Mice left behind

[Joseph F.]

Tenants recently vacated apartment after 18 months. The apartment was occupied by four college students and their hygiene and living conditions were very poor.

I had one of the student's mother as the main lessee. On more than one occasion I had to contact the mother and inform her of the poor hygiene in the apartment.

She came numerous times and cleaned and made the students clean the apartment.

To her credit the apartment was vacated in better shape than I expected however, two weeks into the new tenants lease of the apartment, I have received notification that there are mice in the apartment.

I have not returned the deposit. I would like to know if I can use the deposit to address the mice issue and have a legal precedence in my favor.