What if my Landlord Refuses to Return a Security Deposit to Me?

A tenant is entitled to a return of their security deposit upon vacating the property so long as they have maintained the property in substantially the same condition as it was in at the time that they rented the property. If the landlord refuses to return your security deposit, you can go to small claims court. I recommend that before you leave that residence, that you take pictures of the entire residence before you leave including the appliances, inside the refrigerator, the stove or the oven to make certain that if you have to go to court, the judge has visible proof of how you left the property and not just estimates from the landlord of what they did to the property in order to bring it into repair.