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I am wondering what my options are? Do I owe her the security deposit? Can I sue her for the lost rent for the three months?

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Case Description I have a property in Castle Rock that I rent. I had a property manager (who has been subsequently fired) who rented the place to the tenant for a 1 year lease in July 2015. In November 2015, she notified us that she was moving to Kansas City, MO to take a new job and was breaking the lease. We quickly put the rental property on the market and found a tenant who signed a new lease but then had to back out of the lease, before taking occupancy, due to medical concerns. He was refunded his security deposit and released of his obligation due to these medical issues. We notified the original tenant by email on December 16th of the cleaning charges and outstanding bills as well as our intent to keep the security deposit as she did not leave a forwarding address to the property manager. The original tenant is now asking for her full security deposit back and doesn’t want to pay any cleaning fees and threatening to sue. I have reached out to the tenant to find middle ground and offered half the security deposit back, less the cleaning fees. She declined the offer and is moving towards small claims court. The property is still uninhabited today and I am out rent for 3 month

Attorney Answer

1
Donald Corky EbyReal Estate AttorneyCastle Rock, CO ·
Do you owe the Security Deposit? Maybe. Can you sue for damages and lost rent? Damages - Yes; Lost Rent - Maybe. The issue on the Security Deposit is did you comply with the CO Sec Dep. Statute. Here, a few issues will need to be determined. 1. Did you deliver a proper accounting. 2. Did you deliver the accounting timely, i.,e. within 30 or 60 days of the end of the lease. 3. When does the 30 or 60 day clock begin to run? 4. Was the lease properly terminated or did the tenant simply attempt to unilaterally terminate? IF you violated the statute you may be liable for treble damages and attorney fees if you do not return the disputed security deposit within 7 days (assuming you have received a 7 day demand letter which is required to initiate litigation). Even if you return the security deposit you can still sue for damages. Good Luck!
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