The last place I rented tried to withhold the damage deposit due to scuff marks on the kitchen floor. I complained, and went to the office to talk about it.
They confidently showed me pictures of the scuff marks.
I confidently showed them the complains I filed with them when they replaced the fridge, stating that they scuffed up the floor.
The confidently wrote me a check.
-D/a
Okay I just checked my mail. She claims now that I caused the rollout bed to smell bad so she plans on replacing the whole thing (which is categorically impossible, her sheet stayed on it the 3 months I used it, and I put a futon mattress+another sheet of my own on top of it). But even if I had caused the bed to smell, which I didn’t, she would only have cause to replace the mattress, not the whole frame+mattress assembly.
She also says she has a contractor coming out to assess damage to the area of the carpet where my chair was sitting and she is planning on replacing the entire carpet. heh. I told her that replacing the entire carpet and entire bed were not acceptable to me, and I believed she was intentionally dealing with me in bad faith now. Didn’t break out the small claims gem yet but I provided her with 2 of the links given to me by alice_in_wonderland. Thanks again for the support 
I think I scared her into claiming that she was planning to provide me with receipts all along, at least. I know gut feelings aren’t admissible as evidence, but I feel quite sure she was planning to hang onto the deposit without accounting for it until I demonstrated my knowledge of tenant law. yay for progress <3
Also I would be leery of getting a law student to type up an official-looking letter. It’s illegal to impersonate a lawyer and I don’t want to risk that kind of exposure.
If you can get pictures of the carpet and bed, I’d get them asap.
Can’t do much to refute the claim of the smell to the bed, but it certainly sounds to me like she’s grasping at straws.
You should probably only communicate by registered mail from now on. That way you have proof that the landlord received your letter. That, along with paper copies of all correspondence, will be more helpful than a bunch of emails if it ever gets to small claims court. Plus, the landlord might realize that You Won’t Go Away after receiving a few pieces of registered mail.
Since you didn’t do a move-out inspection then your landlord can probably find a few things to deduct from your rent, and you won’t have any proof otherwise. But any bogus charges, like that carpet, mean you can still take her to small claims court and get your money back plus extra punitive charges. I.e. say she eventually comes up with a list of charges, plus receipts, that covers the entire deposit – maybe $40 for the casters (legitimate), $160 for a new mattress (highly debatable but you’ll have a hard time proving your case), and $250 for carpet damage (totally bogus). If you win in small claims court, she has to pay you back the ENTIRE deposit plus DOUBLE any illegally withheld amount plus all your legal expenses – $450 plus $500 for the illegal carpet charge.
Document, document, document. Communicate by registered mail; no more e-mail.
Emails are actually pretty solid evidence, but registered mail definitely shows that you’re serious.
Missed edit:
The letter from a law student wouldn’t have them impersonating a lawyer. Said law student would just be able to write the exact right sort of letter to help your case, laying out your exact claims, demands, while providing the correct legal citations. However you seem like you can do the research yourself and write the letter yourself. It’s more of an advantage for people who don’t have the time or writing skills to do it themselves. As long as you don’t go off ranting about some personal grudge you should be fine.
They wouldn’t be impersonating a lawyer, it would be having someone type up a letter (not even on ‘letterhead’) that knows a helluva a lot more about landlord-tenant law in your area then you or us. Not only that, since you would be talking to them in person instead of over the internet they’ll more easily be able to understand the situation. They’ll be able to word something properly to explain exactly what the next steps are in your case are. (“Any money that you withhold from Rachel that a SC Judge deems to be done not in accordance with Illinois law must be paid back in double plus court costs with in 60 days” for example)
Also, bases solely on what you are telling us, I’m guessing she doesn’t have a lawyer, so having a law student or someone from the bar association write something for you will probably scare her into giving you the correct amount of money back.
ETA, I was just making up the “Double” part, but upon reading the posts that came in while I was typing, ladybratsche, it would appear I was right…unless she was making it up as well. IIRC, in Wisconsin I think it’s triple.
Joey-- there is a cite at one of the links posted above by alice that states the damages are double in IL. It’s not official case law, just a link on a lawyer’s website, but it sounds like double is right here.
I like the recommendation to go to registered mail. I will probably stop emailing her back because all this stress is making me apoplectic. Having trouble sleeping at night. grr
Yeah, i was just going by Alice’s cite above. My experience is in Boston where a former landlord really took her time returning the deposit. I did enough research to write a similar letter, but she sent the check before I had to send it. Here, tenants are entitled to triple damages if they win in small claims court (damages being any amount of the deposit held improperly or for too long, plus legal fees).
