Mishkin v. Young

Summary

The Colorado Supreme Court held that a landlord may not avoid treble damages by providing an accounting of a retained security deposit during the seven-day period after the tenant serves a demand notice. Because the landlord failed to return or account for the deposit within the applicable forty-five-day lease period, the landlord forfeited the right to withhold the deposit, and the subsequent accounting did not eliminate liability for treble damages. The court affirmed the district court's judgment.

Holdings

1. A landlord may not avoid treble damages by accounting for the retention of a security deposit during the seven-day period following the tenant's demand notice. The landlord may avoid treble damages during that period only by returning the entire security deposit.
2. Because the landlord neither returned nor accounted for any portion of the deposit within the applicable forty-five-day period, the entire security deposit was wrongfully retained, even though the landlord later returned $50.40 during the seven-day period.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a landlord who fails to return or account for a security deposit within the statutory or lease-authorized period may avoid treble damages by providing an accounting during the seven-day period following the tenant's demand notice.
2. Whether the landlord's failure to timely account made the entire security deposit wrongfully withheld for purposes of calculating treble damages.

Disposition

affirmed