First Tenants moving out - Keeping most of the deposit & nervous about it

[Justin Case]

My first tenants are moving out and I am keeping all but $65 of the $1300 deposit.

I itemized everything per LT law and sent a letter with original receipts.

They are arguing already it was not received by today the 14th but it was post marked prior to the 14th.
I have a copy of the state Landlord/tenant laws and it says it can be mailed before the 14th. I just read another brochure set of state land lord tenant laws and it says it had to be first class mail. I did not send it first class mail since I just pulled this other brochure up. Can some one confirm this? Technicality is different in two law bar LTA brochures I have.

I am nervous because I know they are going to argue every item and probably try to take me to small claims court because they are those type of people.

They claimed to clean the place but it was just wiped down. Charged them for a pro cleaning. There was mildew in bathroom ceiling, dust webs in all corners, laminate floor was filthy, dog food caked on side of washer dryer, dirty window seals, things left in the cupords etc.. ie Was not move in ready.

55 nails holes left in the wall. I repaired and charged them only for the touch up paint to cover them

In the summer I bought screens and they took them with them. So charged them for these.

They Left 14 burnt out light bulbs (all but 6 worked) charged them for this

Damaged/broken 4 sets of blinds - they will argue they were cheap but they were brand new when they moved in. Their cat broke them by climbing on the window seals.

Here is what I am concerned about.
When I bought the place I was told the duplex town home units could have separate utility bills. They moved in right after I bought it and long story short the units were not sepratly metered but I had it in the lease the tenant is responsible for paying w/s/g. The utilities have to be in my name per city law.
I took the years utility charges out of their damage deposit. I did not even take the actual usage but took a far lesser number and charged them only $50month. I am worried about the technicality of this if they take me to small claims court.
The landlord tenant act says deposit can be kept for any unpaid balances. Is this an unpaid balance? They are going to have a problem with this even though I took a far less amount of the actual W/S/G use.

They thought they should get and demanded the full deposit back the day they moved out. I said it does not work that way.

I have everything documented but how do I prove little things if they take me to court like light bulbs burnt out and how dirty the place was? You cant see the detail of dirt on off color laminate flooring, all the dust webs, or get a sense of how it smelled in pictures.

Whats your advice if they do try to take me to small claims court ?

[Peter Giardini]

Great response from Bienes!

I am a fantastic antagonist (bad cop) and my wife iis always the good cop.... and it worked extremely well.

To the question of justifying retention of security deposits... there are couple of steps that can help this process along and make the outcome almost bullet proof.

The first part is... that everything is documented... and everythng has its picture taken.

The process starts with a Move-in inspection conducted on the landlords form by the tenant... and in triplicate.

The process starts to end with a Move-out inspection conducted by the landlord on their form in triplication.

And of course with pictures taken in each instance preferably with the tenants smiling faces in the pics.

The process continues by comparing the outcomes of the two inspections, figuring out how much it is going to cost to fix the damage that wasn't id'd in the Move-in inspection, but was discovered in the Move-out inspection and then deducting that amount from the security deposit and sending the remainder (assuming there is any) to the tenant.

Best of luck!