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by tptacek 4332 days ago
Every. Single. Landlord. I've leased from has treated the security deposit as a "13th month's rent". The last two places we rented, we even hired our own cleaning service when we moved out. We still got dinged things like $500 to mow the lawn.
2 comments
_delirium 4332 days ago
I've also had that experience frequently (when I lived in the U.S.), but oddly had very good experiences with large national "corporate" landlords. I'm not usually a fan of dealing with huge national companies over smaller local businesses, but in this area my experiences are more positive with the big ones. When I lived in a Post [1] apartment complex, everything was very professional and above-board, and I got my deposit back in full, quickly. There was a walk-through at move-out with one of the leasing office's employees; the employee said everything looked fine, we both signed the inspection papers, and they returned my deposit the next week. I had even made nail holes in the wall to hang pictures, but their policy (stated at move-in) was that repainting and filling of holes less than dime-sized are routine maintenance for tenants who live there >1 yr.

The only other experience as smooth as that was with an individual landlord (no management company), who by luck happened to be very easy to work with. I paid rent on time and didn't trash the place, and he left me alone and didn't try to take my deposit. This was in a college town, though, so I think I was an exceptionally good tenant compared to what he was used to.

[1] http://www.postproperties.com/

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bigtunacan 4332 days ago
Every. Single. Landlord. I've leased from has returned my security deposit in full without any hassles.
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tptacek 4332 days ago
Congratulations. You have better luck than I did, and than my renter friends did. Maybe it's the time period. We bought a house in 2004 (and again in 2005) and haven't rented since.
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bigtunacan 4330 days ago
We also bought a house in '04 and have lived there since; so I would have been renting at the same time period.

People are people; some honest, some dishonest, but geography could have something to do with it as well. We have rented solely in Iowa, and in general I have found that a higher percentage of people (certainly not all) in this region place great value on honesty and personal integrity.

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