30 days or 60 days, that is the question...

June 27, 2008 10:14 AM

Landlord/Security deposit/renting filter: GA State law requires the security deposit to be returned within 30 days. My contract says after 60 days. Which wins?

For GA state law, I referred to: this tenant/landlord info here.

posted by djpyk to law & government (8 comments total)

hey can I do the whole I'm not a lawyer here thing????

If your contract is in violation of state law then it is plain and simple. Sounds like it came out of a document mill.

My wife is a lawyer and deals with this shit all the time. There are a ton of programs out there, you want a will...fine, I'm a hack two days out of law school, I buy a 300 buck program that allows me to type in your name and who you want to leave stuff to, click print. Said and done, and you just spent a grand.

Law's the law. Go with what the state says. But bear in mind some petty bastard could tie you up for years over a couple hundred bucks.

Try a free legal clinic, have the cite for them. A judge will look at it and know it's just wrong at face value. That's probably your best chance.
posted by timsteil at 10:35 AM on June 27

So far as I know, state law always wins over a lease. Generally, there's also a law which states that you can't sign away any of your rights under state law in a lease.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:36 AM on June 27

IANAL, and IDNLIG (I do not live in Georgia), but I would think that if you signed a more restrictive contract, that would trump state law, in just the way that, say, a member of the military signs away certain rights when they enlist.
posted by fvox13 at 10:54 AM on June 27

"But bear in mind some petty bastard could tie you up for years over a couple hundred bucks."

Would love to avoid this. I'll try and play it as safe as I can while holding my rights. It's really a shame since this guy is one of the skeeziest people I've ever dealt with (he's admittedly racist which blows my mind...), and I'd love to take him to court, but know that it might end up being a gigantic PITA rather than a small PITA.

Anyways, thanks for the quick IANAL advice. Logically, that makes sense. I'm trying to play it as safe as possible while not getting s*rewed in the long run. My landlord is would one say.... unconventional. Basically he's smart and has the money to pay, but I don't trust him one bit.

My current plan is to send a certified letter via the post nicely, but plainly stating my rights, and then go from there. I'll definitely check out a free legal clinic and see how that pans out.
posted by djpyk at 11:00 AM on June 27

Also, the contract states, "After 60 days" vs. the law, "within 30 days"

Perhaps I forfeited my rights? Not sure why I signed this... live and learn, yikes.
posted by djpyk at 11:05 AM on June 27

I Am In No Way a Lawyer.

But Nine times out of ten, you can't forfeit your rights even if you signed a paper that says you do. So your "after sixty days" contract runs into the law, and the law giggles and pokes it and says "no, sorry, within 30 days."
posted by Tomorrowful at 11:15 AM on June 27

State law trumps. (Oh, IAAL.) Good luck. What a pain in the arse.
posted by December at 11:40 AM on June 27

I had a somewhat similar situation in DC.

And after I moved out the landlord stalled for months before deciding to keep the deposit outright for various mostly made-up reasons. After I hired a process server to track him down, I took him to court and won the full amount.
posted by meta_eli at 4:09 PM on June 27