Hi Everyone,

I am in the middle of dealing with an unsavory landlord from the New York City (Steve Harris) for apartment I rented until August 31st of this year. He required first + last + security deposit at the start of the lease at a total of $5,400. I paid it and moved in.

This was the worst living experience I have ever had to endure. There was significant breach of landlord responsibilities in just maintaining a reasonable standard of accommodations and safety. The landlord would make it impossible to contact him to get anything resolved and I had to deal with these very poor living conditions.

I moved out and left the place in good condition and the landlord continued to avoid me. I have requested my deposit back via numerous voicemails and written letters and he appears to have no intention of returning it. I have now filed a small claims lawsuit and I heard many other tenants have filed small claims suits against him for pulling the same disappearing act.

In retrospect, I would not have paid him July's rent and with the amount of time required to evict, would have been able to stay through the end of the lease without leaving my deposit on the line. However, I did the "right thing" and paid him his full rent with the expectation that he would do the same. I know there are a lot of good landlords out there, but as a renter I can't afford the risk of renting from another Steve Harris type, so I am not planning on paying my last month's rent for any apartment moving forward.

I'd like to keep doing the right thing and paying the full rent so I guess I am looking for advice on how I can hold my end of the bargain without being too exposed to getting screwed by an unscrupulous landlord? While I appreciate how easy the small claims process has been, I can't afford not to get my deposit back for months and if he loses the suit and still doesn't pay me, I have to deal with more beauracracy and file a lein against his property. I just cannot afford all of this time and energy - one of the reasons I am a renter instead of an owneris that I don't have lots of money sitting around in the bank.

I know there are a lot of landlord/owners on this board who would not like their renters to skip the last month's rent payment as a policy. Let me know if you have any thoughts on how I can hold my landlords more responsible for security deposit return and avoid this admittedly bad strategy I am about to employ.

Thanks!