The High-ish Road

I haven't heard from Flunky the Asshat since I told him the issue of the security deposit is closed. Of course, that isn't fair because I blocked his e-mail address. I'm not sorry. He has Marty's e-mail address and my phone number if he needs to get in touch with us. At this point they are only managing three of our homes, two after next week when I take the Alabaster house out of management.

By the way, I don't necessarily think Flunky spent the tenant's security deposit like it was suggested by one of you three readers. Security deposits go to a trust account that the department of real estate monitors very closely. Think about it. The average property management company manages 200 properties. If they have an average of $1200 per home in potentially refundable deposits, that is a lot of money in a trust account. So, I can't imagine the main players of the company would want to loose all they had over spending that money. In Arizona, California, Florida and Texas (the only places I have looked, but it seems like this would be standard) messing with the broker's trust account would be considered a super-bad felony and a lot of people would go to jail. So, probably not.

What I think happened is Flunky didn't expect me to ask for it and promised it to the tenants. To him fighting for the tenant's deposit is a matter of pride.

I won't know if the deposit is being released to me unless I call those property management folks or I can just wait until my owner's statement comes out at the end of the week. Marty Sunshine asked me if I was just fighting with Flunky to have something to do. I really wasn't. I think the money is owed to me. However, Marty has a point. Why am I going to bat over this silly issue when months from now it won't really matter? After all, we are in the process of shutting down.

I once had an attorney tell me never fight over principal. The fight over this deposit, mainly because it was becoming personal, needs to be let go. Given our circumstances, anything else said about the deposit at this point is not just fighting over principal, but fighting over pride, greed and I am sure I can add a few other deadly sins to the list. I wish the High Road was more emotionally satisfying.