<prompt> Human: Posted this in a separate town-specific subreddit as well. Figured it couldnt hurt here too.As the title states, our landlord from the previous year hasnt been returning our emails or calls. Today is the 31st day since we moved out and based on the rudimentary understanding of the law that I have, he had 30 days to get it back to us.My roommate and I havent ever had to deal with a situation like this and arent sure what steps to take next.Is it time to contact a lawyer? We emailedcalled every contact we have relating to the property about the situation landlord, landlords family, real estate agent.Anyone experience anything similar?Edit: Just wanted to thank everyone for their responses and advice. What did we learn today? Landlords can be really shitty people sometimes. The roommate and I will take your advice and get a demand letter sent to the landlord via certified mail. If we still dont hear back in the allotted time we give them, we will proceed with small claims in hopes of getting this money back.Edit 2: So, just received an email from the real estate agent for the property. He spoke with the landlord who said he mailed the check on Saturday and should be in our mail sometime this week. Why he couldnt answer one of my calls or emails to tell me this, I dont know. Part of me still wants to take him for more for being a piece of crap. Keeping an eye on the mail in the meantime. Thanks again everyone.Assistant: Same thing happened to me. Landlord fully anticipates keeping your deposit - hes probably done it multiple times before because you dont have that much power as a tenant. You need to send a certified mail request for security deposit. Then submit to small claims court. They most likely wont show up, and you will then most likely win. Problem is, there is no enforcement of judgment you cant take the money from their account so youll probably have to hire a state Marshall to collect. Pretty shitty situation that will most likely take a year. Also keep all communication to emails so it can be reproduced if neededHuman: We will be sending a demand letter via certified mail this week and will likely follow the next steps you outlined as well.Thanks for the advice!  <response>: Collecting is usually the problem, not winning the case. The thing to remember, and to remind them of in the letter, is that you will have won a legal judgement against them which will be filed and recorded and which you will send to every credit reporting agency that has ever existed. You can also put a lien on their property and wages.The most important thing is that you want to sue actual people. They may have formed a company which actually owns and leases the property to make this kind of thing more difficult for you. If there is a company involved, you want to find out who the owners, directors, and officers of the company are and name them each personally in the suit. 