@Andrew Kerr thanks for sharing your personal experience. My concern was, like in your situation, the responsible party would not admit fault to common area damage. Creating accountability via security deposits covering this area seems to be the fairest solution. If a tenant has to pay and they know theyre not responsible, they will be upset so they will ensure that they and their room mates take good care of the property.
@Ray Harrell. I figure the landlord is responsible for common areas external to the apartment (hallways, entryway etc) but common areas within the apartment (living room, dining room, kitchen,bath) should be shared responsibilty of tenants. This would encourage them to take better care of common areas if they know its not the landlord's cost to fix it. For example if the landlord provides lightbulbs for the kitchen what would deter tenant from swapping it for the lightbulb in their room? And of course screening is key but this is just a hypothetical question to illustrate the point.
@Ron H. This makes the most sense to me and is the ideal situation. Thanks for your input
