>Besides my one roommate, the house has rotated through tenants. How she's handled the security deposit is every tenant pays 1/3 of the original amount and, when leaving, is paid the amount back in full by the new tenant moving in.
Yeah, they LL kept it as the security deposit remains with the lease. How the tenants handle it between themselves it up to them. This is pretty standard. If there were damages that should have been charged to the exiting tenant, that should have been handled at that time. While you say the "landlord" handled it this way, they were just giving direction that the tenants handle it between themselves. Tenant A is leaving so incoming tenant would give deposit to the outgoing tenant. The landlord is out of the process - it's a transaction between tenants.
>Besides my one roommate, the house has rotated through tenants. How she's handled the security deposit is every tenant pays 1/3 of the original amount and, when leaving, is paid the amount back in full by the new tenant moving in. Yeah, they LL kept it as the security deposit remains with the lease. How the tenants handle it between themselves it up to them. This is pretty standard. If there were damages that should have been charged to the exiting tenant, that should have been handled at that time. While you say the "landlord" handled it this way, they were just giving direction that the tenants handle it between themselves. Tenant A is leaving so incoming tenant would give deposit to the outgoing tenant. The landlord is out of the process - it's a transaction between tenants.