Who gets the security deposit if the person who paid is off the lease?
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Who gets the security deposit if the person who paid is off the lease?
The mother of our renter has been paying all the bills and deposits for 2 years, now that her daughter (the renter) is moving out. Who gets the deposit the person who paid or the person on the lease?
Asked on May 6, 2012 under Real Estate Law, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
If lease does not specifically indicate otherwise, the landlord will, when the tenancy ends, return the deposit to the tenant(s) who paid it to him or her (if it two or more tenants had contributed to it, for example, the landlord would return to each tenant the amount he or she had paid). If the lease does specifically state who gets the deposit, follow the lease's provisions.
If a non-tenant funded the deposit, the landlord would return it to the tenant on whose behalf the non-tenant paid (e.g. to the daughter); if that person does not then return it to the person who had paid it for her, that person (the mother) could potentially sue the tenant (the daughter) for its return.
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