Landlord/Tenant Law
As with many college towns, Denton contains its fair share of unscrupulous landlords and property management companies. After posting a breakdown on the legal resource and attorney review website, avvo.com, that approximately 5% of our business involves landlord/tenant matters, our percentage of landlord/tenant cases quadrupled. We welcome these cases!
College towns, including Denton, seem to exhibit a disappointing trend of landlords failing to return security deposits. Just in the last two years we have helped half a dozen clients get back their security deposits when those deposits were being wrongfully withheld. Disappointingly, we have heard from many tenants who simply did not think they would get their deposits back and thus moved repeatedly throughout Denton, never receiving a single penny of what they were owed. Don't let this happen to you!
Things to remember about security deposits:
- Be diligent in filling out your move-in condition sheet and MAKE A COPY
- Take photos of the move-in condition (everyone has a camera in his/her pocket now, there is no excuse not to do this!)
- Take photos of the move-out condition
- A landlord cannot charge you for normal wear and tear
- Perhaps most importantly, when you move out, send your landlord your forwarding address BY CERTIFIED MAIL
If you have recently moved out of a Denton rental property and your landlord has failed to return your security deposit, despite having done everything listed above, call us immediately!