Landlord dispute question

Factual Questions
1

I just moved from a rental. Looooooong story but this was my landladys’ apartment and she was moving out of state and needed someone to rent it. I get the place because my girlfriend was a minor friend of hers and my landlady knew we were moving. We get settled inand everything is fine until about 6 months later she finds out we have a cat. She goes nuts saying we cannot have pets(our lease specifically says we can) and she is calling all the time. For an unrelated matter she moves back in town and all of a sudden I get an eviction notice delivered by a sheriff.(I was to date with the rent) I fight it but since she is such a pain I agree to move out in six weeks and we BOTH(landlady and myself) agree to this. My thought was she wanted back in her apartment. Anyway the day comes and she is nowhere to be found to check the place out with me there…I wait until almost midnight before I finally give up and leave. Now I find out she is keeping my deposit saying the cat caused damage(this cat is 17 years old and had been declawed years ago) and is replacing a carpet because of what the cat supposedly did…lo and behold the cost is EXACTLY what my deposit was. Since she wouldn’t go through the apartment with me to look for damages how can she weeks later suddenly say she needs to replace the carpet and I will be paying for it?

I was reading another post about a similiar situation but didn’t want to hijack that thread so I ask you…is there anything I can do about getting my deposit back? I had NO damage from when I lived there…sadly no wild parties…no illicit stains…no broken lamps. Also when I moved in to this apartment she never cleaned anything…she had to move quickly and didn’t do the normal clean up one would expect renting out to someone new.
She in fact left an inordinate amount of her things in this apartment and “kindly” didn’t charge ME for my using them…a tv…stereo…cabinet…couple lamps…85% of the cabinets were full with her things…plus the storage area that I was supposed to have use of was entirely filled with her things. In this kind of circumstance how can she get away with keeping my deposit?

2

IANAL but I used to be a landlord.

You will probably have to sue her in small claims court to get your deposit back, in which case you need to find out who has the burden of proof regarding the alleged damage. Do you have witnesses who would testify that there was no damage to the carpet? You also need some advice as to the tenant/landlord laws in your area (e.g., is a walkthrough legally required before she could charge you for damages?). Your county may be able to help, or a tenants’ association. I am also rather perplexed by the eviction notice. I never evicted anyone so I’m not sure how that process works but it doesn’t smell right. I think she may have to provide other notices to you before she starts eviction proceedings. I’m sure someone else knows more about it.

3

i’m with CookingWithGas. i can’t tell you what your landlord can and cannot do, because landlord-tenant law is very specific to the state, county, and/or city you live in. my suggestion is to take her to small claims court and explain all this to the judge. judges see plenty of these cases, and are usually very fair to both parties. you may even be entitled to receive statutory penalties because of your landlady’s failure to comply with certain procedures (for example, time deadlines, eviction proceedings, or withholding procedures).

but before you do that, you (or a lawyer friend) might want to write your landlady a letter laying out the reasons you’re entitled to the return of your deposit. i’ve written plenty of these letters for friends, and one appropriately worded letter usually does the trick.

4

Tenant’s Handbook from Nolo Press nolo.com

It’s Worth the money to buy that but our local libraries & bookstores also have it. We hae the one for California.

5

In the future, you might want to consider buying a camcorder and film the empty apartment before you move in. Make sure the date is featured prominently so if this happens again, you have proof of what the apartment looked like.