Quick, Sue the Landlord Now!

Reddit.com is a website where people can post questions, comments, or silly kitten pictures and others can comment. It's like Facebook except it tends to attract people with intense interests in certain areas. Like Twitter, it has its own shorthand language.

Recently we became aware of a conversation taking place about Massachusetts security deposit law. Here is the situation:

A Massachusetts tenant was planning to move out of an apartment. They were concerned that the landlord might withhold the security deposit. They hadn't signed a conditions statement so they couldn't prove that certain dings and dents were there when they moved in.

A landlord-friendly commenter gave the following advice (paraphrased): "Wait and see what the landlord does. If they withhold, and you think it was unfair, tell them how much you know about the security deposit law. Tell them they should give it back because they screwed up the paperwork."

Then a tenant advocate joined the conversation. They advised that the tenant should sue preemptively to extract triple damages. They said the paperwork mistake was a serious enough offense to merit the suit.

Most landlords would disagree with that advice. The security deposit law is grossly unfair. Even if the landlord had done everything materially correct -- they were earning interest in a separate bank account under the tenant's social security number -- their failure to report this to the tenant results in automatically having to pay triple the amount of the deposit.

It's a dark corner of human nature that makes us want to shoot first and ask questions later. At least we can take some comfort knowing that there are both tenant advocates and landlord advocates out there.

If we hear what the tenant ended up deciding to do, we will let you know.

Read the conversation.