This kind of stuff is Judge Judy’s bread and butter. Anyone renting, having roommates, or borrowing or loaning money to people they know should watch the show religiously. 
Judge Judy looks at them all the time - I understand she isn’t an actual court, but emails do have dates and times on them (which I assume helps with their legitimacy).
Well, one disadvantage of email is that there’s no proof that the recipient ever read it. That’s where registered mail comes in – when you start sending specific legal demands, the landlord can’t pretend she never got them. If she ignores your registered letter she probably has no hope of winning in small claims court.
Of course that doesn’t really apply to your emails so far, since it sounds like there’s been a conversation back and forth. There the landlord can’t deny anything that was said unless she wants to go off the deep end and claim that you’re making everything up, even her emails.
Yeah she’s replied to them all so far. She sent me one last one the other night, and I won’t be responding further. Honestly there is no more need for communication at this point, from my perspective.
She has escalated her nastiness by saying she’s going to charge me for the single bag of garbage I generated on move-out day, which is obviously a bogus charge since the lease states I’m responsible for $0 of utility costs (it’s only $2 or something like that, but I need to be thorough). She does appear to have dropped the non-existent stinky mattress issue, though. Who knows what’s going to happen? Not me. I have told her it was not acceptable to me for her to attempt to replace the whole bed just because the wheels were damaged, nor is it acceptable to replace the whole carpet just because a small one foot square has wheel-track marks in it. She seems to think she gets a free pass on both those fronts, I told her she doesn’t per tenant laws. That’s the end of that, I’m just waiting for mail from her at this point.
Depending on how much of the deposit she holds back, it’s **going **to go to court. I won’t be able to do that until >45 days out from March 6th, though. Going to be a while.
Oh also to add, she has stated she has witnesses who know I never used a chair mat… uhh, wut?
If your bed smelled bad, then that would seem to me to be, by definition, “normal wear and tear”. Sleeping in a bed is what it is intended for, so that is normal wear and tear. Of course a person’s normal BO will come out in sweat during sleep, even if you used a mattress pad and sheets. That’s normal.
I would talk to a lawyer or tenants’ rights group about the carpet thing. To me, if your chair pad breaks, you get a new one, you don’t blame it on the cheap rug and then proceed to roll yourself over it continuously. I’ve had to replace several worn-out chair mats in my home to avoid damaging the wooden floors.
But since I don’t know anything about tenants’ legal matters, talk to someone who does. If you can find out the standard policy on these two issues, that’s all you’ll need. If the city doesn’t have a place you can talk to, look for a free legal clinic. And again, use certified or registered mail so you have proof she received it.
Take the former landlord to small claims court. She is cheating you.
p.s. – Try not to get annoyed and at some point don’t bother arguing with her. She is cheating you, plain and simple. Trying to convince her she’s wrong won’t work.
Emails have been helping prosecutors take down very powerful people since its inception. They played a part in the prosecution of Enron, Worldcomm, and Madoff execs, just to name a few. Then we have the idiots on “Forensic Files” who email their lovers right before they kill their wives, under the mistaken assumption that if you delete it, it’ll be gone!
This is just a small claims court! Of COURSE email evidence will be allowed.
Now, while you’re early in that 45 day window, follow the advice of needscoffee: Talk with your local tenants rights organization and free legal aid clinic, to make sure you’ve crossed all your is and dotted all your ts.
You also broke the wheels on it, so it does seem as if the whole thing needs replacing.
Also, you say you know you didn’t funk it up but didn’t you just post some thread a day or so ago asking about your crotch stench and how to avoid it? Perhaps the mattress is unusable.
If you read both full posts in question, you would know my body never slept on her mattress (but a mattress I placed on top of her mattress, and two sheets separating me from it), nor do I have odor issues while wearing pajama pants. Unless you’re implying that I sleep in business casual pants 
, the two issues aren’t relevant.
Additionally, the wheels are easily replaceable separate from the frame itself. They screw in and out and are purchasable separately at a hardware store. It’d probably take 15 minutes of work to fix it, but I don’t have tools and on the day I discovered the damage I was moving and didn’t have the time or energy to take care of it myself.
If you’re going to stalk me around the board, I’d prefer you keep personal insults to PMs, and read entire posts before making rude comments. Thanks though, I needed a dose of righteous indignation to get through the rest of this boring workday.
Oh please with stalking you around the board. You post very personal things here. If you don’t want people to remember them and comment on them you might consider a blog or talking to your IRL friends about your odd personal situations.
Also, if you getting righteously indignant from that little comment I’m surprised you get around in the mean old world.
PS: Considering some of the things you’ve related about yourself here on the boards I do not want to even think about what you wear when you’re sleeping. No thanks.