Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Georgia

Unreturned cleaning Deposit

I rented my house in Ga from Calif.sight unseen. When I moved in,the carpets were soiled, smelly and had dog hair and dirty walls. There were quite a lot of repairs to be made, but eventually some of these things were resolved but quite a few never were. I did not wish to renew my lease after the year so for my last month's rent,instead of paying 1400.00 I added the 1000.00 deposit and pd. 400.00 and I made sure the house was not as I moved in. I painted,cleaned the carpets so the house was immaculate.I honestly thought that was alright when even the property management admitted how nasty the house was upon my arrival to Ga.I made sure the landlord had phone numbers to contact me since at that time my location wasn't established and I didnt have a forwarding address.The landlord took me to court for the 1000.00 and a 140.00 late fee and won judgement because my lease did state that one cannot forward deposits toward rent.I moved out over a month ago and still haven't had a final walkthrough for my deposit,yet the house has a ''for rent'' sign. My question is does the landlord have a specific time frame to return my deposit and/or a statement of deductions?Can she hold my deposit until I pay the 1140 owed for Dec?


Asked on 1/16/05, 6:56 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Glenn M. Lyon, Esq. MacGREGOR LYON, LLC, Business Attorneys

Re: Unreturned cleaning Deposit

The landlord is required to return the security deposit within one month and must submit a written explanation if any of the deposit is withheld.

If you would like to discuss any issues further, please feel free to contact my office. My contact information is below. Thank you.

The foregoing is general information only, not specific legal advice. No attorney/client relation has been created or should be implied.

Glenn M. Lyon, Esq

MacGregor Lyon, LLC

Promenade II

1230 Peachtree Street NE

Suite 1900

Atlanta Georgia 30309

Phone 404.942.3545

Fax 404.795.0993

[email protected]

www.macgregorlyon.com

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Answered on 1/17/05, 12:15 pm


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