Q: My drunken landlord/roommate is withholding my deposit for zero reason, calling me names, threatening me. What can I do?
There was never a lease signed and she has been verbally attacking both me and another roommate. Threating to get my tiny dog put down after she instigated issues with my dog to "show her dominance" she will not give my deposit back even though I have a verbal recording of her agreeing to return it if I moved out (she told me to get the f*ck out and I said she can't kick me out but ill willingly leave with my deposit) there are no damages to the house except her allegation that my dog peed on her cement floor (no stains) she has an issue with shopping and I believe she spent my deposit. She also claims she won't return the deposit because no one wants my old, small room though I have personally found people who want to rent it and gave her their information.
A:
There's a lot here that is a little out of the ordinary--no lease, no paperwork, verbal agreements all around. In addition, there isn't mention of any timing--how long were you renting, were there any other terms of the agreement to leave by a certain date, how long ago did you leave? To really answer your question, an attorney may need to dig into all of that and more to understand the terms of the verbal lease.
That said, generally, a landlord must return a security deposit within 30 (but, if agreed to in the lease, in as many as 60) days after you left or, in the same time period, provide a written list of how much she is withholding from your security deposit and why. Read more about this starting at page 20 of this PDF from Colorado.gov: https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/Attachment%2010-Landord%20and%20Tenant%20Rights.pdf
There is additional information starting on page 21 of that document about what a tenant should do if the landlord is not complying with the requirements to return the security deposit.
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