Having a problem recovering my deposit

[Texas Bill]

We are having a problem recovering our rent deposit from the brother of the house owner who lives in the States.

We vacated the house in August andadvised thebrother that he could reduce our deposit by the amount of the rent that was due. He agreed, as did the owner. It has now been 2 months since we vacated thehouse. We left it in as good a shape as when we moved in. We lived there for 4 years, oid our rent on time, kept up the exterior and interior paint as if the house was our own.
Now, the brother will not answer phone calls, nor return messages left on his voice mail. His sister, the owner, is difficult to contact since she lives in the States. At last contact, she promised to have her brother contact us regarding the amount owed us, but have not heard from him.
Question is, do we have a legal recourse, or some legal method of recovering the remainder of the deposit?
I know the stateside solution would be "Small Claims Court", but is there such a thing here, and are they effective?
Can we have the brother arrested andcharged with anything? My boys have an uncle who is on the local police force. Would coercion from him help?
Suggestions/answers, please.
Just hate to take matters into my own hands and use forceful, or other methods to resolve the matter.
Texas Bill

 

[Castellamonte]

Obviously the best solution is to get in touch with the individual involved. I would likely call upon anyone I had who was a local connection, such as the policeman, to locate the individual. It's hard to say whether he is purposefully not returning calls or he dropped his phone in the soup! :cheeky:

Anyhow, get someone local to go chat with him. If he is honest, he'll pony up the money right away. If he is dishonest, knowing a local is aware of him will make it a lot less comfortable for him to remain that way.

As for legal recourse; unless you can get yourself and him in front of the local fiscal (DA) you'll be wasting time and money.

 

[Chris]

TexasBill, it is customary to 'live out your deposit'. Does not matter how exemplary a renter you were, still it is not customery to pay back any money. Sorry, but I think it is too much trouble to go after it, unless you have much time and much patience. And even then you're going to have to threaten to emasculate someone

 

[Eddy]

We are having a problem recovering our rent deposit from the brother of the house owner who lives in the States.

We vacated the house in August andadvised thebrother that he could reduce our deposit by the amount of the rent that was due. He agreed, as did the owner. It has now been 2 months since we vacated thehouse. We left it in as good a shape as when we moved in. We lived there for 4 years, oid our rent on time, kept up the exterior and interior paint as if the house was our own.
Now, the brother will not answer phone calls, nor return messages left on his voice mail. His sister, the owner, is difficult to contact since she lives in the States. At last contact, she promised to have her brother contact us regarding the amount owed us, but have not heard from him.
Question is, do we have a legal recourse, or some legal method of recovering the remainder of the deposit?
I know the stateside solution would be "Small Claims Court", but is there such a thing here, and are they effective?
Can we have the brother arrested andcharged with anything? My boys have an uncle who is on the local police force. Would coercion from him help?
Suggestions/answers, please.
Just hate to take matters into my own hands and use forceful, or other methods to resolve the matter.
Texas Bill

Unless you're talking about several thousands of $$. Walk away. Not worth the problems.

 

[MrMike]

Usually they just dont have the money, spent it long ago. Always live out the deposit, it's better than trying to collect.

 

[Celt202]

TexasBill, it is customary to 'live out your deposit'. Does not matter how exemplary a renter you were, still it is not customery to pay back any money. Sorry, but I think it is too much trouble to go after it, unless you have much time and much patience. And even then you're going to have to threaten to emasculate someone

Bill, you are the salt of the earth but I think you are screwed, blued and tattooed. I hope I'm wrong and that it can be worked out.

I think Eddy has nailed it.

Before I bought my condo I rented and did exactly that when I moved out. When I informed my landlady that she could keep my deposit for my remaining time she went ballistic and 'ordered' me to move out immediately. I smiled and told her I would leave as soon as she produced an order from a judge.

She almost went hoarse from her screams and attempts to intimidate but I kept my composure and needled her.

At one point she was literally running in circles in the street flapping her arms like a wounded duck. It was great entertainment for the neighbors.

Over the two years I rented there I saw a pattern of renters getting screwed on their deposits and the more astute 'living out their deposits'.

One Australian did just that and she then appeared with a police lieutenant who spoke English and 'ordered' him out. The Aussie laughed in his face and told him to come back with a court order. The cop retreated in embarassment.

Living in the DR.....the drama! I love this country.

Dorothy this is not Kansas....

 

[Lambada]

We rented for our first 18 months here, many years ago. We, too, 'lived out' our deposit & advised Milagros in advance when we would be leaving. She was sorry to see us go because we had always paid on time. We continued to live in the same town & she & her family continued to be friends - we rarely bump into each other but everything is 'long lost friends' when we do. I'm posting to add another type of experience............it is possible & it can be done .

 

[MikeFisher]

may be i missed the point,
but i ask.
HB.,
did you pay your deposit to the owner or to the bro/sis??
do you have a receipt which states that you paid to a specific person a specific amount of money for a specific purpose, a person which is present on dominican soil?
i did not read about such in the posts above, so please excuse me if i missed the point by far.
but if you don't have such,
don't waste the valuable time of life to even think to get something from anybody for something, it would be a waste.
if you have a signed paper about a deposit i would say you take that person which received the depsoit from you. if that person is not living in the DR, sorry buddy, then i wouold say you did a mistake you should recommend to others not to do when signing anything in the country.
Mike

 

[MrMike]

The one time I did get my deposit back I just patiently continued to have my wife calmly hound the landlady (actually a law firm) over a period of several months, calling every two or 3 days, my attorney also called a few times and we sent a formal notarized request for the return of our deposit.

It took an amount of time and effort that I do not consider worth the money involved, and I believe that they drug their feet for as long as possible hoping we would give up, and maybe to show that they could do whatever they pleased, but my tenacious Dominican wife showed them that she was never going to back off of the issue so in the end they paid, just about the time I had become certain they never would.

 

[Texas Bill]

I want to thank all of you for your kind advise.
It leaves me with a sense of futility about the possibility of recovering my money by legal means.
I guess I'll just have to do it in a way that leaves the brother no doubt that I'm a very serious person who won't bend to Dominican ways.
So he'll either pay up, or suffer the consequences.
I'll let everyone know how things turn out.

Texas Bill

 

[GringoCArlos]

When in Rome, ..........

Good luck Texas Bill. Just don't do anything stupid that will allow you to get to know what a Dominican jail is really like...