Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Pennsylvania

We moved from a apartment 60 days ago. We gave a 60 day notice and left our new forwarding address with the last month's check. We had several items that we were donating and made arrangements with the management for those items to be picked up in a couple of days after our departure. The plans were cleared with management since the management and the person picking up the items were close friends. We knew the items had been picked up and heard nothing of any problems. 30 days passed and no word came about our security deposit. At last we got in touch with them and they said that since they had no forwarding address they could not get the SD back to us. We did leave it with our last month's rent plus they had our cell numbers and my husband's personal email address which they used within the last couple of days to reply to a question my husband had asked via his work email address. They say that a truck damaged a gutter and are charging us for cleaning and vacuuming the dirt they say was left after we had vacated the apartment. We have no way of knowing who may have damaged the gutter or left dirt on the floor. It may have been their own maintenance staff. They are holding a portion of our security deposit and letting us know almost 60 days after we vacated our apartment. Do we have any right to contest this. We left our contact info as was required and they could have sent a list of damages to us by the required 30 days and it would have been forwarded here if they had used our previous address at their complex. My husband travels for work and this apartment was not his permanent address. They also had our permanent address down south and could have sent the notice there. I mean in PA can a landlord just up and claim they did not have a forwarding address and not try to get in touch with a former resident when they have several other means of getting in touch with them? Thank you.


Asked on 4/07/18, 3:48 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

John Davidson Law Office of John A. Davidson

Yes you csan file with the dj to get your security deposit back. The landlord will argue h didn't have ytour new address. Also, if you couldn't have been there for the move out inspection why didn't you document the condition of the premises?

You can take him to the DJ.

{John}

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Answered on 4/09/18, 7:09 am


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