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Property Keyed to Chase
Neihaus v. Maxwell
Citation:
54 Mass. App. Ct. 558, 766 N.E.2d 540 (2002)Facts
Alexander Neihaus rented his single-family house to Mitchell and Tiffani Maxwell for $2,450 per month under a written lease from September 1, 1997, to August 31, 1998, while Neihaus was on an overseas job assignment. At the beginning of the lease, the Maxwells paid Neihaus’s agent, Hunneman Residential Services, $2,450 as the last month’s rent and another $2,450 as a security deposit. Hunneman deposited these funds into its “Security Deposit Account,” a pooled account where it held security deposits and last months’ rents for all its landlord clients. Hunneman maintained a separate internal accounting system to track these deposits. When the lease expired on August 31, 1998, the Maxwells refused to vacate the premises. They failed to pay rent for September 1998, so Hunneman withdrew the last month’s rent from the Security Deposit Account to cover that month. Neihaus filed a summary process action, and the court ordered the Maxwells to pay October rent as a condition for continuing the trial. On October 22, 1998, the court granted Neihaus possession and ordered him to return the security deposit with interest, which he promptly did.
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