Yeah, the whole security deposit thing is a nightmare. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't, and it's so nerve-wracking and confrontational to be all, "Um, where's my security deposit?" particularly when you have a guilty conscience like I do. Not that I've done bad things, just that I can always think of some kind of damage, even if it doesn't seem major enough to justify them keeping the deposit. Basically, I just hate the experience of living in someone else's house. There are all kinds of weird territorial issues.

And they're supposed to put it an account and give you the interest, right? Have people found that that actually happens reliably?

Oy. My sensitive e-mail went out, and the first wave of reaction has been ridden. I wish the people in charge of this relationship were in the office this week, but since they're not it's fallen out of their department and onto my lap. I hope I don't do any lasting damage.

Sophia, I hope that letter works properly.

And they're supposed to put it an account and give you the interest, right? Have people found that that actually happens reliably?

I've found the interest thing to be reliable. Once my building was sold while I was living there, and another time the building changed management companies; both times I received a small check for the interest that had accrued up to that point.

Many landlords routinely withhold all of the security deposit, as many people don't fight to get it back. So even if some tennants fight and win, the landlord still comes out ahead in the long run.

We had a dog and a cat for 2 1/2 years in our last apartment. I won't say there weren't any accidents as far as the carpet was concerned but we got our security deposit AND our $150 pet deposit back.

And they're supposed to put it an account and give you the interest, right?

My first place up here, they did that. (Last month's rent, which I paid them a year before I moved out, no interest, but the $250 security deposit earned me something like $1.33.) Since then I've paid first/last, butn ot a security deposit ever.

My desk was still here when I got back, which was a bit of a disappointment. However, the elevator ceiling looked like it had been used for some Alias-esque hijinks, so there's that.

I don't even remember what my security deposit was. It couldn't have been much because I had no money. Waiting for that first paycheck and all. Like money lent to friends, I consider it gone, despite the only issues being normal wear and tear of eep 8 years.

And they're supposed to put it an account and give you the interest, right? Have people found that that actually happens reliably?

I have to claim it on my taxes! So annoying. More annoying is that the bank's (HSBC) fee pretty much eats up the entire amount.

But I have a big landlord.

Management companies doing the interest things makes sense, but do all, er, non-company landlords do it? You know, the kind where there's this one guy you have to call five times to fix your faucet and he doesn't speak English real well so you don't talk to him more than necessary?

My landlord who did the interest thing for me was an Irish immigrant couple with hyperactive toddler twins. So, yeah. Although apparently they sold the house to the new landlord (young daughter of Chinese immigrants), and forked over my security deposit to her, but not the interest.

So this bright young twidget in her first major business venture was complaining to me about the extra $1.33 I was getting out of her own pocket. It was one of those "if you give me a microscope, I can show you the violin on my shoulder" type of moments.