You’ve moved all of your stuff out of the place you were renting, you handed your keys back to the landlord, and you completed the last inspection of the property. A few weeks go by, and you realize that you haven’t received your security deposit back from your landlord. What should you do?
As a first step, you may want to simply contact the landlord or the property manager to find out what is going on. This is especially helpful if your landlord is new to being a landlord, or if you aren’t sure that you provided your forwarding address to your landlord. If you call the landlord and do not hear back, or you hear back but don’t like what you hear, then the next step is usually a demand letter.FAQ: What can a tenant do if the landlord does not provide the security deposit?
A demand letter is a letter that you write to your landlord, demanding that your landlord do something. In this case, you would be demanding that your landlord return your security deposit to you. You can find step-by-step instructions to writing one by going to this blog post.
Now that you know the steps involved in writing a demand letter, here’s an example of what one for the return of the your security deposit could look like. Make sure that you include the details that are specific to your situation; don’t just copy and paste the example. The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation has some examples of demand letters for repairs and you can take a look at those letters here.
This column was produced with the generous support of the Alberta Real Estate Foundation.