Breach of Lease Agreement, Landlord Is Holding Security Deposit

[jacklynn116]

AAron,

This is in New Hampshire. I paid $700 for a security deposit. The landlord breached and ended the rental agreement and now claims that the deposit was nonrefundale.
I would never have paid the deposit, had I known it was nonrefundable...I have a receipt for the depositm and no where does it say nonrefundable.
I wrote the landlord and informed him that if he had something with my signature on is stating the deposit was not refundable, to forward me a copy so we can settle this out of court. I sent it return receipt.
Did I do the right thing???without sounding threatening?
HELP...in NH............thanks Lynn

[aaron]

You should also check the lease.

If he does not return the deposit, and has no right to keep it, you should be able to recover it in small claims court. You may find these materials helpful - they're in Word format, so you may want to right-click and save to disk:

Know your rights when renting an apartment
Sample Letter to a Landlord Who Does Not Return an Entire Security Deposit