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LL asking for 3 additional mos security deposit for lease

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LL asking for 3 additional mos security deposit for lease

Postby Monday » Fri Jan 07, 2011 7:08 pm

I'm asking for a friend.

She is a tenant living in an apt in a three family home in Brooklyn (LL also lives in the building). She has lived here for five years.

Her two year lease expired in November and she is now month-to-month. The LL has been cashing her rent checks.

The landlord wrote her a letter asking for 3 additional months ($5,000.) as a security deposit if she wants a new lease. The landlord already has one month rent as security from when my friend moved in.

Is it leagl for the landlord in a private house to now ask for this type of additional 3 month security deposit as a requirement to renew the lease?
My friend has been a very good tenant, she's a mature women with two school age children.

The Landlord has not requested a rent increase only the 3 months additional security.
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Postby 10ants » Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:55 am

As far as I know, this is legal, and it is a reasonable business practice on a M2M lease.

Chances are the LL needs the money for something else though, and the more that he's got, the less likely he is to return it, so I'd try to negotiate it as 'last three month's rent' rather than a security deposit, especially if she plans on staying there for a while
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Quite possible it's illegal

Postby CityWifi » Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:39 pm

Based on my experience in court regarding a large deposit, here is what I learned from the judge:

Whatever deposit he is asking for, it MUST be the same for all tenants across the board. I am quite certain of this. He CANNOT charge some people for a large deposit, and others less. That is illegal; everyone must pay the same.

This is one of the many reasons you should start a tenant's association -- to compare notes with other tenants.

Further, and on this point I am not 100% certain, a judge may look very unfavorably on a landlord charging excessive deposits, even if it's charged consistently for all tenants.

Demand to know the bank where your deposit is being held, and call the bank to verify the existence of the account, the date opened, the amount of money in the account, and the interest rate. It must be in your name, under your social security number, and it must be accruing a minimum rate of interest, which must be paid back to you each year.

When I found this out, I stumbled on something the landlord did not want me to know. He only put my money in an account when I demanded to know where it was being held. The banking assistant who answered the phone very stupidly told me that in our whole building of about 60 apartments, only 3 had such accounts. In other words, the landlord was pocketing the money and making use of that money for his own purposes (like purchasing property), and not paying interest to tenants.

Stupid. He could have gotten into a lot of trouble over this. I never pressed the issue.
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Postby TenantNet » Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:35 pm

See the section on Security Deposits in the Forum's Reference Section
http://tenant.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4902
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Postby chinatown blues » Sun Apr 24, 2011 7:39 pm

Is there any legal difference between a security deposit and a last month's rent? Aren't they two month's worth of security, for all intents and purposes?
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