Does a landlord have to return your pet deposit if your rental house is now not habitable?My rental house was messed up in a tornado a short time...

A great deal depends upon the provisions of your lease. It
is entirely possible that the lease agreement provided that any pet deposit was
non-refundable. It that is indeed the case, your deposit is gone. If there were no such
provision, and you would have been entitled to the return of your deposit at the end of
the lease, then you should be able to receive it back. The termination of the lease by
Act of God (that is the Tornado) frees you from any obligation to pay further rent, and
obviously entitled you to the return of your security deposit. Your pet deposit is an
entirely different matter. So you should examine the lease agreement very carefully to
see what, if any provision was made for pet deposits and if the deposits were refundable
or not at the time the lease was signed. Early termination of the lease--unless it was
terminated almost immediately after its execution--would not be a
factor.