NYC Apartment - Using the security deposit for the last month's rent

You take photos of the damage the workers did, and email or snail mail your landlord using statements like "this hole was left by workers who came at your request on Jan 15 2014" If your landlord never responds, it suggests that he doesn't dispute your version of events (IANAL). This is what people mean when they say "keep a paper trail." It's ideal if you document it with him as it happens, but failing that, as soon as possible, and with the dates that the damage was done. It may or may not include a request to fix the damage. But it establishes a paper trail. Now, could a tenant lie and send an email and a photo saying that workers busted something that the tenant actually busted? Yes, but if you act quickly, right when it happens, the landlord knows when workers were in there or not, and can call them when everybody's memory is fresh and say "did you bust that thing?" If you document it right away, he has to put energy into disputing your story, so inertia is on your side. You leave in June and the landlord says "hey! This thing is busted!" And you say "I emailed you a picture of that in January and told you the workers did it, remember?" He says "Ah, i don't think the workers did it." And you say "why didn't you tell me at the time?!" But if you wait until you move out, the landlord says "why didn't you tell me about that broken thing at the time?! I woulda fixed it....I kinda don't believe you...." (Landlords, in my head, always sound like my 80 year old, former NYC Teamster father-in-law.)

You signed a contract explicitly forbidding what you are asking about. So it is not ethical to do what you propose, and if you never intended to abide by that clause then signing the contract would have been in bad faith, ergo unethical. Your rationale about possibly being stiffed is not sufficient to make it ethical, since it is merely hypothetical and based only on your assumptions. The notion that "everyone does it" is not germane to the ethical consideration since you essentially swore in a legally binding agreement that you would not do this. -In terms of ethical advice, I was really looking for something that I might not have thought of before. If we had damaged the apartment in any way, for instance, I would understand that it would be ethically wrong. But since we'll be leaving the apartment in as tip-top shape as we can, given the circumstances, and we'll be making up the difference between rent and deposit, I don't view that in particular as an ethical issue about which I'm concerned. To me this reads like you are not actually concerned about the ethics, or that you don't understand what "ethics" means. You're trying to find a rationale to justify behaving unethically, or looking for some ethical consideration that trumps violating the terms of your contract, which does not appear to exist in your case. Do whatever you want to do, but you have no protection for doing so on the basis of ethics. You've also posted your question on a publicly-accessible website without anonymizing your user ID, which could potentially come back to bite you in the ass if you ever do get sued over violating your agreement. It might be a trivial risk, but it's out there for the world to see.

In reviewing the lease, it does stipulate that the security deposit should not cover the last month's rent. You made an agreement in writing that you're considering violating outright. I do think that's unethical. None of the reasons you listed involved the landlord stiffing people out of money, so I think you might be a little illogical in assuming he'll stiff you.

http://ask.metafilter.com/261269/NYC-Apartment-Using-the-security-deposit-for-the-last-months-rent#3795249. I lived in NYC for 14 years and never once did this or knew anyone who did. A security deposit isn't rent for the last month. It's an advancement of money by you to guarantee your performance under your lease contract. It's placed into a separate savings account. I think it's even supposed to be an interest-bearing account. So, yeah. Don't do this. The proper thing to do is take pictures when you move in. When you move out, you take pictures. Take move-out pics even if you don't have move-in pics. If the LL complains, you discuss and offer your evidence. If it escalates, there's court. For those of you who think it's ok to neg out like this and not pay your last month's rent, that's unacceptable. Guess you all don't use your past LLs as references?!

We can't prove the time that the damage was done, or that it wasn't us that caused it? This is true, and it's a reason you should have documented these things and notified your landlord at the time they happened. If they didn't bother you enough to mention at the time, they're certainly not justifications for acting in bad faith now. If you think we should pay the last month's rent, how can we be sure that we won't be charged for damages that we did not cause? You can't be sure of this, especially because you did not document damage, but that does not make it legal or ethical for you to run out on the tab. Your question is confusing. Do you really want to know what is legal and ethical or do you want to know whether you can get away with this? It seems clear the answer to the first question is "no" and that no one can give you more than a "maybe" on the second. Just pay the rent.

I wonder if all the people who think this is unethical have ever rented apartments in a major city like NYC. I think pretty much everyone I know has done this at some point, myself included, no harm has ever come AFAIK. Not that that makes it 'right' but in a city where rent is astronomically high and you are being asked to put down first, last, and a deposit AND pay rent on your other place and hold out for getting that deposit back (hopefully) AND pay for moving it's not like violating a clause in a lease for a place you are leaving is the crime of the century. I've never heard of a landlord suing someone for money they already have in their pocket. Eviction proceedings in NYC for someone who's moving out? I guess it's possible but semi-absentee NYC property owners are not in the habit of creating lots of work for themselves out of spite. Most likely he'll pocket the money and move on to the next tenant. And who cares if you burn this bridge if you already have a lease on a new place?

I can sympathize with you because I feel like I have usually gotten screwed when it comes to deposits. However, leases are legally binding agreements, and there is a reason this is a common clause in leases, as the deposit serves a totally separate financial obligation from the rent. If you choose to not pay last month's rent and consider your deposit that rent, your landlord would be well within his rights to take you to small claims and sue you for the rent. Now, that's a huge hassle, and he probably won't do it simply because the amount probably doesn't really justify going through the whole ordeal, but that is your risk. You'd be banking on him shrugging it off.

I saw an ask me here not too long ago where the renters took date and time-stamped pics of every room after they had everything out and cleaned the place. When the landlord tried to charge them for damage they did not cause, they told him about the pics and threatened small claims court. He backed down immediately. Is your idea unethical? My two cents answer is yes.

I'd be less concerned with whether it's OK to use your security deposit to pay last month's rent so much as whether you are ever going to see your security deposit again at all. I've lived in about five different apartments (not all in NYC - shady developers are the same everywhere, sadly) and I have gotten my security deposit back once, and that wasn't even the whole thing.