IfIleft my old apartment a reck, can my landlord file charges with the police?
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IfIleft my old apartment a reck, can my landlord file charges with the police?
If so what can happen?
Asked on September 27, 2011 under Real Estate Law, New Jersey
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
If you deliberately damaged the landlord's property, it is possible that the landlord could press charges for vandalism, but that is unlikely; cases like this very, very rarely go to the police. The much more common remedy for the landlord is to do one or both of the following:
1) take the cost of repair out of your security deposit; and/or
2) sue you for the cost of the repairs
So the landlord can (literally) make you pay for the repairs.
If you did face vandalism charges, by the way, it's impossible to state what the penalities would be from what you write--it depends in large extent on the amount/cost of the damage which you did.
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