Landlord not giving back the deposit!

[ahhin]

Hi all,

I just moved out from the apartment and my landlord has decided not to give me back the deposit ($1600). She says the bathrooms have too much stain in the grouts between the tiles (normal wear and tear in my opinion), and charges me 250 total for the repair. She also charges me 100 for general cleaning, and 210 for carpet cleaning.

On top of that, she's charging me $963 for her OLD drapes that I damaged when I washed them because they seem really dirty. I am willing to pay for some new drapes, since I did damage the drapes, but 963???? ridiculous.

Also, I left some permanent stains on the 20 year-old kitchen counter top. She is now charging me 2400 to re-laminate the counter top.
Am I supposed to pay for all that? The top is 20 year-old, and it already had stains on it before I moved in.

It seems like she's just trying to use me as an excuse to renew her 20 year-old apartment.

All my previous landlords when I was studying in Berkeley would only charge me for about 200 for the carpet cleaning, which seems much more reasonable.

What can I do to get back some of my deposit? Should I take her to court?
Her charges are not reasonable, and I feel like she's taking advantages of me.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

The first step is typically to write the landlord a "demand" letter, disputing the amount she has kept from your security deposit and "demanding" the amount you believe you are fairly owed by a certain date (say, 2 weeks after the landlord receives the letter).

If they refuse or ignore the letter, the next step is to consider filing a lawsuit against the landlord. Such lawsuits are typically heard in Small Claims court as they involve relatively small amounts of money in dispute. California allows monetary claims of up to $7500 to be heard in this court:


http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/smallclaims/research.htm#secdep

Gail