hmm, not cool of him to keep both checks in the first scenario, even if he opted to hold the 2nd one till next month, but that's just my humble .02. If he is somehow holding 'late rent' against you in attempts to keep deposit, he can't do that. That needs to be addressed directly at the time of payment (typically via charging a late fee). He can put sec deposit towards rents not paid (in my state, anyway) but not hold it as a 'nuisance' fee for late payment. As an aside, I live in the same zip as two of my tenants. They either mail or drop off check here. Typically it's one day via USPS, however if post office were consistently days late, I would simply ask tenants allow a few extra days in mail and date their check for the 1st of the month. Or drop off at my house. OK, on to deposit issue. The privacy invasion is a non-issue now and has nothing to do with security deposit. That's fall under category of issue that should have been addressed "at the time". All too often security deposits are viewed as being deservedly refunded in full because of bad blood. Laws are very clear about what deposits are to be held/used for, and in most cases even a lease cannot override a particular state's law on deposits. So you paid a $1100 deposit, he kept $1000, you provided a forwarding address with keys per his request. You did not receive anything for 90 days and then there were deductions without an accounting, correct? I checked, and Virginia law is much like my state's 45 day rule. Virginia's Landlord Tenant Handbook can be viewed here. Have to hand it to them, VA is quite clear and provides many venues for help (addresses, phone numbers) should it be needed. They are thorough. Scroll to the bottom of page 17 for Sec Dep info. "The security deposit, any accrued interest and any deductions,damages and charges shall be itemized by the landlord in a written notice given to the tenant, together with any amount due the tenant within 45 days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession"....If the landlord willfully fails to comply with this section, the court shall order the return of the security deposit and interest thereon to the tenant, together with actual damages and reasonable attorneys' fees, unless the tenant owes rent to the landlord, in which case, the court shall order an amount equal to the security deposit and interest thereon credited against the rent due to the landlord.....If notice is given as prescribed in this paragraph, the landlord shall have an additional 15 day period to provide an itemization of the damages and the cost of repair.....Upon request by the landlord to a tenant to vacate, or within five days after receipt of notice by the landlord of the tenant's intent to vacate, the landlord shall make reasonable efforts to advise the tenant of the tenant's right to be present at the landlord's inspection of the dwelling unit for the purpose of determining the amount of security deposit to be returned. If the tenant desires to be present when the landlord makes the inspection, he shall so advise the landlord in writing who, in turn, shall notify the tenant of the time and date of the inspection, which must be made within 72 hours of delivery of possession. Upon completion of the inspection attended by the tenant, the landlord shall furnish the tenant with an itemized list of damages to the dwelling unit known to exist at the time of the inspection. You need to take time to print that out and read it all, I have only pasted partial quotes below. There is much more on the deposit issue. Then make some calls to the numbers provided. I am not a lawyer, only a landlord who has to keep abreast of landlord/tenant laws, and it seems like your landlord has fudged on a few issues. Even if he had legitimate claims for deduction, 90 days is well beyond the time frame allotted by the State of Virginia. This can all be handled in small claims court. However, I would first send him a letter (Certified) pointing out how he failed to comply (lack of notice to you of inpsection day so you could be present, lack of notice within 45 days of what he was deducting, etc. Quote the Virginia statute that applies. It might be just enough to nudge him to rectify this rather than go to small claims court (where it's typically addressed in my state). Have to run, rental issues of my own, will check back later.

Excellent point by Todd, and this is not inconsistent on many custom-ordered items whether they are building materials or not. Many require full payment upfront, with the minimum (and often the norm) being 50%.

Thank you all for the advice. Plumbing, electrical and HVAC contracts clearly show what % is due after certain phases and I don't have problem with these. Excavation, septic and pour foundation have no payment structure except the pour foundation sub asks for full payment within 2 weeks of completion. Foundation sub also mentioned if I paid in 5 days of completion they'll give 2% off. My concern is they may make up things to charge me more if I continue working with them. They told me twice that the price will change if the measurements they found are different.

Hi @User, you opened this post a bit ago so likely this info won't be that helpful for your purposes, but I did want to add my research to see if this is helpful for others who come across this thread. I may certainly be mistaken, but from what I found, there are no deposit/retainage requirements for private contracts of this type in DC. First, there's an important distinction between deposit requirements, known as "retainage" in legalese apparently, for Public vs Private contracts. Here's the DC code section I found pertaining to payment of contracts between any "owner" and private contractors. There are regulations for payment timeliness, but not for retainage. https://code.dccouncil.us/dc/council/code/titles/27/chapters/1/subchapters/II/ Then, I found this table produced by a law firm that shows all DMV retainage requirements by type of project (public, private, et al.). It shows that DC has no retainage regulations for private contracts. https://www.briglialaw.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/97/2018/07/Retainage-Law-Chart-DC.MD_.VA_.pdf Hope this is helpful! I by no means suggest this is the complete answer. I myself am going to continue to do research to get a definitive answer. You will want to consult someone at the source, such as someone who works at the governing office or a lawyer.