We are in a month-to-month tenant-at-will (no lease) where the security deposit is on a rotating basis (outgoing tenant receives security deposit from incoming tenant). This is administered as tenant-to-tenant not by the landlord. One housemate decided to move out giving LESS than 30 days notice (notice given via email). We had to use a half of the security deposit to cover the following month's rent because we couldn't find a new tenant to move in until midway through the next month. We have half of the security deposit ready to return (and it's still within 30 days of the notice to leave). However, the outgoing housemate has left behind 3 pieces of furniture, refuses to return the key or communicate. I have just a forwarding address. Do we hold the half-deposit until the keys are returned? Return the half-deposit minus new lock costs? Return the half-deposit and proceed to retrieve the keys through legal means?
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Editor's Response
It sounds like you are in one of those awkward yet common situations where you and your roommates (including the one who left) are not co-tenants (with both names on the lease). Nor are you a lessee who is subletting to another. In the former situation, the landlord controls the deposit and may evict both tenants at will. In the latter situation, the original lessee sort of steps into the shoes of the landlord and can evict the sub-lessee if she violates the terms of their agreement. What you have is some sort of vague oral agreement that, hopefully, spells out a group of mutually agreed to rights and obligations. Not the kind of thing you want to hang your legal rights on. Given that you are not a landlord and were not, technically, renting a unit to another, I will go out on a limb and guess that a small claims court or housing court will not apply the usual rules of security deposits to you and will not be offended if you write a letter to the former tenant and tell her you will return the deposit when she returns the key.
Even if your old roommate returns the key, that doesn't mean she didn't make other copies. If it were me, I would probably go to the Home Depot, buy a lock, and put it it on the door. It's not that hard to do and, in most cases, the landlord will not care, as long as he or she gets a copy of the new key. (If your lease does not allow you to do this, talk to the landlord, explain the situation, and see what she says). Good luck.