Nic,,
Hope that it all works out for you. I understand that you wanted to ‘do the right thing’ and (hopefully)get your deposit back.
Hopefully you didn’t throw away your money.
If they are not happy with the work that you paid for, they are going to hire someone else to do it and charge you for it anyway.
Had you let the landlord pay for repairs out of your deposit, you would have had no additional out of pocket expense, and the burden of satisfaction was on the landlord to have the work done.
Now you are in the position of being out the money that you spent for repairs and possibly your deposit as well.
I hope that you don’t walk away from this because you don’t like confrontation.
Small claims court may be your only remedy.
If your landlord tries anything illegal in front of the judge, hopefully the judge tears them apart and awards you.
You should not ask your landlord about the status of your deposit within the 21 day period, add a couple of days to be safe.
If you put them on notice that you intended to file, they may be fair with you.
Who knows what they will do, each case is different.
*General advice to anybody is: IF you are comfortable, Owe your landlord rather than have them owe you. You have negotiating power that you don’t have when they owe you*
Although a ‘security deposit’ is not the ‘last months rent’ it can be used for unpaid rent after vacating. Even if landlord charges a late charge for that last month, it puts the burden of filing in court on them rather than you IF they want more money.
If you give notice, they usually will not/cannot evict you in 30 days.
You can often settle out of court and spend less than you thought you would have to spend if they already have your money. Nobody ‘wants’ to waste time in court, it just boils down to money.
