Nearly my entire life, my family and I have joked that I should’ve been a lawyer and, honestly, if it didn’t cost a million dollars and a decade of my life, I probably would’ve considered it a lot more.
Luckily in today’s day and age, sometimes you don’t need one. At least in my case, my unofficial lawyer-ness would finally get the case it’s been waiting for… kind of.
If you’re wondering why this is part 2, it’s because I posted part 1 over a year and a half ago. I highly recommend reading it, but long story short:
- The Department of Labor stole my tax refund because the unemployment claim I filed during COVID in 2020 was unfairly deemed to be overpaid and there was an active ongoing case about it that the DOL decided to overstep
During that first situation, I was fully prepared to have my day in court. To stand in front of a judge and jury and state my case. To prove I actually should’ve been a lawyer. To truly “stick it to the man”.
Spoiler alert: I didn’t get it.
Now grab your popcorn, your favorite drink, and get comfy cause this will be worth your time. I even included screenshots 😉
Let’s fast forward to May 2025 – just 9 months after I posted part 1.
My husband and I had just purchased a home a couple weeks prior, and it had been about a week or so since we officially got the keys.
It’s now May 1st, and the rent for our apartment is due. Up until now, my landlord had no idea we were in the process of purchasing a home and had officially closed.
Backstory Details I view as crucial to this story:
- Without getting into all of the details, 95% of conversations with landlord had been negative throughout my 6 year tenancy despite my communications always being kind
- November 2024, my husband and I offered to purchase our apartment building from our landlord after being pre-approved and completing an inspection, which revealed significant repairs needed
- Landlord said they would discuss with significant other and requested a copy of the inspection report
- I sent screenshots of relevant sections but declined to share the full report without compensation
- December 2024, landlord declined to sell and began questioning the inspection process, insinuating the (licensed and insured) inspector may have tampered with the property and questioned why we (the tenants) didn’t notify them (the landlord) of these issues prior
- We were unaware of these issues until the inspection
- Our maintenance person, who had regular access (we did not), also did not report it
- I explained that I was present throughout the inspection, had verified the inspector’s credentials, and found the accusations offensive
- I also note that it’s convenient these concerns only arose after I declined to share the full report
- I also note that despite my correspondence always being respectful and genuine, the response is continuously attacking and disrespectful
- Late January 2025, landlord stated new leases would be issued for March and requested the names of all occupants
- My lease has always been solely under my name, listing me as the only occupant, though my husband (boyfriend during most of the tenancy) and his vehicles were acknowledged multiple times via text
- No new lease was ever sent.
So it’s now May 1st, rent is due, I have my keys to my new home, and I expect to be fully moved out in the next two weeks.
Due to the history and communications with my landlord over the years, as well as the multiple negotiations and back and forth during the home buying/closing process that left me unsure if the sale would even go through in the end, I chose to not notify my landlord that we may be moving.
My lease did not require me to give notice.
CT State law does not require you to give notice outside of the signed lease requirements.
Would giving a 30 day notice be the “right” thing to do? Of course, and had my landlord experience been opposite of what it was, I totally would’ve. However, my landlord was the type of person to tell me to be out by the end of the month even if I wasn’t ready, and I wasn’t going to take that chance if I wasn’t legally obligated to. Therefore, I gave my landlord the same respect they’ve given me over the years.
Knowing I would be leaving before the month was over, and my apartment was in great condition with no real “required” maintenance needed, the turnaround time could be fairly quick if they wanted it to be. I didn’t pay last month’s rent when I first moved in, so I asked my landlord if they’d mind prorating the rent for the days I would be there.
Landlord of course became snarky about me not giving full notice, then proceeded to say they “heard” I was moving stuff out of the apartment (which is impossible as I had literally not a single box packed) and that they’d leave it up to me how to pay the rent that month.
This response is typical from my landlord, and the tone of the message is consistent with nearly all of the other messages they’ve sent me over the years. I go on to explain I wasn’t required to give notice, wasn’t even sure the sale was going to go through, and that their information is incorrect about me moving things. (Also, are you keeping tabs on me?). Since they chose to leave the rent amount up to me (very odd choice) I sent them $500.
Instead of my landlord saying literally anything else, they decided to double down on the fact that “they knew” I was moving. Which, again, is impossible since we hadn’t packed nor moved a single thing. Not to mention, only a handful of people knew we were purchasing a house, non of whom are in contact with landlord. So not sure who “many people” are, but unless tabs are being kept on me, they doubled down on a lie. “But that’s neither here nor there”
I texted our maintenance man to inform him we’d be leaving and would do our final walk through on the 11th. There were no issues there so we went about our lives, packing up our stuff and moving out of the place we’ve called home for 6 years.
We did our walk through on the 11th as expected. Our apartment was in excellent condition, and we informed him of anything that we thought he should know. I requested he sign off on the condition of the apartment before we left, to which he refused and said he’d “come back tomorrow to send landlord pictures and then sign off”. Spoiler alert – we never got the paper.
