Housing issues / eviction

We don’t have any information about housing laws and landlord/tenant rights on our website, which mainly deals with issues that are considered to be family law (custody, protection orders, divorce, etc). However, it is common in some states that when a lease is extended, the security deposit is still kept by the landlord until the lease is no longer renewed. A landlord is generally not going to return a security deposit while the party/parties are still living there because then the landlord would have to get another security deposit when re-signing the lease. Often times in disputes between co-tenants, when one tenant extends, s/he may reimburse the other tenant the security deposit and then keep the whole deposit once the lease ends. However, if the tenant extending believes that damage was caused in the apartment which the leaving tenant would be responsible for, s/he may not want to reimburse the person’s security deposit and lose money if the landlord ends up keeping the security for damage. Again, I cannot speak to your situation or how your ex should handle this situation. Often, in disputes, if two parties cannot agree, one might sue the other in small claims court. Here is some basic info about suing an abuser in small claims court, although it deals with damages from abuse, not tenancy issues: LINK You may want to talk to a lawyer who deals with landlord/tenant issues to get advice on what your rights are - here are links for lawyers:LINK

Also, please consider your safety if you decide that pursuing the money may put you in danger with your ex. Here is some info about restraining orders and about safety planning if you should need it:http://www.womenslaw.org/simple.php?sitemap_id=3 and LINK