'Park anywhere you want': Tenant sues landlord and wins after landlord tries to keep security deposit over parking dispute

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 3, 2023 8:00 AM EST

Landlords seem genetically engineered to find all the possible ways to get as much money out of their tenants as possible. The problem for them is they have to be just as careful about what they say because smart tenants can and most definitely will use their words against them when the time is right. Here we have a silly landlord who told their tenant they could park wherever they wanted and then later tried to keep their security deposit because he told them that their parking spot had damaged the front lawn.

As any smart tenant would, OP decided to print out the receipts. In this case, that would be an email confirming that they could park wherever they wanted that was of course written by their landlord. This is what we call the classic "using their words against you" method of malicious compliance. The story, however, got even better when the tenant sued their landlord and won as a result of keeping these receipts. Rarely do we see instances of tenants getting back at their landlords with this level of persistence and success. 

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  • 01
    "Landlord Tries to Keep Security Deposit... Ummm, No"
    via Brandon Griggs

  • This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by u/Clintosaurus_Rex, who claimed that even the judge was impressed by how thorough and specific OP was when collecting materials for his case. Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions from folks in the comments section. When you're done, feel free to take a look at this post about a tenant's revenge on a real estate agent for bumping up their rent.

  • 02
    Landlord Tries to Keep Security Deposit... Ummm, No M OC About 10 years ago, my at-the-time girlfriend (now wife) and I moved from the area 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.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 03
    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). Suddenly my car got a couple 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 & run. This had to stop, so we emailed the landlord (her preferred form of communication) to ask if there's anywhere
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 04
    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 the rest of the year.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 05
    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. After a couple weeks, we got a check for $700... :!?!?!?
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 06
    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.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 07
    Now, I was the one who cut the grass at this house while we stayed there, so I was well aware that the lawn was more weeds and bald spots than grass - picture the African savanna in mid-summer.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 08
    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.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 09
    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.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 10
    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.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 11
    We were suing for $1800 to cover court costs and us both missing 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.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 12
    We put everything we had in front of 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 had to pay to re-sod her i lawn. own
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 13
    Next time you tell someone to "park wherever you want", you'd better mean it. Or at least don't try to someone over when they comply with what you said! If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 14
    Disorderly_Chaos. My landlord tried to keep half our $1500 deposit because of some burn marks, a broken door, and some shades missing - all of which I had taken pictures of when we moved in. All were pre-existing.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 15
    I told her (company) that if I didn't see my entire deposit back by the 4th of the month I was legally entitled to double that amount and I had lawyers on standby if they wanted to go to court over it. They paid.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 16
    Then I printed out copies of "The Landlord Tenant Act" which she had violated on several occasions (including not giving my full deposit back) and distributed bound copies to every person living at every rental property I could find listings for. Screw crappy landlords. 5.6k Reply Share
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 17
    wlwonderwoman Fun story! My last Landlord attempted to show our basement suite off before we gave official notice that we were leaving, and without providing adequate notice herself. This being very recent, so you know why we were so concerned- plus one of our roommates had a pre-existing condition.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 18
    We contacted the tenancy organization, and upon gaining the knowledge that we were fully within our rights to bar her entry, we printed out a copy of the residential act and taped it to all the entry points. We then proceeded to block the front door with the couch, just in case.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 19
    She thought we were dumb students. Unfortunately for her, we weren't- and we would have gone to court if she'd tried anything.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 20
    PabloPaniello. Yep, my last landlord tried to pocket the deposit - didn't even offer a pretense of a reason, just told me she'd referred the matter to her legal counsel and we'd be hearing from him (we never did).
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 21
    I assume the tactic was to make us thankful we weren't in legal trouble so we'd slink away and not cause problems, while she pocketed an extra grand without justification.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 22
    The thing is - I'm a lawyer at a very good firm, so it didn't go the way she planned. In my state a landlord has to take certain steps in certain time periods if they'll not return the deposit. She didn't. As I'd demanded my deposit back and she'd not complied with the statute I was entitled to return of my full deposit plus attorneys' fees and a penalty of several hundred dollars more.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 23
    I composed a precise and damning demand letter to her and had my colleague finalize it, sign it, and send it. A few days later my colleague received a sheepish call from her attorney asking if we'd drop everything in exchange for return of the full security deposit. We said yes if they'd wire the money within 24 hours, else we were taking them to court. The money was in my account that afternoon.
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex
  • 24
    I'm still annoyed when I think about that dishonest creep making me go through all that to get what was rightfully mine (well, most of it - I'd rented the place furnished, so there were some small damages she legitimately could have claimed for; but, pigs get fat while hogs get slaughtered, and instead of retaining $150 - 200, she tried to pocket the whole $1,000) 741 Reply Share
    via u/Clintosaurus_Rex

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landlord malicious compliance court malicious-compliance-reddit tenant landlords petty revenge reddit thread Reddit parking apartment
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