The morning after our walkthrough, I texted landlord to let them know the maintenance man had the keys and the utilities were informed of our departure. I provided my new address and asked to be informed when my security deposit was mailed so I could look out for it. I offered to accept it via Venmo since that’s how I paid the rent for a number of years.
I never got a response. No thumbs up reaction, no thanks for being a great tenant for 6 years, no okay. Nothing.
CT State Law states that security deposits, with interest, or itemized notice of damages must be returned to tenants within 21 days of the vacancy; the only exception being if tenant failed to provide a forwarding address. Failure to do so could result in landlord having to pay twice the amount of the security deposit.
21 days was a few days into June. No security deposit.
30 days was around mid-June. No security deposit.
By this time I started to do research on what to do next since it seemed pretty clear my landlord was going to try and get away with not paying me my deposit. I’m not sure if this is something they’ve been able to get away with in the past, but if they knew anything about me, it should’ve been that I’m not the one.
I was about to get my court case.
I consulted with a couple of lawyers as I wanted to confirm what I believed to be true.
Due to the landlord leaving it up to me on the amount to pay for rent (deemed odd by all lawyers I consulted with), it was unlikely they could claim my deposit as “rent owed”.
It’s possible they would try to claim “damages” in our closet that we rigged to be more supportive (via 2x4s under the shelving) after the shelving fell out of the wall – twice – during my tenancy. To which my landlord stated was due to “me having too many clothes”. True story.
It’s possible that the 21 day count down could be considered as starting on June 1st since I did leave mid-month and could be considered responsible for the entire month.
In the end, the lawyers all said it was better to be safe than sorry and consider June 1st as the start date. To which 21 days had already passed, and I planned to give them 30 days – to be courteous.
Even if they were going to claim any damages, rightful or not, the time frame still stood and they didn’t meet the deadline. Plain and simple. The law was very clear on that. So by now, I’m very confident that not only is my landlord going to have to pay me my security deposit, but they’re going to have to do it twice. Truly the icing on the cake.
At this point, you may be asking yourself:
- “Brittney, why didn’t you just text them about your deposit?” To which I say I shouldn’t be tracking down what’s rightfully and lawfully mine.
- “Brittney, are you really going to sue over a security deposit?” To which I say, YES. Not only was my landlord a piece of work that would not get the upper hand on me now that I held the cards, but it’s the principle that matters. Not to mention, my security deposit was $1800. In today’s economy, that’s a lot. Would you not sue if you were likely to walk away with twice that? If your answer is no, I invite you to reevaluate your worth.
- “Brittney, did you at least tell them you’d be taking them to court?” To which I say, see answer #1. They didn’t even have the respect to acknowledge my departure message. After 6 years of being a great tenant. The next time they’d be hearing from me would be via court documents.
If you don’t know, you have to notify someone before you sue them. Fill out the paperwork, mail it to them certified so you have record they received it, and then submit it to the court. So on July 12th, I did that.
I’d like to note that my official landlord was the significant other of the landlord I always had communications with. I never had communication with the landlord that signed my lease documents. I only ever talked to the significant other. I determined it wasn’t fully fair to sue my landlord – who may or may not even be aware of this situation – so I sued the both of them. Because, as I’ve said before, it’s the principle.
I thought it was very likely once my landlord realized how serious I was, they would reach out trying to avoid court and just pay me my deposit. Let the record show I waited about two additional weeks after I had confirmation they received the paperwork before actually filing it with the court. In those two weeks, I didn’t hear anything so only July 29th, I filed it with the court.
Despite me following the literal directions on the claim paperwork, the court informed me it was incorrect. Don’t even get me started on the fact that their directions were wrong.
Since it was incorrect, I had to amend the documents and mail them a second time. Luckily I didn’t have to wait for them to receive it to file it with the court, I just had to send them the documents since they were altered. The file was updated with the court and on August 5th they were issued an answer date (when they had to either disagree, agree, and/or counter) of August 27th.
Guess who finally decided to reach out?
If you said landlord – ding, ding, ding! After not responding to my final departure text, not paying me my deposit, and receiving not one, but two, intent to sue notices, they finally reached out. Nearly 3 months too late.
LOL is my response to this message. And by response, I mean LOLing in my new home, because I didn’t reply. No reaction, no acknowledgement, nothing at all. I knew I had a case. I knew this would be in my favor. Even if they tried to claim in court what they were claiming here, they were well past the 21 days and missed their chance. I had them dead to rights. Plain and simple. I was far past the time to discuss and attempt resolution. My resolution? Small claims court.
But internally, my thoughts were:
- “Funny how they waited until I filed with the court, and paid the filing fee, to finally acknowledge me”
- “If their attorney is smart, they’ll inform them they have no case at all because they failed to meet the statutory timeframe”
- “They’re really going to try and bring my boyfriend/husband into this? As if I don’t have numerous texts showing they were aware of his presence? Not to mention could’ve sent a new lease at any point in time and didn’t? Including before they even knew I was moving out?”
