How specific does the landlord have to be in the written list of deductions from my security deposit?

A. The notice that the landlord provides to you within the 30 day period after you move out must be sufficiently itemized so that you can get enough information out of it to call the landlord up and intelligently contest the damages. In the case of Nolan v. Sutton (1994), 97 Ohio App. 3d 616; 647 N.E.2d 218, the landlord sent the tenant out a notice of security deposit forfeiture which stated only "Cleaning, $40.00." The First Appellate District Court in Hamilton County held that this was not sufficiently itemized as a matter of law when it stated as follows:

We hold that the itemization in this case, "$40-cleaning," is insufficient as a matter of law to meet the landlord's burden under R.C. 5321.16(B) and (C), and that, thus, the trial court properly granted summary judgment to Nolan, the tenant.

Your landlord, when confronted with this argument will then produce a raft of evidence, either at trial or in response to a discovery motion that will itemize the "damages" for failure to clean in a lot more detail. But this will be of no avail to him, as the Court in Nolan went on to state that:

We believe that under the statutory scheme established under the landlord/tenant law, the sufficiency of the itemization must be determined at the time it is sent to the tenant, not at the time it may later be clarified through discovery in a lawsuit.

The Court in Nolan provided insight into its reasoning for its holding in this matter:

In the case at bar, there is simply no way to determine from the "Security Deposit Transmittal" form received by the tenant whether the $40 for cleaning was due to ordinary wear and tear or something above that. As stated by the supreme court in Smith v. Padgett (1987), 32 Ohio St.3d 344, 349, 513 N.E.2d 737, 742: "A landlord should not be allowed to escape the intent underlying the R.C. 5321.16(C) penalties by making a list of deductions. A landlord will not be deterred from making unfounded deductions from a security deposit if the penalties provided by R.C. 5321.16(C) can be avoided by tendering a list of facially justifiable reasons for the deductions."

If you found this information helpful and are looking for more information or would like to support this website, please consider ordering a copy of our book on Ohio landlord tenant law.

Related topics on security deposits:

Ensure return of your security deposit
What are your rights when landlord withholds security deposit
Landlord's duty to itemize charges against security deposit
Tenant's duty to provide forwarding address
Is security deposit necessary before seeing apartment

Do I sue rental manager or owner to get my security deposit back
Who owes me my security deposit, new owner or previous owner
Who has burden of proof at trial to prove proper withholding of security deposit
Can landlord deduct for carpet cleaning

Disclaimer: The information provided on ohiolandlordtenant.com is not intended to be legal advice, but general information related to legal issues commonly encountered. The law in your state may be different from that discussed here. The facts in your case may be different too.

Having trouble finding what you are looking for, then search our site below:

	www.ohiolandlordtenant.com