How likely you get your security deposit back?

I used to do property management and, at least in California, there are certaing rules about getting your deposit money back. After so much time they can't charge you for certain things becaue they have a time limit, example, paint is only good for a year, so if you live there for more than a year, they cant charge you for any paint damages. I believe carpet has a 5 year guarantee. ALso, they have to give you your deposit back by a certain time or you can sew them and charge them interest and late fees.

Hi,Though i haven't lived in complex apartments but i have heard these kinds of issues.As far as I know its little difficult to get back our amount.In some cases the house owner will return the deposit amount only after some other one has taken it for rent.In our city in India its like if anything is damaged then they will deduct the repairing amount from deposit.This means in what state they have given whatever things to us,we should return it in the same state.If its not working we should be replaced with new ones.If the payee wants anything extra thing in the house which is not there already,we have to make it on our own expenses,the house owner won't provide.And while shifting if its not possible to take out that one we have to leave it there and the owner of house won't give the money for it,though it is for his house only.

I have lived in many apartments. I cannot recall a time that I did not get my deposit back. This is how you do it. Before you rent, ask the landlord if they provide a checklist of the move-in condition of the apartment. If the landlord does not want to provide this checklist, I would look for somewhere else to rent. Before you move any furniture in or turn on the electric, etc., fill out the checklist and make sure you sign and date it. If possible also have the landlord sign and date the checklist. Make or ask for a copy of it for your files. Do not give originals to the landlord unless you have a copy in your hand. It may not hurt to take pictures of the areas that you claim are damaged on your checklist and attach a copy of the pictures to the checklist. Give a copy of the pictures to the landlord along with the checklist and keep a copy of the pictures for yourself also. If you must go to court, you have built a case worth fighting and winning because you have documentation. With this type of documentation, I have never had to resort to court. Read your lease and all paperwork from the landlord carefully also to make sure you understand what you can and cannot do and what the apartment must look like when you return it to the landlord on move-out.

From what I have heard and my own experiences you hardly ever get the money back. They may give you half back but most of the time you don't get a dime back. Regardless of how clean you left the apartment and or if you fixed it to look like it did when you moved in. Its one of the biggest rip offs concerning landlords in my opinion.

Like the other had mentioned, it really depends on your state and what the rules are. Usually if you didn't damage the apartment you lived in, then you should be able to get your security deposit back. For me, I lived in a rented house with my family and our landlady wasn't nice at all. She had all these complains and sometimes would just pop up to tell us to mow the lawn or something like that and I know for a fact that it's illegal for landladies to do that to their tenants. So by the time we decided to move out, we were ready for the fact that she probably wasn't going to return out security deposit to us and we were right. Even though we left the house in perfect condition, probably even better than before she rented to us because she never really cleaned her house up, we did that for her, but she still complained and said that she'll have to use the security money to "fix" up the house. So my situation was basically the same as your's. I think it's just really lame excuses for them to keep the money.