I moved out of a house on April 15, and the landlord deducted over $2000 from my $5000 deposit. She gave me a list of the repairs, many of which weren't necessary, and all of which were way overpriced. I went back and asked her for receipts, and she gave me a bunch of hand-written receipts, some of which were obviously falsified. None of the phone numbers on the receipts were for businesses. Some didn't even work. I then sent her a letter requesting $1500 back, going into detail on each item. Some of them I wouldn't pay for because they weren't necessary (e.g., she claimed the carpet was stained and had to be cleaned, but I had the carpet cleaned before I moved out, and it was spotless). Some of them were way overpriced, so I got quotes from licensed and bonded providers for the work and agreed to pay those amounts. I told her that if she didn't return payment, I would take her to court. She also did not send me the receipts until 40 days after I moved out.
She didn't respond, even after I contacted her twice about this, so I had her served with court papers last week. She then sent me a letter saying that she discovered additional damage recently, and while she hasn't had it repaired, she estimated that it would cost $3000. She claims I "drilled holes all over the outside and inside of the house to run cables," which is completely untrue. There were already cable drops in all the rooms, and we just hooked up to those. I even contacted Time Warner, and they confirmed that the previous tenant already had cable service, so they would not have done any additional wiring. She says that if I don't pay, she will countersue.
Can she even claim this almost 3 months after I moved out? At this point, someone else has been living in the house for 3 months, so how can she legally lay this on me? Can she just take pictures of some holes in her walls to use as proof? And it's awfully coincidental that she just happened to bring this up right after she got served. It must be a bluff on her part to try to get me to drop the suit.
She's a business owner, and I know she's been sued before, so she's more experienced at this. I've never done this before. At this point, I'm mostly going through with the suit because I feel it's the right thing to do and that she shouldn't be allowed to get away with unethical behavior. I know that she probably won't pay up even if I win. But if somehow I'm out another $3000 because of it, then maybe I should just drop it.
Any opinions/advice would be much appreciated! Thank you!
She didn't respond, even after I contacted her twice about this, so I had her served with court papers last week. She then sent me a letter saying that she discovered additional damage recently, and while she hasn't had it repaired, she estimated that it would cost $3000. She claims I "drilled holes all over the outside and inside of the house to run cables," which is completely untrue. There were already cable drops in all the rooms, and we just hooked up to those. I even contacted Time Warner, and they confirmed that the previous tenant already had cable service, so they would not have done any additional wiring. She says that if I don't pay, she will countersue.
Can she even claim this almost 3 months after I moved out? At this point, someone else has been living in the house for 3 months, so how can she legally lay this on me? Can she just take pictures of some holes in her walls to use as proof? And it's awfully coincidental that she just happened to bring this up right after she got served. It must be a bluff on her part to try to get me to drop the suit.
She's a business owner, and I know she's been sued before, so she's more experienced at this. I've never done this before. At this point, I'm mostly going through with the suit because I feel it's the right thing to do and that she shouldn't be allowed to get away with unethical behavior. I know that she probably won't pay up even if I win. But if somehow I'm out another $3000 because of it, then maybe I should just drop it.
Any opinions/advice would be much appreciated! Thank you!
