Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Washington
Landlord withholding Deposit as non refundable cleaning fee
Our lease states our security deposit is refundable at landlord's disrection. Now that we have moved out, he decided to keep $300 as a non refundable cleaning fee. He claims we agreed to this verbally when we moved in. Now he sent in cleaners before we could do a walkthru or take pictures of any items in question. He refused walkthru when we moved in and when we moved out he said it was pointless since he had already had it professionally cleaned. What do we do to get our full deposit back? the 14 day limit is monday. He refuses to send any of the deposit until we send a letter agreeing on the amount he has offered. the cleaning fees include removal of cobwebs, some carpet stain removal. most items on the list I know were clean before we left, but now I can't dispute. He's claiming some ashes in the oven as damages and is charging us for mowing-even though the lease doesn't say that we needed to.
also he called the garbage co. pretending to be us to make sure we had paid the garbage bill which isn't in his name. Should we let the 14 days pass and then sue him or is he legally able to keep parts of our deposit as he decides? i don't know if he knows the law. should we inform him of what the law says or is that not our problem?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Landlord withholding Deposit as non refundable cleaning fee
Don't send him any letters regarding your deposit, the duty is on him, not you. Read RCW 59 18 260, 270 and 280 - all the way through.
Wait until he does his part. If you disagree with what he's proposing, and you believe he should refund your deposit and he refuses to, then you can take him to small claims court. You can ask for twice your deposit back and costs.
Telling people what the law says (and what that means) is the Court's job. I find it is generally useless to tell pro se litigants what the law means.
A non refundable cleaning fee must NOT be characterized as a deposit, and what verbal agreements you may have entered into are not relevant when there is a writing (contract).
There is also a duty of good faith for all parties to rental agreements. Not allowing you to clean up is not good faith. Also, landlords never understand this, but it isn't the tenant's job to clean the apartment to the sparkly point the landlord will polish it up to in order to re-rent the apartment - that isn't your job. Your job is to return it in the same condition you got it, less normal wear and tear.
Burned out light bulbs happen. Dust builds up on refrigerator coils, etc. This is NORMAL. Therefore it is not your problem.
Best of luck with this. Elizabeth Powell
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