Security deposit dispute

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iabusdriver29

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My wife and I ended a rental contract today. We cleaned the property per the contract, and there are two main issues after the final walk-through. First, there is a stain on the carpet in one of the bedrooms. Second, the front storm door has fallen off. There is also a third issue that could come into play: the condition of the house when we moved out.

I'm happy to admit that the stain on the carpet was our fault. We noticed it too late and could not get the stain out with the supplies we had. That's something that we did cause, and I'm not going to try arguing that.

However, the front storm door is a different situation. When we moved into the property in December 2006, the door was broken. Of its four hinges, the bottom two had snapped and the door was not closing properly. We photographed the door and its broken hinges before anything was moved in, and told them about it as well. Four months later, the city's rental property inspector met with one of the landlords and myself. During the meeting, I once again pointed out that the door was broken and they were told on the first day of this problem.

The housing inspector was over because as of April 2007, there was no rental permit for the property. We were allowed to live there on the basis that the landlord bring the property to code within 60 days, which would have been February 2007. Since the meeting in April, we have been contacted by the city at least twice because they were trying to get in contact with the landlords about the property. I informed the inspector that two of the numerous items that were discussed were repaired, and gave him the contact information that we had.

During the last arctic blast this past week, the door's last two hinges snapped and the door fell to the ground (we do have pictures of the snapped hinges and the door after we moved it inside the unit). We communicated that to the landlord when we informed them that we'd be completely out by today. They informed me that the screen door will come out of our security deposit. I reminded them that they were told twice that the door was already broken, however they claimed to have fixed the door after the April meeting, yet the door still broke away.

Since the required 30 days has not yet passed, I'm waiting to see how much of our deposit we do get back. From there, I'll consider the matter further. But for now, I have two main questions:

1) With photo evidence that the door was already broken when we moved in along with photos that show it after it broke off, can this amount (if taken from our deposit) be recovered since we did communicate the problem to both the landlord and city? (We also have photos of the property conditions when we moved in which show several items in disarray.)

2) With no rental permit as of April 2007 (and presumably not now, but I will check with the city), is it possible to pursue some form of breach-of-contract either by no rental permit, violation of a contract clause and Iowa Code 562A.15 (Landlord to maintain fit premises), or some other avenue? If so, what can be recovered?

I know I've probably gone too long, but both my wife and I feel adamant that we are not responsible for the storm door's collapse.

Thank you for your time.
 
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