Forum Post: Another "Security Deposit" taken by an obnoxious corporate Property Management lease!

So I finally got out of the apartment. It was a godsend and a lifeboat several years ago, when my house in Indiana was flooded by seven feet of non-Global Warming water- the "100 year flood"they called it and a Presidential disaster Area in June 2008.

That Fall of 2008, with some FEMA emergency funding, I landed alive in Jacksonville, in the apartment I'd seen only on the internet. So I signed the lease within a day or two- the motel was $50 a night otherwise- and a six month lease. I gave them a $400 "security deposit".

The several years have passed, with a lot of waiting for FEMA land acquistion to buy out the floodplain land and give me enough to move out of the apartment. It wasn't bad- just small and on a busy street- Noisy neighnbors otherwise. I had paid the Property Management Company on time faithfully for 3 1/2 years. They wanted me to sign a yearly lease in May and I'd renewed it several times.

Then I got this house- I gave them 30 days notice and paid ther last months rent ahead of time. I left the apartment cleaned and undamaged and in fact painted up much nicer and cleaner than when I moved in.

But they sent me notice- They weren't going to give the $400 deposit back because the term of my lease wasn't officially up until the end of May. I'd moved out at the end of April- "VIOLATING THE (precious) LEASE AGREEMENT !!!!!!!!!

I appealed and got nowhere, after they ignored me for a week or two otherwise. I have come to really hate these property management companies, because they couldn't care less about anything but making money. It's always hard to get the deposit back- but now I think they've taklen it to a new level. As I commented to them, who lives a life where they can predictably come and go from a residence in strict 12 month time periods.

A deposit used to be for "damages", but now, property owners and mangers seem to feel it's just theirs right off the top. And it's people of lesser incoime it hurts at the WORST TIMES- when they have lots of other expenses and may loose a roof over their heads and theitr possessions. The managers JUST DON'T CARE.

I came out of a flood, someone else may come from flattened Joplin or Birmingham or the flooded Mississippi Delta, or maybe has lost a job, or has to move to support someone else- More and more in these means times, people are INTENTIONALLY bothered out of their residences- and often for political reasons. And so this practice stinks!

I can see hoilding money for damages- or if the people leave without paying their rent- but now it is common practice to just fill the lease with technicalities like this- and the lawyers are theirs, not ours. A renter ends up feeling like a cat on a hot tin roof- Tenuous, very tenuous.

Thank God, I'm not paying them the high rent anymore! Maybe I can save some money now- I live on disability and have had NOTHING left at the end of a month. My income hardly rises at all- it hasn't kept pace with rising rents and the rents aren't the least bit competitive- It's a MONOPOLY and CONSPIRACY against those who must live there. In the meantime, the empty houses stand all around this area- the bankers have screwed up so many people's credit that no one can buy them, and no one can sell them either! But the important thing to these people? (Besides the money) Being able- in their own minds at least- tio crack the whip on people already reaching their physical limits.