Rental application "cancelation fee" on a new apartment lease
Question Details: I filled out an app to rent an apt & submitted it w/a /$500 sec. deposit. They credit checked me & came back w/a req. for $1500 XTRA or a co-sign cuz credit is bad. I cant do either of those so I need to cancel & they say I'm forfeit my $500 as a "cancel fee" per agreement but I only signed agreement that states $500 dep, the app doesn't say anything about them being able to come back at me w/a req for xtra $ or a co-sign. Far as I'm concerned they omitted certain info/stipulations therefore the "cancel fee" doesnt apply because they did not tell me nor did I sign anything to acknowledge this.
Unless there is a reference to this extra amount, I see no reason for you to accept this unilateral change in the agreement.
Unless the terms in the agreement clearly spell out that the deposit is nonrefundable, I don't think the landlord should be able to keep the deposit unless they had changed their position by taking the apartment off the market. I did not find any legal precedent dealing with nonrefunable deposits in landlord tenant law which is generally in favor of landlords. I would consider making a demand for relief under the consumer protection law and filing small claims.
Check the paperwork, including the fine print, again. You are bound by what it says and by what type of deposit it was. It is legal to charge nonrefundable deposits, though generally a "security" deposit does not fall under that heading (it's to provide security against damages or nonpayment of rent if you get the apartment, not as a "fee" for the application). You need to make sure that the deposit was not in fact stated to be nonrefundable. If it was nonrefundable, they can probably keep it (you could try to challenge, but it would be uphill); if nothing indicates that it was nonrefundable, you should be entitled to get it back.
