) you can charge them for cleaning. However, you should make sure you're checking in with your own reality. My downstairs neighbors moved out recently and the LL was standing around telling their friends (who were helping pack the van) to "take everything! take everything!). This was on the 30th. Not the 1st. And he started cleaning before they were gone. And then he argued about the deposit. Which was not realistic of him.
Also: Slopetoad, it depends on the circumstances of their move and whether you gave them permission to break the lease. Verbal permission won't hold up in court (or maybe it will. I'm no lawyer) but you would be a jerk to say "yes break your lease" and then turn around and try to charge them for the difference in rent just because you were wrong about how hard it would be to find a tenant. If however they just announced they were moving and left, that is a different story.
Posted by: serpentor at June 3, 2009 12:48 PM
IMO if a tenant leaves an apartment in anything less than a pristine state, they've written off their security deposit and don't care. I've always left rental apartments as clean as (or cleaner than) when I moved in. It is as well to document everything. If they lived there two years or longer, I suspect Housing Court would say that painting is normal maintenance, that said, my leases always said the walls had to be the same color as when I moved in.
I'd keep their security deposit until you receive a letter asking for it back, then deduct as much as you can reasonably justify, including labor to clean the place.
Posted by: bohuma at June 3, 2009 12:52 PM
Slopetoad, the law says you may deduct the cost of cleaning and debris removal -- if you actually hire someone and have receipts, not if you do the work yourself. I don't know about the rent question.
Posted by: mopar at June 3, 2009 1:28 PM
Bohuma,
You say, "IMO if a tenant leaves an apartment in anything less than a pristine state, they've written off their security deposit and don't care. I've always left rental apartments as clean as (or cleaner than) when I moved in."
But, according to NYC Tenant Rights, "A landlord may use the
security deposit...only as reimbursement for the reasonable
cost of repairs beyond normal wear and tear, if the tenant
damages the apartment."
The key words here are "beyond normal wear and tear."
Sorry, Bohuma, but "pristine" condition doesn't allow for normal wear and tear. It is rather unreasonable for you to withhold payment of the security deposit if the apartment is in reasonably good condition.
That said, the original poster is well within his/her rights to withold in this circumstance. The condition described is in no way reasonable.
Posted by: 60designers at June 3, 2009 1:42 PM
Wow... you all are so nice! The law totally protects the landlord!
I had a landlord who kept my entire deposit even though I had completely cleaned the apartment and didn't leave a thing. I ended up brining him to small claims court where he told a completely fabricated story about the apartment having, "holes in the walls and trash all over the place". Anyway, the judge split the difference. Then the landlord didn't pay and I had to have the sheriff collect my $600. It was crazy.
As a landlord, I wouldn't worry too much.
Leah
Posted by: lmk2101 at June 3, 2009 5:33 PM
Vinca, there are many creative ways for someone to openly and notoriously harbor a cat in their apartment for 3 months. A LL would be crazy to try to remove the pet if the tenant had any street smarts regarding this issue. See Tenant.net below for suggestions for proving 90 "harboring" of a cat.
http://tenant.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=25480
Posted by: mod squad at June 4, 2009 8:21 AM
So what do you do about tenants who don't pay their last month or two of rent and intend for the security deposit to cover it? Has anyone successfully gone to court to recoup in this case? And what are you recouping, if there aren't any actually damages?
David
Posted by: intheheights at June 4, 2009 5:12 PM
It doesn't sound like anything more than normal wear and tear to me. Did you repaint before they moved in? Did they live over two years? then you'll have a difficult time recovering if they painted. and they sound like good people if THEY paid for the exterminator. So to make them pay twice seems really unfair, and if they contested you'd lose. Further, you can't prove a pet lived there if you never saw it live there, end of.
Keep the interest from the security, you did put it in an interest earning account, right?
Posted by: redhookreject at June 4, 2009 9:21 PM
Great question and some good advice here. I would say first document everything. Every single penny.
I have spent 12 years doing nothing but look at files of previous tenants who left owing the landlord money. The condition some tenants leave apartments is terrible.
My blog has several articles about tenant debt and what to do about it. Here is the link for anyone who is interested:
www.thelandlorddoctor.com
Bill
Posted by: Bill Gray at July 23, 2009 12:17 PM
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