What most people do in these situations is for the new roommate to pay their portion of the deposit & that gets paid to you for your portion you paid. This is strictly between the roommates, has nothing to do with the landlord and NOT required by law. There is no law requiring how roommates do or do not pay each other.
You don't have to like it but the simple fact is you are not legally entitled to anything and nobody is breaking any laws.
The landlord is only obligated to return the deposit when the apartment is vacant. That hasn't happened yet, so the landlord has no obligation to refund anyone's deposit.
If you paid say, 25% of the original deposit then you are legally entitled to 25% of the refunded portion WHEN its refunded, but that doesn't mean you get your share early.
What should have happened is that the new tenant should have been required to pay an equal portion of the deposit with the money paid to you, so they essentially buy your share of any amount that is refunded when the apartment is vacated.
You should ask the new roommate to pay you for your share of the deposit. Write and sign a document that you are giving her the right to collect your share in exchange for the payment of $x amount.
If and when the deposit is refunded you could sue the former roommates if they collect your share, but you don't have a valid case against them yet.
Of course you can't sue the landlord. The landlord isn't going to refund any part of the deposit unless the unit is vacated.
You should have collected your pro-rated portion of the deposit from the new tenant.
ETA: New lease doesn't mean anything. It wasn't new tenants (except for one) and the unit wasn't vacated. We already explained this to you. Unless EVERYONE MOVED OUT there is no refund of the deposit. The landlord has done nothing wrong.
that is correct the deposit stays with the apartment. your roommates should have paid you your deposit when you left or if they got a new roommate then they should have collected a deposit from the new roommate to give to you.
that's the way we usually handled it when I was in college.
edit to your update:
it may be a new lease with at least one new tenant but from the landlord's point of view, no one has left the apartment. you're the only one of the original tenants who left. until all of the original tenants are gone & the apartment has been vacated so that the landlord can clean & repaint for a new tenant, the deposit will stay with the apartment.
talk to your former roommates about being reimbursed for your deposit. (that is a conversation that should have happened before you left---but live & learn)
The deposit is for the unit. One unit, one deposit and none of it is disposed until the unit is actually vacated. How it's divided between the roommates isn't a landlord's concern.
What should have happened, since the deposit is satisfied with the landlord, is that your former roommates should have reimbursed you your third, and then recouped it from the incoming roommate. That of course is assuming you didn't contribute to any damage that would result in a withholding when disposition time does come around.
The deposit stays with the apartment. The new roommate should have put up money for his portion of the deposit, and that money should have been paid to you to buy you out of your portion of the deposit. If he didn't, then you have a claim in the deposit that still exists. If the apartments return any of the deposit whenever they do decide to move out, you are entitled to a percentage of it, depending on how much you put in.
The deposit does indeed stay with the apartment unless all of you moved out.
You may ask your former roommates to reimburse for your share of the deposit.
Anyone can sue anyone for anything. Can you win. That is the real question. In your case you can't.
If your former roommates refuse to reimburse you, you may have a suit against them, but not against the landlord.
yes illegal for real state
yay... im over this hill!!!!!!!
I moved in and signed a year lease with some roommates. At the end of the lease I decided to no longer continue living there but my roommates wanted to stay. They ended up finding another roommate and signing a new lease with that person. The apartments are claiming the deposit "stays with the apartment" which sound just ludicrous since I no longer live there nor am I on the leas and a new lease was signed with new tenants. Please tell me I can sue these douche bags... Thanks
