Greystar Stole My Money — So I Sued Them and Won

Jason Thiel

I lived in a Greystar building for three years. I moved to another unit in the same building and they tried to steal $750 from me, more than my whole security deposit. So I sued them in small claims court and won.

Every renter has some story about a landlord scamming us out of money. Landlords will find any reason to take money from the deposit, charge a shitload of random fees, or just straight up steal extra rent from you. Every single time I’ve moved my landlord has nickel-and-dimed my security deposit. Cleaning fees, paint issues, small scuffs here and there.

Greystar did this to me. When I switched units, they decided to repaint half of the unit over a few tiny blemishes in the paint. There weren’t even any holes in the wall! When I confronted them about this, they claimed that even though the scuffs were small, it would make the paint uneven if they only painted over those particular areas. And despite the law saying that landlords cannot charge for minor wear and tear, they claimed that this was “tenant damage.” Bullshit.

I immediately reached out to a number of tenant unions to try to figure out if I had any legal recourse. I called a City of Seattle tenant helpline. Nobody answered for months, and with the vagueness of the law I had pretty much given up. But finally, after months of waiting for a reply, I got a call back from the city hotline. They told me what I already knew, that the paint case would be hard to win in small claims court because the law was really vague about what constitutes damage. But they did give me a piece of helpful advice, which was to check the signature on my move-in checklist. It turned out that the property manager never signed it, and so they were not legally allowed to charge me a dime.

Despite this being a very open and shut case, it took almost two years for me to see any of the money. The court system is not friendly to workers, and small claims court is no different. It is confusing as hell to navigate. For that reason, I messed it up the first time and had to refile. Eventually, I served Greystar the papers and had a court date set.

Three days before the court date, they reached out to me and told me that they reviewed the case and wanted to settle out of court. They knew they’d lose and agreed to give me the money if I cancelled the hearing. They even agreed to give me the filing fee back, but never ended up doing that. 

Small claims court sucks. The courts are not there to help workers, but to defend the bosses. It costs $50 to file a small claims case. It’s confusing to figure out how to navigate without an attorney, and attorneys are too expensive to hire anyways.

One year later, I moved out of the Greystar building. This time, they not only stole my whole security deposit, but they took a whole month’s rent from me as well. Fuck Greystar.