advice on a renting situation

[Travis Munroe]

Update: Spoke to my friend today and its now been 10 days and she was to meet the owner for it back. The owner told her to wait until Sept 1.
I have a feeling there will be quite a few extension requests now lol.

This is a weird question coming from myself being a realtor and I have found several sources online but am more so curious if anyone on CP has advice based on possible personal experiences.

A friend of mine whom is new to Calgary was renting a basement suite (no stove but hot plates). The family who owns the place is living upstairs and they have their sons bedroom in the basement. He was to use his bedroom only and all other activities were to be carried out upstairs.
She has now left and wants her damage deposit back. They gave her 50% and said that they need to wait for another renter to pay her the other 50%. I am assuming cash is tight and they spent her deposit and need someone elses to refund her.
She is a student and $300 is a different amount to different people. For her it is a big enough chunk of cash to hinder other expenses.
Some of the things that occured during the lease:
- House is up for sale and her room/furniture was all photographed and on the internet. I know that she needs to sign a consent form for this.
- She was rarely given notice on showings and on a couple occasions came out of the shower to someone walking around in her room.
- She would come home from work and have her blanket taken off her bed and put in the main room. The son would say he was cold and he grabbed it.
- The odd item from her fridge was used.
- Her indoor cat (allowed according to lease) would get locked in different rooms and on one occasion she found it a couple blocks away after someone left the entrance to her suit open.

Now she was supposed to get the rest of her deposit back today but was informed because the possible tenant didnt give his damage deposit that she would have to wait another week. It is my understanding that it must be returned in full after 10 days and that a log of which account it went into is to be kept for 3 years. This also means that it stays in the account and is not spent.

Anyone on CP have some advice for my friend based on possible scenarios they went through...

Thanks in advance.

[burn_this_city]

They sound like real winners. I'm surprised she put up with that garbage. They should never have spent her damage deposit and refunded it immediately after she vacated.

[Boblobla]

I believe the damage deposit is supposed to be kept in a separate account. They have no right to hold onto it.

Sucks she had to put up with that crap.

[FCAV]

By law aren't landlords supposed to keep the damage deposit in a separate bank account?

[red sky]

Yes, and she should get the damage depoist back PLUS interest. It would obviously be only 3-6 bucks but she is entitled to it.

[Travis Munroe]

From what I know the landlord has to keep a log of which account, how much, interest etc for 3 years. I also read they have 10 days to give it back in full. Although it has not been 10 days the whole situation is a bit different and not having the money to give is a poor excuse.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by red sky

Yes, and she should get the damage depoist back PLUS interest. It would obviously be only 3-6 bucks but she is entitled to it.

If she started to rent after January 1, 2009, she isn't entitled to any interest (or more accurately, she is entitled to 0% interest) -- http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/1033.cfm

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Boblobla

I believe the damage deposit is supposed to be kept in a separate account. They have no right to hold onto it.

Sucks she had to put up with that crap.

This. The damage deposit is supposed to be held in trust. You cant just spend it.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

If she started to rent after January 1, 2009, she isn't entitled to any interest (or more accurately, she is entitled to 0% interest) -- http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/1033.cfm

The way these people run things I doubt they're up on the recent regulations.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

They sound like real winners. I'm surprised she put up with that garbage. They should never have spent her damage deposit and refunded it immediately after she vacated.

Originally Posted by Boblobla

I believe the damage deposit is supposed to be kept in a separate account. They have no right to hold onto it.

Originally Posted by FCAV

By law aren't landlords supposed to keep the damage deposit in a separate bank account?

Originally Posted by Locke

This. The damage deposit is supposed to be held in trust. You cant just spend it.

I'm unclear, is the damage deposit supposed to be kept in a separate account?

[fredr123]

Great resource: http://www.landlordandtenant.org/splash.aspx

[JustAnotherGuy]

Most of us know how the system should work. Obviously this was a casual arrangement and the rules seem non-existent. If I was her I would keep the pressure on them gently to get the rest of the damage deposit without raising too much of a stink about it. Hopefully she gets her money and she can move on.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I'm unclear, is the damage deposit supposed to be kept in a separate account?

