Atlanta, GA asked in Landlord - Tenant for Alabama

Q: Can a landlord keep my security deposit if i never moved in? 3 days of move date property was already occupied.

7/24/21 put deposit. Was told he gave previous tenets 30 days to vacate. He was supposed to contact me if I could move in sooner. I got a message 8/24/21 saying this was the last day and to contact him, he said that he wasn't sure if the tenets were moved out because they had left some furniture but he couldn't get a hold of them. We agreed he would take 50.00 off and i would do the cleaning. So when i got that message i assumed he needed a couple days to remove the furniture as that was not apart of the cleaning. On 8/27/21 I contacted him he said he already had new tenets moved in and he was not liable to return my deposit. What should I do now?

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1 Lawyer Answer

A: I would suggest contacting an attorney to go over the specifics of your case in detail. A landlord has a duty to provide you both legal and actual possession of a property. Having prior tenants living there would violate that duty.

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