Question about deducting from the deposit

[Tomer Shani]

Hello BP people! I have a newbie question: My tenant moved out and I've found the brand new fridge I bought unplugged. When I plugged it I discovered it's not working. Can I just buy a new one and deduct it from their deposit? Or do I need a third party to look at it? What are the proper process to deduct without having to worry about lawsuits

[Account Closed]

You can charge them for cleaning it.  I'd leave it at that, unless you want to gamble regarding them taking you to court.

If your contract says you provide a working fridge, then fixing it would be on you anyway.

But, you can sure charge them for cleaning it - if you did everything else right.  For instance, were you supposed to give them a pre-move-out inspection where you give them a list of what they have to do to get their full deposit back, like in CA?  You need to see what the laws are where your property is - and make sure you followed them.

Or, you can do like many landlords do, and just gamble on getting away with stuff.  My understanding is that there are some pretty hard as* tenant unions in New York, so you better do things by the book.

As long as you've done other things by the book, charging to clean out a disgusting fridge that they unplugged, seems like something that would be very easy to justify to a judge, though.