- “They’re reallyyyyy going to claim that my husband living with me caused their expenses to increase? LOL we’ve been through this before (when they blamed him because they didn’t know there were 10 people living in their downstairs apartment without their knowledge). I’d love to see them prove that in court.”
- “Discuss and attempt resolution? LOLOLOLOLOL the only resolution I’m interested in is you paying me twice the security deposit for being a slumlord with no respect who’s finally met their match.”
So, yeah, I didn’t respond to that text. My only communications moving forward would be via court documents.
If you also don’t know, when taking someone to court you have to prove that they aren’t in the military and that’s why they couldn’t pay you what you claim you’re owed. You then have to confirm how you know that information. I’m not sure how the court expects a normal person to know the ins and outs of another person, especially their landlord whom they’ve never seen and lives in a different state, but nonetheless you have to prove it. Which you essentially do by being your own PI. I submitted this on September 5th.
The day I submitted that form, I came home to a letter from a lawyer’s office. I figured this could go one of two ways. There’s a check inside for my security deposit asking me to drop the case, or they’re suing me back. (They had not responded to any of the court filings by the required date)
Would you be surprised if I told you it was in fact a check for my security deposit with a letter from their lawyer requesting me to drop the case?
Now at this point I’m sure you’re saying: “Well obviously you cashed the check and withdrew the claim?! This is exactly what you were hoping for.”
And to that I say, sorry, but no.
If I’m being honest, the fact that the check was strictly for the security deposit and nothing more – not the court filing fee, the postage, the time having to chase down what’s lawfully mine – is an insult. Had they at least rounded it up to an even $2000, I maybe would’ve considered it.
If I’m being extra honest, the “take your chances with both the Court and collection of any Judgement” sounds like a threat. Like they have some belief that I’d lose the case, and if I didn’t, that they wouldn’t pay it (which the lawyers I consulted had told me was a very common occurrence).
The entire letter, to me, comes off as… condescending, rude, entitled, and well, challenging.
The thing about me? I love a challenge. And the only thing I love more than a challenge? Holding people accountable for their actions and not letting them get away with their behavior for the sake of ease.
If I was going to lose this case, I was going to do it with my chin up and my head held high with my day in court… and then post on TikTok about the failure of the legal system again.
Now I’m sure you’re thinking: “are you serious?”, “you can’t possibly be willing to take your chances with the court to try and get more money?”, “you’re really not going to settle?”, “this whole thing could be done with right now and you’d have gotten your money back!”.
That’s exactly what my mom, and everyone else who knew of this situation, said.
This is the moment I’ve been waiting for. My day in court. My day to “stick it to the man”. My day to make my landlord realize they truly messed with the wrong one and maybe they’ve done this many times before, but they wouldn’t do it this time.
That being said, I’d already spent months of my time on this case. Compiling my documents, spending lunch breaks going to the court house and the post office, many emails and phone calls, and the overall burden trying to get my own money back cost me.
So, I countered.
I stated that I’d be willing to accept under the condition that they issued an additional check for $1,041. This would account for half of the security deposit that I was entitled to as part of the “double pay” for failing to return my deposit within the required timeframe as well as the court filing fee and partial postage expenses for serving my landlords.
I also noted that I was not seeking reimbursement for additional costs, statutory interest, or the time, stress, and labor involved in going through this process.
The ball was now in their court. If the lawyer was smart and advised them accordingly, they’d accept my offer. If not, then I was more than happy to take my chances in court, because I’m fairly certain I would’ve won and gotten even more.
I sent that letter in the mail on September 8th as well as emailed a copy to the lawyer.
3 days later, I received an email from the lawyer.
They accepted my offer, and I could pick up the check at his office.
So I did.
On September 17th – the day before our hearing – I went into the courthouse, withdrew my claim, and emailed the lawyer the confirmation.
So did I get my day in court? Unfortunately, not.
Did I successfully sue someone who deserved it? I would say yes.
Did I get as much as I could’ve? No, probably not, but I didn’t have to spend more time dealing with the case, trying to actually get the payment that was determined, and still walked away with more than my security deposit.
At the end of the day, I stuck it to my landlord and made them pay me more than I know they wanted to pay. They tried to settle between us and when that didn’t work, tried to intimidate me by having their lawyer get involved. Unfortunately, for them, that didn’t work either.
I hope the pride and karma they had to swallow writing the check sticks with them forever.
They had it coming.
The building they declined to sell to us? Went up for sale 2 months after we moved out.
It was never about selling the building. It was about selling the building to us.
So let this be a sign to hold people accountable for their behavior and never accept less. To call people out when they’re in the wrong. To hold your head high when you’re claiming what’s rightfully yours. To never back down when someone tries to “big dog” you.
And hey, I think this means I should’ve actually been a lawyer. I’ve officially won my first case!
Plus, it’s not like their lawyer told me I did a great job when I personally picked up the check from them or anything 😉
