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Roommate Agreement Regarding Deposit ~ Question

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Roommate Agreement Regarding Deposit ~ Question

Postby DarlaW » Tue May 01, 2018 9:58 pm

Topic Roommate Agreement Regarding Deposit ~ Question
I have resided (18 yrs now) in an Apartment in a 3 Story Brownstone Building where the Landlord is on ground floor and apartment above is a duplex with my self and two other Roommates.
Deposit History dating back to 1980's:
Before I moved in the 3 former Roommates & Roommates before hand~ never had a Lease nor did the Landlord collect Deposits from any of them.They just paid Rent to Landlord every month.
Why they started this type of Deposit (many yrs ago) is beyond me and it's never gotten resolved properly to be fair and in the end some of or all 3 of us Roommates will not get our Deposits back.
About 10 years ago a Lease was issued by Landlord after husband passed, and I was a Lease holder. I then drew up a Roommate Agreement for other two Tenants & part of it states~ writing in the History of how the Deposits are initially formed before I even resided in the Apartment and that if they moved out of their room, the person(new tenant of their room) moving in would give them their Deposit in total only if room left in good condition, if fixing needed do to any damage a portion deducted ect.
In the Roommate Agreement it states, the Landlord is not responsible/liable for Deposits. It also states that I the Lease Holder is also not responsible/liable for Deposits due the the history stated above.
Two years ago the Landlord ( whom now Elderly) has not given us a Lease and I am no longer a Lease Holder but a Tenant/Roommate like the others.
QUESTION: If the Landlord decides to Sell Building and or decides to give eviction to all 3 of us Tenants/Roommates we obviously loose any Deposit, which I am fine with but can the other two Tenant/Roommates seek Deposits even if they Signed the Roommate Agreement stating Landlord nor I are responsible/liable? Seems she is Elderly and her Family may move her within a year to a Retirement home and sell the building.
Any Advice would be greatly appreciated~ Thanks!!!
DarlaW
 
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Re: Roommate Agreement Regarding Deposit ~ Question

Postby TenantNet » Tue May 01, 2018 10:24 pm

You don't say if the unit is rent stab, but given your description, that's doubtful.

For general issues of security deposit, see http://tenant.net/Rights/CTRC/ctrcf006.html. The page is quite old, but as far as I know, the law on deposits has not changed.

The roommate agreement is between you and your roommates. The lease holders have their agreement with the landlord - who doesn't care about the agreement between the roommates. I can't say if the roommate agreement carries any weight.

Why would you assume if the LL sells the building, you will lose your deposit? To me what could cause that is lack of good record keeping.

But the LL's deposit agreement (plus interest) would be owed to the original lease holders, not the current ones if there has been a lot of changes over the years. It would depend if the lease holders properly notified the LL of changes as they occurred.
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Re: Roommate Agreement Regarding Deposit ~ Question

Postby BubbaJoe123 » Thu May 03, 2018 11:30 am

I'm confused - did the landlord ever collect a deposit from anyone? From what the article indicates, each new occupant pays a deposit to the person moving out, and then gets repaid in turn when they move out.

When this system started, did anybody ever pay a deposit to the landlord? It's not clear from the letter.
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Re: Roommate Agreement Regarding Deposit ~ Question

Postby TenantNet » Thu May 03, 2018 11:54 am

I sort of assumed the original lease holders did give a deposit to the LL. The idea is when one moves, they are made whole by the new leaseholder.

I have seen this sort of arrangement before, often in college towns where an apartment passes from roommate to roommate, but never becomes totally vacant.

But this is a recipe for disaster. What happens when there are damages from 5-10 years ago created by a tenant long gone? The current tenants don't know anything about that. But from the LLs perspective they are responsible. And unless there is an agreement with the LL, the owner might correctly say the deposit must go back to the person who made the original deposit,not the current tenant. And of course this sort of arrangement is an invitation for bad record-keeping. Landlord don't want to deal with 1/4th of a deposit. When they lease a unit, there's one deposit, not portions. So who keeps all the records? Someone will drop the ball.
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