In California, you can get your court filing fee and certain other litigation costs tacked onto the judgment if you win.
This was also true in Kentucky when I successfully sued in small claims court. You could also add on the cost of phone calls, letters, and bank account garnishment (in the event a judgment is ignored).
That latter item sounds extreme, but really isn’t difficult to do unless there are umpteen banks in the area to have the documents sent to.
All that said, I doubt it’s going to be worthwhile suing this landlord. It might be worth contacting any tenants rights groups in the area for advice/help.
Sure, but he might give her back the tub money if she sends a simple letter. And that’s worth ten minutes and a stamp.
Just to update, since everyone was so sweet to chime in and help:
No. I didn’t call. No letter, either. Just not solid enough of a case on any of the three items, y’all were right about that. Also, the Other Shoe pointed out that there were a couple of things that Former Landlord could have charged us for and didn’t, so it all sort of evens out in the wash.
Will file this one under “Learning Experiences.”
Oh, and for the other questions:
this is in Texas;
the landlord was out of town when we moved in and out of the country when we moved out (ferchrissakes…) so the walk-thru when we moved out was done by his rep. There was no walk-thru when we moved in. The previous tenant handed me the key and drove merrily off, leaving me standing in a filthy house with a key in my hand and no landlord anywhere around.
And, apparently, a really leaky roof, though we wouldn’t learn that part for a while.
He’s still one of the best landlords Other Shoe and I have ever had (!) just because the bar has been set so low - see above, re: bankruptcy and deposit money.
I’ve learned that some states require landlords to put deposits aside in a separate account - thus making the landlord a custodian for “my” money - but Texas has no such law. Apparently some legislation of that nature was introduced a while ago but never passed.
As it works out in this state, he simply owed us that money; thus we became one of the many people to whom he owed money; his filing bankruptcy - and later moving to Honduras, from what I heard - meant we joined the back of a line of people who weren’t going to receive what he owed them.
Tenants have virtually no legal protection in this state. You have been warned. ::shotgun clicking::