Disputes over security deposits are all too common when you’re renting, but when the charges are unjustified, it can feel infuriating.

So, what would you do if your landlord tried to keep most of your security deposit, blaming you for damaging a lawn you were told you could park on?

Would you just move on and forget about it?

Or would you fight for what’s rightfully yours?

In the following story, a young couple finds themselves in this exact situation and refuses to let the landlord win.

Here’s how it went down.

Landlord Tries to Keep Security Deposit… Ummm, No

About 10 years ago, my at-the-time girlfriend (now wife) and I moved from the area where we went to college to an apartment near where we planned to start our careers.

I say it was an apartment, but it was really the basement of a house that the landlord had walled off to create 2 “apartments” to rent.

The place was kinda crappy, but the rent was cheap for the area, and we were close to work.

Everything was fine for a few months, but the only parking for us was on the street out front – the couple that rented the upstairs “apartment” had rights to the garage and driveway (they paid more than we did).

Here’s where the problems begin.

Suddenly, my car got a couple of BS tickets for parking on the street – I’m guessing some clown cop needed to meet their quota – and my girlfriend’s car got sideswiped in a hit-and-run.

This nonsense had to stop, so we emailed the landlord (her preferred form of communication) to ask if there was anywhere safe for us to park.

She replied, “Park anywhere you want.”

We had noticed that our upstairs neighbors usually eschewed the driveway to park in the front yard (they were horribly lazy), so we figured that would be a good spot for us, too.

We parked in the front yard for the rest of the year.

We figured that would be the end of it.

We finished our lease, left the place in better shape than we found it, and requested our $1500 security deposit back.

They wanted to know why she only gave them back half of their security deposit.

After a couple of weeks, we got a check for $700.

WHAT!?!?!?

Since there was no explanation, we asked the landlord for one, and she replied that the deducted amount was to “re-sod the lawn,” claiming that parking on it had damaged it.

Now, I was the one who cut the grass at this house while we stayed there, so I was well aware that the lawn had more weeds and bald spots than grass.

Picture the African savanna in mid-summer.

No one had ever lifted a finger to landscape any part of the property, but the landlord wanted to sell the house once the leases were up, and she figured she could get the renters to pay for a nice, new lawn.

No one seemed to care about their issue, so they prepared and took the landlord to court.

I complained to the landlord: didn’t care.

I put in a complaint with the local housing department: didn’t care. I threatened to take her to court: didn’t care.

So, that’s what I did – took her to small claims court.

I had never sued anyone before, so I was going in prepared!

I took pictures of the entire front yard – the area that we “damaged” was actually one of the best patches of grass, though it did have a small rut that my tires made when the yard was muddy in the summer.

I got testimonials from our upstairs and across-the-street neighbors.

Most importantly, I printed out the email where the landlord told us to park anywhere.

They wanted all of their losses covered.

We were suing for $1800 to cover court costs, and we both missed a day of work on top of the full security deposit.

In mediation, we said we would settle for $1400, but she must have thought she was in the right because she refused to offer a penny more than the original $700 check, which we never cashed.

When we got in front of the judge, it was pretty clear that she had no evidence, hadn’t prepared anything, and just assumed that us “kids” would fall on our faces.

We did not.

The judge heard all he needed to hear.

We put everything we had before the judge and made our claim (he was impressed).

He stopped us when we showed him the email to ask the landlord, “Did you really tell them to park wherever they wanted?”

When she said “yes”, the judge replied “Then what are we even talking about?”, and that was that.

Judgement in full for us, and that woman had to pay to re-sod her own lawn.

Next time you tell someone to “park wherever you want,” you’d better mean it.

Or at least don’t try to screw someone over when they comply with what you said!

Bravo! Good for them!

Let’s see what the fine folks over at Reddit have to say about their situation.

Well, this worked out.

Too funny! How do you put a cost on that?

Here’s a great point!

That’s one way to turn it around on them.

What a terrible landlord!

They were smart to collect proof and keep all documentation.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.