Suit: Tenant security deposits mishandled
Landlord often deducted money incorrectly
A class action lawsuit accuses Ohio State University-area landlord Northsteppe Realty of illegally keeping tenants’ security deposits.
The suit, filed Friday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, argues that Northsteppe “for many years” violated the Ohio Landlord-tenant Act, which allows a landlord to only keep the specific amount of deposit money used to remedy damage beyond normal wear and tear.
Instead, the suit claims, Northsteppe routinely deducted money from deposits based on a formula rather than actual repair costs.
“A landlord is not permitted to make a profit on the deductions from the tenant’s security deposit,” according to the suit, filed by Columbus attorneys Jeffrey M. Lewis and Todd Neuman, with the firm Allen Stovall Neuman & Ashton.
“But Northsteppe blatantly disregards this fundamental principle when calculating the amounts it owes its tenants at the end of their leases. Specifically, Northsteppe charges its tenants standard inflated amounts for cleaning and repairs, irrespective of the amount Northsteppe actually pays to clean or repair an apartment.”
A person at Northsteppe who identified himself as Ryan said the company had no comment about the lawsuit. As of Monday, Northsteppe had not filed a response to the suit.
According to documents filed with the suit, Northsteppe charged fixed amounts to tenants – $250 for a broken window, $100 per bag of trash removed, $150 to repair a large hole in a wall, etc. – even though Ohio law requires deposit costs to be based on actual repair costs.
The suit was filed on behalf of six former OSU students who paid a combined $2,800 in security deposit for a house they rented at 314-316 E. 19th Ave. from Northsteppe for the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years.
When they left the house, they were told that $300 of the deposit would not be returned because of three scuffed walls that needed repainting. Painting falls under normal wear and tear, said Lewis, but more importantly, the charge doesn’t reflect actual costs, which turned out to be $700 to repaint the entire interior.
One of the six students is the girlfriend of Lewis’ son.
“When they didn’t get their deposit back, they hired me to secure their security deposit,” Lewis said. “The original suit advanced almost to trial, but it became clearer that we had something a lot more significant than a simple security deposit case.”
Lewis then filed the class-action case because he believes thousands of tenants were victims. Northsteppe is one of the campus area’s largest landlords.
The suit seeks reimbursement for the students.
“This has been going on forever,” Lewis said. “It’s a con game.” jweiker@dispatch.com @Jimweiker