Tenant filed Civil case for security deposit

[Linda Thomas]

Good afternoon,

Some background. Tenant lived in the unit for 8 yrs. Towards end not a good relationship. Things went south. Wife started getting rude, yelling, cursing at me etc. Decided not to renew. Proper notice was provided. They finally moved out a few months ago. I sent proper notice within 30 days as required in the state of PA with itemized list of deductions. 

SD was $1000.00

100.00 deduction for mice, missing CO detectors, broken light fixture.

300.00 for paint - not for labor nor did we hire a professional company or an ozone machine, they smoked inside the rental unit, found cigarette butts in multiple locations and burn marks on floors, Fixtures, ceiling tiles had to be painted one by one, all ceilings, and walls were full of nicotine, and we had to use kilz primer about 15 g of them in total so that is all we charged for. Not labor or anything else. Maybe we should have purchased new ceiling tiles instead but were trying to be fair and save the tenant money and give them some sort of refund. 

200.00 for the final W/S bill

300.00 for 1/2 the cost of a new stove as tenant removed our stove without our permission or knowledge so we decided and feel it was fair to purchase a new one and charge them half the cost of the new one. The one she left in the unit was not ours and i have that proof in a text message confirmation from her and i had a repair man come check it and he said it was not safe to use at all it was missing parts and wires were broken. 

100.00 -REFUND TO TENANTS 

They did not contact me to dispute or try to resolve this issue. Just filed a CV complaint and we have the hearing coming up soon. Any suggestions on the best way to handle this? my lease states that any dangerous situations need to be reported to us immediately and that tenant is not permitted to smoke inside the unit nor guests.