A LANDLORD was taken to court by former tenants for $4,400 for their security deposit, and it took them over a year to get the cash back.
Court officials say that millions of dollars in security deposit payments are wrongfully withheld from tenants.
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Last year, Alice Liao, 32, sued her former landlord to get her security deposit of $4,400 back for herself and her roommate, Numa Briet.
They moved out of the apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in New York in September 2023.
It took until December 17, 2024 for the pair to get the money they had won in court, after doing so in April 2024.
This isn’t an individual problem Alice faced, as the state attorney general’s office said it received nearly 5,000 complaints about unreturned security deposits since the start of 2023.
This is up from a combined total of 4,296 in 2021 and 2022.
Getting that money back can be extremely difficult, and a lengthy legal process awaits the tenant if they want their cash back.
New York University housing law professor Sateesh Nori said: “The tenants aren’t professionals in this space and they don’t have unlimited time and money.
“There’s no accounting for people who give up and walk away.”
He also noted that lawyers tend to steer clear of cases like this, that are often dubbed “too time-consuming”.
An anonymous Brooklyn court official estimated that “roughly half” of the 7,749 lawsuits filed in small claims court in the borough since the start of 2023 relate to landlords withholding security deposits.
They added that in many cases, the money is never returned.
ALICE AND NUMA’S CASE
Ches Parnes, the landlord that owed the money to Alice and her roommate, owns at least eight buildings in the Bronx and Brooklyn.
Grant Fox, a spokesperson for state Attorney General Letitia James, said the office has received 14 complaints from people who lived in Parnes’ properties.
Parnes told Gothamist why he had not paid the deposits back for his tenants: “Probably most of them, if they didn’t receive it, it’s because I had a reason not to give it to them.”
Tenant’s rights
According to InCharge Debt Solutions, tenants have several rights in the United States:
As a tenant, you have certain rights, and while they vary from state to state, there is a list of standard requirements virtually every landlord in the U.S. must provide:
- Heat (but not air conditioning)
- Running hot and cold water
- Locks and keys
- Smoke detector
- Clean and safe common areas
Landlords can keep security deposits for several reasons. These include:
- Unpaid Rent
- Damage to the Property
- Cleaning Costs
- Unpaid Utilities or Bills
- Breach of Lease Terms
- Abandoned Property
- Repairs Due to Tenant Negligence
If landlords don’t make any necessary repairs, tenants should:
- Review Your Lease or Rental Agreement
- Document the Problem
- Notify Your Landlord in Writing
- Contact Local Housing Authorities
- Repair and Deduct
- Mediation or Legal Action
- Protect Your Rent
Alice had repeatedly asked for the deposit back, and had even been told by Parnes that the check had been posted, but never received it.
A small claims court judge eventually awarded them their deposit, plus $269.54 in interest and fees.
Alice said: “I was very angry at the beginning.
“Now it’s more like a justice, principle thing.
“It just feels so wrong and like I can still do something.”
She estimated that she spent roughly 30 hours organising court documents, and racked up $3,000 in fees to recover her $4,400.
SHOW ME THE MONEY
On December 17, over a year after leaving the apartment, Alice and Numa received the cash they were owed.
In the end, Alice and Numa had to hire a mashal to seize the money from the bank account.
This happened a week after Gothamist first spotlighted their experience, notably.
After receiving the money, Numa still remained pessimistic as to the powers of the legal system to chase down landlords.
Numa said: “I wouldn’t call it justice, because the justice system was a failure.
“But it’s nice to have it back.”
Advocacy groups have long fought for more power to be given to tenants to make the cash recovery process easier.
Judith Goldiner, the top attorney in the Legal Aid Society’s Civil Reform Unit, said: “We hear from tenants all the time who pay their rent and don’t get their security deposits.
“It shouldn’t take a news article to get people their money back.”
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