Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

I recently paid security deposit on an apartment and after two weeks a decided not to rent. I did not sign an application form nor a lease agreement. I also did not get a receipt for teh deposit. When i informed the landlady, she said that she will return my security deposit and asked for my mailing address. After three weeks I gave her a call and she told me that she decided to keep the depoit because she had to hold the apartment for me and turned down other renters. I wanted to know if I can still get my security depoist back since there was no lease signed.


Asked on 1/29/10, 9:27 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

Very possibly; the "hold" thing sounds like an excuse -- if someone else had been interested and she was holding your money, she should have called to let you know so you could rent or back out -- so all she may be doing is covering a month or two of delayed rent with your money. But there are missing facts like how you paid the deposit and other questions an attorney may have for you. If this is a small claims matter you can risk threatening a lawsuit that you'd file on your own if it would cost more for an attorney than you'd get back on the deposit, but it is a risk so you ought to at least have a 1:1 consult with an attorney.

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Answered on 2/05/10, 2:37 pm


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