Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Washington
I have rented a house in Washington state for two years. When I went to meet the landlord to do the walk through and return keys he was very pleased about how the house looked. Advised me as I was about to walk into the house that he saw that everything was moved out and that he already did the walk through and was satisfied. He then wrote me a check for our entire deposit. Later on he then called and said he wanted the check back because he had a problem with the hard wood floors and a garage door. He stated that there were divots in the flooring and that he wanted to have a flooring company to come out and advise him whether or not this would be deemed normal wear and tear. He also had a problem with a garage door the someone had broken into and that was fixed but not to his likings. We held off on cashing the check and he has decided to wait 18 more days to finally have someone to look at the floors. The flooring company didn't want to be in the middle of it. So my question is this can he come back after signing over a check and demand more money? Especially after 14 days? Not to mention the the divots were merely caused from shoe marks. And the fact that he has yet to give us a price for these so called damages? He has just emailed us that he wants us to pay for half of the cost to refinish the entire hard wood floors in the house when all that was suppose to be damaged was in the kitchen area.
1 Answer from Attorneys
I am not sure if it matters, but the one question I have is how long did the landlord wait to call you and ask for the check back? Was it 5 minutes or 5 days, or? Still, once you both sign off on the checklist and he issues you a check, as far as I am concerned, if he finds anything thereafter, it's on him. He has every opportunity to do a walk through and it looks as if he had actually performed it prior to your meeting him that day. This is key since it means that he was able to perform it at his own pace without you hovering over him or pressuring him to hurry up in any way.
Thus for him to now come forward and say he wants to review the walk through and what he gave you as a deposit, I think that is unacceptable.
For your part, you probably should not have held off on cashing the check, since it probably has a stop payment on it now, so no the onus is on you to get your refund from him. Still, if I were you, I would try to deposit the check and let him try to come after you. I think you have a solid case based upon the facts as you have recited them above.
I don't even think this has to get into the 14 day rule on deposit, but even if it did, I think you are correct that he would have 14 days to either refund your deposit, or provide an accounting for what he charged you for and any refund that may be left over, if any. So you are correct, that even if there were a reason to charge you, he forfeited that right when he did not act within 14 days. So again, if I were you, I'd cash that check right away. Don't even deposit it in your bank. Just walk into his back and get cash for it.
After that, I'd write him back and explain in more polite terms what I have explained above, and explain to him that more than 14 days have passed and therefore he is no longer entitled to any part of the deposit, regardless of whether there are damages. If he chooses to sue you in small claims, again, I think you have a solid defense. If on the other hand he has canceled the check, then you are going to have to sue him to get your deposit back.
If you are required to do that, then feel free to come to me and we can discuss your situation at that time.
Related Questions & Answers
Looking for something else?
10,200 active attorneys ready to answer your legal questions today.
Featured Attorneys
Earn additional revenue and grow your business.
