The Appeals Courtroom issued an fascinating determination final week concerning the vital landlord-tenant matter of find out how to return a safety deposit. The choice, Slater v. Traynor Administration, is included under.
Massachusetts legislation covers practically each side of a landlord’s acceptance, holding, and return of a safety deposit. The legislation is lengthy, sophisticated, and practically not possible for many landlords (and their attorneys) to grasp totally. Penalties for non-compliance with the legislation can embrace treble damages and lawyer charges.
Essentially the most stringent requirement of this legislation is the deadline for returning a safety deposit, which should be finished thirty days after the tip of the tenancy.
Overview of Safety Deposits
Slater involved a case the place a landlord first tried to return a safety deposit by giving it to the tenant in individual on the landlord’s administration workplace (which the tenant denied ever occurred). The tenant, who moved out of Massachusetts, by no means obtained the return of his deposit by mail by the thirty-day deadline, regardless of having supplied the owner along with his mailing deal with a number of occasions.
The tenant sued, and the Housing Courtroom awarded the tenant treble damages and $17,780 in lawyer charges. This arose from a dispute over a $2,425 safety deposit proving, as soon as once more, the various risks of mishandling one among these deposits.
The Appeals Courtroom upheld the award of damages on this case and famous the next:
The undisputed info are that the owner (1) knew by
September 15 that the tenants had been entitled to return of the
full quantity of the deposit plus curiosity by the tip of
September; (2) believed that it was possible to return the
deposit by mail and that the tenants anticipated return by that
means; and (3) drafted checks to return the deposit on September
15, however didn’t mail the checks or in any other case return the deposit
to the tenants by September 30.
The Appeals Courtroom additionally held that, even when the owner did make the safety deposit obtainable to the tenant on the landlord’s workplace, this was nonetheless not a correct return of the deposit, as the owner knew the tenant had already moved out of state, and asking the tenant to return to Massachusetts for the deposit would have been “fairly inconvenient for them.”
The best way to Return a Safety Deposit
Slater is a vital lesson for landlords on find out how to return a safety deposit. Merely telling a tenant they’ll choose up the deposit from the owner comes with dangers, if the tenant now not lives in Massachusetts or is unable to journey to the owner simply.
With this in thoughts, landlords ought to comply with two procedures when returning a safety deposit to a tenant:
- At all times request a mailing deal with from a tenant a number of weeks earlier than the tip of a tenancy;
- Ship the safety deposit to the tenant nicely earlier than the thirty-day deadline utilizing licensed mail or some comparable service.
Does a landlord have to truly return a safety deposit inside thirty days of the tenant vacating, or just mail to the tenant it by this deadline? Nobody is aware of, and a landlord ought to purpose to not be the “take a look at case” for when this authorized query ultimately reaches the Appeals Courtroom or Supreme Judicial Courtroom. Err on the facet of warning, and make sure that the tenant truly receives the deposit by the thirty-day deadline.
Contact me for a session when you want help with a safety deposit matter.
