<p>my son goes to school in upstate new york. he put down a $500 deposit for an apartment that was listed on a school housing site. the owners told him that until he paid for the entire semester he would not get a lease. Two weeks later, he called the owner with the rest of the money and they wanted him to sign the lease on the spot without letting him review it with the school’s legal services first. He decided not to take the apartment, and now the owners are not returning his calls for him to get his deposit back. The school legal services is saying that this particular owner has had legal problems with students in the past. My son’s only recourse is to go to small claims court. However, even if he wins the judgment, that doesn’t guarantee that he will recover his money.
Is it worth it for him to go to small claims court or is there some other place in New York State where he can file a claim against the real estate company?
I just think it’s terrible for the school to continue to list on their housing site owners whom they are aware have had legal issues with their students in the past.</p>
<p>In the cases I have made a deposit- it was usually in circumstances where the deposit was to hold my place & if I changed my mind the deposit was forfeit.</p>
<p>Except in the case of when we rented our last house- the landlord was obligated to either return our damage deposit or inform us of her decision not to in writing within a certain period.
She did not & so I took her to court and won my judgement.</p>
<p>I just think it’s terrible for the school to continue to list on their housing site owners whom they are aware have had legal issues with their students in the past.</p>
<p>I agree
However- as students often move around with short notice, was the landlord always at fault in the case of the legal problems?</p>
<p>emeraldkity4 the deposit was to hold apartment.
“However- as students often move around with short notice, was the landlord always at fault in the case of the legal problems?”</p>
<p>When S mentioned landlord to someone in school he was told that this particular landlord lost a case last year against a student and it wasn’t the first. Also he is a slumlord.</p>
<p>It is reasonable for a landlord to hold a sufficient amount of the deposit to cover the time until he can re-rent the apartment. It may even be reasonable to hold an additional amount to cover the cost of re-advertising the rental (although it sounds as if that was $0 in this case). I would suggest checking into the rules governing rentals in the state where this is located. They are usually pretty specific.</p>