No, that's not true.
What you're supposed to do is keep the damage deposit in a separate account.

[THE SCUD]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

No, that's not true.
What you're supposed to do is keep the damage deposit in a separate account.

Not true - I hate the blatantly, patently incorrect information in this thread.

A damage deposit is to be held in a seperate account.

[Travis Munroe]

I was on that site yesterday for her. While I understand the regulations I was curious on peoples thoughts as to how to deal with it.
Give her another week and just let it be?
Press the issue right now and threaten to report the case?

I already know the standard CP way to deal with it and that just wont work.

[Pacem]

I'd personally wait the week. If no cash by then, i'd threaten to report and make them give me a specific date of when they'd pay me. When collecting cash I find its best to have the people that owe you money give you a specific date. It doesn't guarantee that they will pay you by that date, it does ensure that they have no leg to stand on when they try to give you an excuse. At that point, then your only choice is to report. It seems to me they are desperate for cash, so pushing them hard from the start might be push them to just saying "#### it" and just keep the money. Ultimately is best to try and get the cash, the other avenues are too time consuming.

I don't know what kind of by laws you have for legal suites and such. Out here municipalities are tighten up the by laws reguarding basement suites. Just for the hassle of getting the money and the crap she had to put up with, as soon as you get your money report the illegal suite. I've done in the past to landlords that have screwed me over. I was always a great tenant, but i've had to do some crappy things to landlords because they were #######s and thought they could get away with stuff. I was so bitter about renting I just assumed no matter what, I was never getting my deposit back.

[afc wimbledon]

It comes down to whether she wants her money back or to screw with the landlord, if she wants her money back it is best to sit tight calling the landlord every few days to remind him/them.

If she wants to screw them then go with bylaw and tenancy complaints etc but that will probably lose her the remaining part of the deposit for a fairly long time, possibly forever and it is such a small amount that nothing she can do legally really makes sense to speed things up and force them to give it back.

[anyonebutedmonton]

You can deal with them in two ways:

1. File a complaint with the consumer complaint department found here:

http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/562.cfm

2. File a claim with the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service found here:

http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/869.cfm


You can also do both simultaneously...

The first one can have some decent consequences for the landlord, but does very little to recover the deposit. The second option will provide them with a way to file a judgement against the landlord. Should your friend win the judgement, the difficulty then becomes how to enforce the judgement.

Note: the cost of option 2 I believe is 75 dollars and will no doubt be awarded back to her should she win, but can be a tough thing to deal with given how strapped she sounds.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Realtor 1

From what I know the landlord has to keep a log of which account, how much, interest etc for 3 years. I also read they have 10 days to give it back in full. Although it has not been 10 days the whole situation is a bit different and not having the money to give is a poor excuse.

10 days is 10 days. There are good reasons why a landlord has 10 days to refund the deposit, so why is the tenant getting uppity about it?

And since it has not been 10 days, it begs the question what was her move out date? the 15th? Then it's only been two days, so she really needs to chill out. If it was some random date like the 8th, then I wonder why the date is so random, whether there was proper notice given, and if refunding the deposit was discussed when notice was given.

As mentioned, a proper SD needs to be held in trust, but this doesn't really sound like a proper landlord/tenant situation. Sounds more like shared accommodation, which doesn't always fall under the landlord/tenant act.

If the gal just got sick and tired of living with people that don't respect her space and just moved out, she'll be lucky to get anything back, since people like that probably will come up with a similar list of transgressions committed by her. If she's smart, she'll just be polite and wait the extra week. If she starts a pissing match with people that are holding a few hundred of her much needed dollars, I'm sure they'll reciprocate by taking forever to pay her.

I hope she's got something on paper. Handshake deals end up like this more often than not, doesn't matter how much people like each other when they move in together.

[THE SCUD]

I don't think anyone's mentioned the fact that the damage deposit needs to be returned after 10 days and held in a separate account, subject to interest of 0% yet.

I am going to keep this up until I get a thanks.