When we bought this house, it was rented and the tenants were building
their own house. There wasn't much question that they would move. We
inspected the house the day we closed to be sure everything looked
okay. The seller had used a rental agency to handle the details of the
rental....anyway, at closing, the security deposit was put in a special
account held by the real estate agent who handled the sale (actually
her boss, the broker). If the house had been damaged he would not have
given them the security deposit.

First month, everything went fine. Then Feb. 1, rent check arrived
and only half the rent was paid....said they were deducting the other
half from security deposit. We sought legal advice and bottom line,
there was nothing much we could do. It would have cost more to sue
than we would have got. As long as the house was still in good
shape....we weren't actually out anything. It was unethical...but we
were afraid to do something that would cause them to damage our house.
When they moved, we did find that the doorknob on the front door in the
entrance hall had been pushed through the drywall. It was covered with
wallpaper and hard to see. By then we had returned the remainder of
the security deposit and there was nothing we could do.

Talk to a lawyer and be very careful. If they are good tenants it can
go very well....