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In this case the tenant was a Northwestern University post-doc visiting from Austria. He rented a condo in Chicago and gave a security deposit of $1,200. The landlord refused to return any of the deposit or interest after the tenant moved out.
After unsuccessfully attempting to recover their security deposit through a different law office, the tenant hired us to take over their case.
We filed suit for the tenant. The landlord filed a counterclaim for more than three-times the security deposit amount, and claimed its attorney fees against the tenant also.
After we filed the case the tenant moved back to Austria. They flew back to the United States from Vienna for the trial.
At trial the Court found that the tenant had done some damage, but not nearly as much as the landlord alleged in their counterclaim. The landlord was ordered to pay the tenant two times the security deposit ($2,400).
The tenant was also awarded their attorney fees. Without this arrangement under the law, the landlord would have been able to take advantage of the fact that the tenant had moved out of the country after the tenancy, and had to fly to Chicago from Europe in order to present his claim for his deposit back.
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